The world's most depressing computer game.

[az]

Two other very depressing games were X (or X2, or, from what I've heard, X3) and Master of Orion III. Both were more work than play, and the latter probably killed off the great MoO series.

[James_D]

Yeah.. QuickSilver... the company that made MoO3, the name makes me shudder, hope they will stay forever with consoles.


JD

[GT98]

I've been playing this game the past week and half and its pretty good. Yes, the premise is pretty depressing, but it is still a challenge and it plays out pretty quick, so it makes it a good pick up and play it game.

[GNEP]

A couple of friends of mine have been playing this. Apparently a good game, also very (depressingly) atmospheric - one of them said it made him want to dig out his "Protect and Survive" booklet...

[Wulfman]

have been playing it as well, the athmosphere (music, style) is ..well, it fits the topic. highly strategic game - anyone interested in a game, once I'm back in austria? sat-uplink is too slow...

mfg
wulfman

[MultimediaMan]

This game is pretty engaging. After going through the tutorial, and putting those lessons to work: It's not like the real world...amazingly backwards in some cases.

At Sea:

Carriers are your Primary means of defense versus SSBNs; Carriers Eat Subs.
Battleships Eat Carriers.
Subs Eat Battleships.

On Land:

Radar Coverage, while important, is secondary if you have control of your littoral areas (not always possible, depending on geography)
Silos double as ABM/Air Defense batteries. Best to put them around population centers.
Airbases serve to defend you from inbound bombers and Ships. Serve as launching points for Bombers. Best to put them close to coastal areas.

On Nukes:

Carriers are good for launching attacks at undefended targets.
Airbases are good for launching attacks at undefended targets.
Subs are good for launching the first counterstroke (Silos are Undefended while launching ICBMs)

Overview:

Take your time: it is tempting to speed things up, but this is NOT what you want to do if you want to survive.

Defense: Assign two one carrier "fleets" to guard coastal areas; vigorously sanitize your coastlines of subs: most players are dumb and get their subs in waaay too close.

Draw the opposing fleet to engage your fleets withing the AD envelopes of your ground-based airfields and silos (if possible). Keep your ships at the outermost ranges of direct fire.

Subs are always best deployed as one ship "fleets", look to cover the maximum amount of coastline with your subs: avoid wolfpacks. Avoid overlap: once you opponent launches an ICBM, you have a target fix: two hits is what it takes to take out a launch silo. Don't waste nukes overkilling a Silo: they are one of the few "sure things" in this game - once they are being used to launch nukes, they are defenseless.

Targetting: Obliterate the Silos first and then go on to the Radars, Airbases and Cities. You get more points for military targets, so you don't have to wipe out population centers en flagrante delicto.

The base tactic I use with good success is to locate and destory the opponent's Subs as they move into position. Once you have those knocked out, go after the rest if it's navy. Once you neutralize an opponent counterforce capability, the game is all but decided.

My best score vs Computer: 103 to -4