.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Warfare Incorporated
.AUTHOR James Booth
.SUMMARY Warfare Incorporated from Handmark , a real-time strategy game in the flavor of Command & Conquer, is probably the best game Contributing Editor James Booth has ever played on the Palm platform. Also available for the Pocket PC, Warfare Incorporated has amazing graphics and sound, an extended storyline, and challenging game play in an amazingly small file.
.OTHER
Warfare Incorporated from Handmark (see http://www.handmark.com/), a real-time strategy game in the flavor of Command & Conquer, is probably the best game I have ever played on the Palm platform. The first real-time strategy game for the Palm, Warfare Incorporated has amazing graphics and sound, an extended storyline, and challenging game play in an amazingly small file. Although I refer to the Palm version in this article, Warfare Incorporated is also available for Pocket PC.
.H1 Premise
In Warfare Incorporated, you play the role of Andy Whitmore, a low-level engineer at ACME Exploration. You are charged with the exploration and exploitation of Icarus, a newly discovered planet in the Tau Ceti system that is rich in Galaxite, a precious mineral. Early on it’s discovered that OMNI Industries, ACME’s archrival, have also discovered Icarus. The corporate war is then on, to claim as much of the planet as possible, before OMNI steals it all.
.H1 Impressions
Warfare Incorporated has some of the best graphics of any Palm application I have ever encountered, as you can see in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A Warfare Incorporated has astounding graphics for a Palm game.
I would say they are equivalent to the graphics of the original Command & Conquer for the PC. There are detailed explosions and building collapses, damage indicators, and 4-channel digital sound effects.
You can choose to play either the six solitary, stand-alone, Challenge missions, or the 15-mission Campaign. I dabbled with each of the Challenge missions after finishing the full campaign, and they are challenging to say the least.
.BREAK_EMAIL Will Warfare Incorporated conquer your world. Tap here to read the rest of the review.
The Campaign, of course, has a series of missions that get progressively more difficult the further along you get, and an unfolding storyline. Strategy is a key element of Warfare Incorporated and most missions cannot be solved with plain brute force. All the missions require some element of resource management, whether it’s raw materials, or utilizing a finite attack force to best advantage. Throughout, you (playing the role of Andy) receive advice and mission briefings via cut-scenes and email from your superior at ACME, as shown in Figure B, and from Andy’s girlfriend Jana Perez, who was on the initial Icarus survey team and is still on-planet.
.FIGPAIR B Mission briefings and tips come as cut-scenes and email.
As you progress, personnel and equipment upgrades become available, allowing you to strengthen your forces, upgrade base defenses, and capture enemy installations. You have seven different types of vehicles available, from small single gun scouts, to heavy artillery. In addition there are three different types of foot troops, a security guard, rocket trooper, and corporate raider for capturing enemy installations. There is also a special foot unit for several of the missions, but I don’t want to give away too much.
The interface is quite simple; merely tap on a unit to select it, and then tap on the enemy you want attacked or the location you want the unit to move to. You can select multiple units by pulling a selection square around them. Navigation of the area map is accomplished by sliding your stylus around the silkscreen area or using the navigation buttons on your device.
For a Palm game, Warfare Inc. has the most complete and in depth on-board Help system I have ever seen. The game contains a full user’s manual, accessible from the game at any time merely by selecting Help, as shown in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C This is just a small sample of what’s in the full-featured online manual.
Warfare Incorporated’s user manual is on par with what you would expect from a desktop game, covering every feature. For that matter, I’ve played PC games that didn’t come with manuals or Help systems this well composed.
Warfare Inc. also has a multiple-slot Save and Load feature, so take advantage and save frequently. It will even pause the game if you switch tasks on your Palm, then resume where you left off upon your return.
All of these awesome graphics and action are a bit of a drain on your handheld’s battery, but it’s definitely worth it. And since the battery of my Tungsten T2 seems to recharge completely in about 15 minutes, it wasn’t really an issue for me. For those of you whose batteries take a bit longer to recharge, or use disposables, you may want to stock up on batteries before you begin playing. I could generally get several hours of play before I felt I should check the battery status and recharge.
.H1 Final thoughts
As far as the graphics, sound, and playability are concerned, Warfare Incorporated is on a par with the early PC real-time strategy games. I was not only pleased with it, but also surprised at the quality put into the entire package. At a time when software manufacturers are cutting more and more corners to save a buck, Handmark has put together a game package well worth the time and money.
Warfare Incorporated is available in low-res black and white as well, but to truly appreciate this game, you have to play it on a high-res color handheld. And at only 2 MB, the file footprint is small enough for just about any device.
Over the course of a full week, I spent much more time playing Warfare Incorporated than I should have, letting other projects suffer in favor of gaming. It’s one of those "just a little bit longer" games, like a good book, that you don’t want to put down. I couldn’t really find anything wrong with the game, but there are a couple of improvements, luxuries really, that would be nice to see in a future version or add-on.
Most of the enemy bases have concrete walls, creating a compound, but this isn’t an option when creating your own bases. So with the exception of a few missions that provide pre-existing compounds, you have to defend an open-air base. This certainly makes for more challenging game play, but there were a few instances where it would have been really helpful to be able to channel the enemy to a more easily defended opening.
The other thing that would be nice to have is an assignment function for your forces. By default they seem to be set to defend aggressively, which is nice, as they will automatically attack any nearby enemy if your attention is elsewhere. What would come in handy though is an escort function for protecting your Galaxite harvester. They tend to wander into danger in search of Galaxite and it would be nice to assign a security force for their protection.
There are a few other features that we’ve gotten used to in more modern real-time strategy games, like assigning sets of units to individual selection groups, and having the ability to set spawn points for newly created units that are missing from Warfare Incorporated. Neither diminish the gameplay value, which is quite engrossing.
As I said, these are really only luxuries that would be nice to see in future versions and not actual faults with the game. Otherwise, I could find nothing wrong with Warfare Incorporated and got many enjoyable hours of play from it. I would really like to see Handmark continue the franchise with either a mission add-on pack, or Warfare Incorporated 2.
I rate Warfare Incorporated from Handmark at 5 out of 5.
.RATING 5
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Warfare Incorporated, visit http://www.handmark.com/products/detail.php?id=182.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO James Booth is a self-taught PC and Palm device user that dabbles in graphics and photography. He can be reached at lizardworks@mchsi.com.
