Str: Oasis [by Mind-Control]

Game Review: Oasis
Release Date: April 12, 2005
Developer: Mind Control
Genre: Strategy
System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Pentium III 600 MHz, 128 RAM
Players: 1
Price: $19.95
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Oasis was given the Seumas McNally award for the best Indie game last year, making Oasis’ debut one of the most anticipated this year. In short, the game lives up to the hype and is certainly worthy of your time. In fact this is one of those moments where I would suggest doing yourself a favor and immediately going out and purchasing the game. However...if you really want some reading material, you can continue on with the review.

Oasis is a game that really shouldn't work. The game takes the 'Civilization' idea of building up an empire which takes 40 or more hours to play, and reduces it to a game that is completed in 2-3 minutes. In so doing you would expect that the game would have to be stripped down to the point that there would be little strategy or entertainment left in the game. Instead, Oasis packs a very powerful punch of both strategy and entertainment.

The game places you in the role of an Egyptian ruler. Each level starts out with the board hidden behind a 'fog' that keeps you from knowing what is out there. So the first thing our young leader will do is explore. Exploring will reveal several types of terrain. Since the game is set in Egypt, the most common type of terrain is desert. Each step you take through the desert will add 'followers' to your cause. The followers will help you as you progress forward to do research, build roads and to build an army to protect your cities.

As you make your way through the desert you will find other types of terrain. There are mountains, which often block your path, but contain mines which make research possible. In addition to the mountains you will find farmlands. These areas are green on the map and detailed to show rivers and crops. Farm lands are always within two spaces of a city square. When you find a city square it immediately becomes part of your empire. The city will typically have a two digit number attached to it that tells you how many inhabitants there are in the city.

The goal you are trying to accomplish is to build up your cities so that they can survive a barbarian attack that happens at the end of 85 turns. The barbarians will enter the screen from a specific location on the screen that is noted by a pile of rocks. Each action you take will cost you a turn so you have to choose wisely, finding where the barbarians will enter the screen is helpful as it tells you in what order your cities will be attacked, but it may be more useful to spend those turns focusing on research instead of exploring for the barbarian entry point. In addition to the types of terrain already mentioned, every level has an Oasis. Hidden in one of the Oasis squares is a glyph. To pass a level you much collect a number of glyphs. However it may be better to complete the board and not spend your time looking for the glyph and then to obtain the glyph from the next board than to search for the glyph and have your empire destroyed, costing you the ability to pass the level.

The most entertaining part of the game for me comes in balancing your resources and determining what strategy to take. For example, you receive 2 followers for passing over a desert square, but within the desert there are also some 'nomad' squares which will increase your followers by a larger number. Conversely, searching around the Oasis will not give you any followers, and looking through farmland as you try to find a city will only offer you one follower. Followers are used, as mentioned previously to build roads and to do research. Roads are built between cities at the cost of 5 followers, and one turn (you have to explore the land before you build a road there, each of which costs you a turn). Having roads between cities will increase their population, and at the end of the board you can move populations from one city to another to bulk up your defenses as long as the cities are connected by a road. Another use for followers is research. You can assign followers to a mine. The more followers you assign to a mine the quicker you will research. Research occurs in a set pattern of researching both defensive and offensive weapons that will be used by every city when the barbarians arrive.

In addition to making all of the choices above you also have the choice to explore one of your cities. Doing so may reveal weapons that will help defend the city, riches that will increase the score you receive, or advisors. Advisors will join you if you meet their demands, usually meaning that a specific number of cities survive the barbarians. Advisors change the game play dramatically if they join you by granting special abilities for turns they are with you, such as extra defensive power, increasing city growth, or giving you more visibility of the map without exploring it.

On any turn then, you are deciding whether or not to explore further, and if so where to explore to either increase your followers, find things like mines, cities or the glyph, or things within in your own cities. You also have to decide if instead of exploring you need to focus on building roads or deploying personnel in the mines to increase your research. Any followers you have left over can be assigned to defend any city before the barbarian invasion, which may make keeping your followers with you your best use of them.

When the barbarians come, the battle will be simulated for you on the screen with symbols showing your different researched and found weapons and defenses showing as the sides fight. Once you beat the on-coming horde you move onto the next board. Amazingly all of this happens in in 2-3 minutes. The game really is amazing, and the description above is honestly quite simplified to not be too overwhelming.

Oasis progresses from board to board under a specific level, providing more story and cool Egyptian facts as you go. Each of the difficulty levels has several level sets within it, providing you with lots of story and fun in a madly addicting game.

Graphics: 8
I see myself at something of a disadvantage in this category. I played some of the beta versions of the game. Oasis underwent a complete graphic overhaul/replacement before it went live. Really there were 2 distinct versions graphically and I preferred the one in the beta versions. The newer version is more detailed and uses some effects that are cool, but overall I liked the cleaner look of the early ones. Either way, Oasis is a very good looking game that will make anyone who has played civilization feel right at home. The mountains come with pre-cut mines and the cities with nearby farmlands are very similar to Civ. The 'fog' of areas you are not able to see is done with an effect to make them seem like swirling smoke that didn't quite work for me. Overall, the game provides a lot of good graphics and detail that long-term gamers will appreciate, but that aren’t overwhelming for the more casual gamers.

Sound: 8
The sound-effects are all top notch and have a strong Egyptian feel to them. I particularly liked the sound effects of the barbarian horde fighting with my people. The music is really quite solid, though the number of tracks is limited. I've listened through it over and over again without it ever becoming repetitious.

Game Play: 10
Oasis, in my mind, offers perfectly balanced game play. Somewhat like Minesweeper there is a luck element, but really your own strategy for how to play the board is the key point to how the game plays out. You have to determine what is most important to enable you to win and use your turns wisely. The game really does offer most all of the aspects of a world-building game. You have to concern yourself with exploration, research for new weapons, building up your existing cities, defending your cities, and the long-range goal of winning the game. The ability to do all of these things, without getting overly focused on the details and instead focusing on your decisions and strategy is a masterful stroke of genius that makes the game easy for anyone to pick up and play, while also providing plenty of depth for everyone.

Concept: 10
I don't care how hard you try, if you think Minesweeper + Civilization you would never come up with something this good in your head. Oasis was certainly not afraid to try something new and it has created a game that has been an amazing undertaking and made it simply wonderful.

Value: 10
For $20 you get hours upon hours of game play that doesn't feel repetitious and is very addictive. There isn't anything like it on store shelves, and it is immediately rewarding for your dollar.

Fun: 10
Nothing else would matter if the game wasn't so enjoyable to play. The balance of play and variety in levels means using different strategies with different level and coming to understand what is the best sacrifice to make to ensure that you meet your ultimate goal. The continual discovery and exploration within the game, which was one of my favorite things in civilization, along with the seemingly frantic pacing of the game means that you aren't ever waiting around to get to the point where something can happen. The game is always going on, and since you choose how long your turns are, it comes at you as quickly as you want it to. No matter how you stack it up, this is a fantastically enjoyable game to play.

Overall: 10
While just shy of perfection in its scores Oasis is a definite 10 overall. The game is flawlessly designed to create a wonderful experience in strategy/world-building that even those who don't really get into the genre can enjoy. If for whatever reason you needed to read all the way to the end of the review before deciding to download the game I would hope you are doing yourself the favor of doing so now. Oasis is one of the best gaming experiences I've had this year.
Added: August 2nd 2005
Reviewer: Russell Carroll
Score:
Hits: 6358
Language: english