Str: Fatal Wars [by Pompi Pompi]

Game: Fatal Wars
Release: Dec. 1, 2002
Genre: Strategy
Developer: Pompi Pompi
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP, 300 mhz CPU, 128 MB RAM, DirectX 8.0
Price: US $18.95

My first experience playing computer games came on an Atari 800 XL.  The game?  The wonderful classic Archon.  Archon is played much on a chess board, but that is where the similarities stop.  In Archon, each character can move a specific number of spaces, and if they land on an enemy, then a battle ensues between them. You control your character throughout the battle to victory or defeat.  I spent hours playing Archon and upon seeing Fatal Wars, I was very excited.  From the screenshots, the game looked very similar to the game I'd loved as a youth.  Unfortunately, Fatal Wars, had a couple of fatal flaws that keep it from becoming the game it might have been.

In Fatal Wars, you control one of two sides.  The "evil" or dark side is the Pact.  The good side is the Hukans.  Each side has a variety of characters for you to control, each with two different attacks, though sometimes the second attack is really a defensive ability.  The front line of both armies is a group of swordsman/clubman.  They have no long range attack, but instead survive and beat their enemies by closing in on them and smashing them from up close.  Along the back row, each army has pieces that have longer range attacks. 

The game plays out very much like a checkers match, with each side swapping turns.  There is a bit of strategy to the game, as there are 3 types of squares on the board.  There are black, white and grey spaces.  The black spaces, are Pact territory.  If any Pact piece is attacked while on that square, they receive double hit points.  The white spaces work much the same, but instead of helping the Pact, they double the hit points of the Hukans.  All the grey squares are middle ground, where neither side receives a bonus for attacking or being attacked.  Since all the white and black squares are limited to the side that they bonus, and the middle of the board is all grey squares, there is a definite advantage to sitting home and waiting for the other side to attack.

Fatal Wars offers 2 player play as well as player vs. computer.  The two sides are not fairly matched, for better or worse.  The Hukans are much easier to win with.  You'll find the challenge of beating up on the computer with the Pact a definite feat.  This lack of balance between the sides would however be useful if you are matching a novice against a somewhat experienced player.

Graphics: 9
Looking at the screenshots of Fatal Wars, you'll be impressed.  What is even more impressive is that the game is entirely 2D.  Each of the characters has been extremely well drawn and animated.  The movements and detail in the game is quite good.  The only knock on the graphics is that they are so big and beautiful, that it is often nearly impossible to avoid your enemy!  This game is certainly one of the best drawn 2D games I've ever seen.

Sound: 6
There were no real sounds in the game.  The few sounds that were there were of characters moving and attacking.  Some music, especially during the fight scenes would have been a plus.

Game Play: 4
The big frustration for me with Fatal Wars was the game play.  The characters are so large that it is nearly impossible to get anywhere away from your enemy.  What that means is that the front line soldiers suddenly become very powerful.  The larger characters at the back of the line are often destroyed by the footman who are always right next to them.  Most of the larger characters need space to operate, and with the characters so larger, that space is not available.  Greatly compounding the problem is the lack of joystick support.  The game does allow you to use a joystick, but in every instance the game crashed when I choose joystick.  I tried both USB and Gameport joysticks, in Windows ME and XP.  I also tried on a Pentium and an AMD chip and had the same result every time.  Choosing joystick crashed the game as soon as a battle started.  Had joystick been available, the fight scenes would have been much more doable as it is far too difficult to maneuver with the keyboard.  I also fault the computer AI here.  I was never able to play all the way through a game without the computer AI locking itself up.  Often it would try to move to a space where someone was already standing, and when it could not move there, you would hear a continual clicking as the computer through itself into an endless loop of trying to move there.  Game Play is the big problem that takes away from what might have been a much better game.

Options: 6
The options in the game are somewhat limitied.  One that was appreciated was the ability to return to the menu during the game and to change the keyboard configuration.  It initially started with Q and A being up and down and O and P being left and right?  There are minimal other options available to you which is alright, but the already mentioned lack of a joystick is an option that is quite necessary for a game that is built on reflexes.

Concept: 6
As mentioned, Fatal Wars is built on the Archon premise.  However, it doesn't do the premise as well as the original game.  For example, Archon had spells that the main character on each team could cast.  These included things like teleport and heal, but more importantly, there was the "elemental."  This spell would call either a wind, water or earth elemental that you could send to most any square on the board to do combat.  The board also changed over time in Archon, making the neutral square change from gray to black to gray to white.  This provided an interesting time element to that game.  There were many other options in Archon, but suffice it to say that while Fatal Wars delivers graphics that Archon could never have dreamed of, it falls short in building on the concept in any other way.

Fun: 6
This game I believe would be more fun with game pad support.  As it is, the game is frustrating to play, especially if you are trying to play with the Pact.  Playing with the Hukans is a little more fun, and I think that their pieces are actually cooler, but not being able to complete the game because the game ran into an infinite loop is not enjoyable in any way.

Overall: 6
I feel really bad about the score on this game.  The game's creator was great to work with, and I appreciated the effort he went through to get the game to me.  Unfortunately, the game itself has major flaws.  I'm amazed that some other sites have rated it so high, I did everything I could, even trying the game on 3 Operating Systems, and on 2 computers trying to get a better understanding of their ratings, but in the end think they spent more time looking at the game than playing it.  I also wrote the author, on two occasions, with the problems I was having, but it has been a month since the first email and I have not yet received any reply.  This is a game that is based on a really cool concept and has very well done graphics, however I cannot recommend it at this time due to the problems in the AI, and the major short-comings in the game play.

Reviewer's System:  AMD 1800 XP, Windows XP, GeForce 2 MX 32MB, 256 MB RAMAdded: April 7th 2003
Reviewer: The Mole
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Related Link: Fatal Wars Screenshots
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