Adv: Dark Archon [by BCSoft]

Game Review: Dark Archon
Release: March 12, 2003
Genre: Action
Developer: BCSoft
System Requirements: P3 500 MHz, 8 MB Open GL Compatible Video Card, 128 MB of RAM
Price: US $14.95

Dark Archon is an interesting game. At first glance it may seem to be nothing but a glorified Asteroids clone, but this game has fast-paced action written all over it. Space is a large place, and you have free reign over where to go in each mission. The game also has experience levels and power upgrades for a slight RPG feel, but it is mostly action. If you can't handle more than a few objects on the screen at once, this might not be the game for you. The dogfights are intense, especially when you have more than 20 enemies following after you with a large barrage of missiles shooting past your ship.

While the story is not well developed in the game itself, the website, http://www.bcsoftgames.com/archon/story/story2.htm, has plenty of information. Basically, the planet Archonia was this beautiful planet but the Lords of Polis were oppressive in their rule of the planet. The people calling themselves the Free Archons led an underground movement, teaming up with the Black Faith, a pirate and mercenary coalition. The Lords of Polis, in an effort to take control of the trade routes and seize power, attacked a few of the bases of the Black Faith. They were surprised by the swift and powerful retaliation which took the form of an attack on a rather large military base in the largest city. As there was a large number of weapons stored there, the planet itself was destroyed, splintered into millions of pieces.

150 years later, Earth was finally hit by the leftovers of the Archonian planet, which destroyed much of the planet. The Black Faith traded with the Earthlings, providing inferior weaponry and ships while also dealing with the Free Archon's attacks, and the Lords of Polis soon were involved as well.

In the game, you basically choose one of the four entities to play as. The different ship types have different attributes, such as speed, armor, shielding, and weaponry. Each ship has an unlimited primary weapon and a limited use secondary weapon, which regenerates after a period of time. The weaponry is different for each ship. For example, the Earth ship has a turbo boost for speed and a spread gun whereas the while the Black Faith have cloaking abilities.

Missions range from destroying all enemy ships to capturing all supply spheres available to arriving at waypoints intact. There are a few training missions at the beginning that will allow you to get used to the controls, although they are not complex. The tough part is getting used to dogfights where the enemy makes quick and darting moves to attack you. You can use the asteroids and the exploding mine pods to your advantage by making your enemy crash into a few, making your job easier. Sometimes power ups appear after something is destroyed, allowing you to use various rockets or an ion gun along with your regular main attack. With all of the many ships that could fill a screen at one time, it is ver1y helpful to have weapons like the spread gun or the tracking missiles so you don't have to worry about which ship to follow. And again, it can be very tough to make it out alive when a large number of ships are following you. After getting so many experience points, you can upgrade your ship a few times in the game. You can increase your acceleration (very helpful when getting out of a tight spot), your two weapons (also helpful), your shielding, and your armor (in case you can't get out of the tight spot). More than the power ups, these upgrades help you in your fight.

The training missions have you flying around, destroying the exploding pods or racing against other ships. While I find them to be helpful, especially for new players, I believe that training missions should be separated from the regular missions. Other missions involve flying with wingmen and allies to attack the enemy. I find these to be the most fun and challenging, as there seems to be hundreds of ships flying around. You can't hurt your allied ships, but that is a good thing as the action gets pretty furious and intense. Other missions involve reaching a certain area like a planet or base without getting destroyed. With ships shooting behind you, and asteroids and pods in front of you, those missions can get tough as well. So while the action can get hectic, there is some strategy involved as well.

The game also has a nice set of options. Two players can play on the same screen in co-op mode, playing through the same missions together. There is not network mode, which is too bad since this game would be a lot of fun with more than a couple of players. Also there is no head-to-head mode. Still, co-op is something that is missing in a lot of games. There are a number of controls available for the game, such as keyboard, mouse, and joystick. Two players can use two joysticks as well. You can set the sensitivity level to your liking. There are options to turn off the sound, music and engines, draw the overlay, or reverse the panning. The graphics has three levels of detail. Unfortunately the game uses these settings to help set the speed on faster and slower computers. This results in some areas where the speed gets super fast and almost unplayable or super slow and almost unplayable. Another problem is how unintuitive it is to load or save a game. While saving a game is available in the options, loading the game requires you to highlight the save option and move the side. This replaces "Save" with "Load" which took me awhile to find out, much longer than one should have to look. There is also only one save spot available, which shouldn't be the case since a PC game should have as many save slots as the player wants. I also had a problem with the text not displaying on my machine. I suspect it has to do with the Radeon video card I have, but BCSoft supplied an alternative .exe which worked perfectly fine.

In the end though, I found this game to be quite fun and will be playing it for a long time to come.

Graphics: 8
I found the graphics were done quite well. While it may get too hectic to pay attention to, the ships are modeled well and the particle effects are nice. The nice effects from the shields getting hit add a nice touch, and the cloaking effects are also well done. The lighting and environmental effects are cool, as explosions lighten up asteroids and ships in the area.

Sound: 6
While nothing spectacular, the music and sounds are good enough to fit the action. The sounds of the shields getting hit and the ship hulls being hit are subtle, and the options to turn on or off the audio is available.

Game Play: 9
The controls are simple while still allowing for a lot of control. The different controllers allowed is a plus, as you can use the mouse or joystick as well as the keyboard to control the game.

Options: 8
Again the options listed are nice, although I would have liked a head-to-head multiplayer mode or even a network multiplayer mode. Also, the options to save and load should have been more intuitive. Still, the options that are available give plenty to configure.

Concept: 9
While this game could be explained as an improved Asteroids clone, it goes far farther than that. The action is intense and the multiple ships available allow for great replay value. Asteroids was fun but adding enemy ships and a scrolling background with free flight makes it a lot of fun. Explosions are cool.

Fun: 9
I did not want to stop playing this game. While the levels can get difficult, it does not get overly frustrating. While there were sometimes lulls in the action, such as having to go through the training levels when you have been playing for hours already, it does provide incentive to get through.

Overall: 9
At first impression, the game may seem boring, since the first missions were training missions. Once you get into it, however, it is well worth the money. Action-packed and fun to play, this game delivers! Added: May 30th 2003
Reviewer: Gianfranco Berardi
Score:
Related Link: BCSoft Games
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Language: english