Worth the Wait

Enslave's graphics are superb, and the action is non-stop. Upgradeable ships and weapons, multiple locations, and a wide variety of enemies give the game balance and keep it from being repetitive.

I thought I'd do something different this issue and focus on an in-depth review of a single game. I mentioned Enslave briefly in my last column. It's one of the best games I've seen this year—really worth checking out if you enjoy action games. At the end of the article I also included some interesting news on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, a well-known PC game that is now available on the Pocket PC.

Enslave is probably the most anticipated game of 2006, with one of the shortest, most matter-of-fact back stories I've ever seen in a game. The Earth's overpopulation crisis has grown to the point where we need to start colonizing other planets. To accomplish that goal, we first need to "enslave" the planets we want to colonize by eliminating the aliens that are already there. The idea behind the game is to explore the universe and conquer increasingly difficult planets while upgrading your ship.

An all-out shooter

The battle takes place in outer space and on alien worlds. The primary game screen displays a two-dimensional overhead view of your ship traveling through space (Fig. 1). You fly through space, engage random enemy ships that attack you, find planets to take over, and visit shops where you can acquire weapons, armor, engines, and bots. When you find a world to conquer, you shift to the planet screen and fight waves of attacking aliens. If you survive, the planet is yours; if you don't, you wind up back in space.

Fig. 1: Enslave challenges you to fly through outer space, battling alien space ships and looking for worlds to conquer.

The main outer space screen is simple and looks a bit similar to the old arcade game Sinistar. It includes a small map window at the bottom of the screen, which give you an overview of the area of space you're traveling in and indicates where the planets and alien ships are. Note that you can tap on the top of the map window to suspend action and see a larger view of the map (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Tap on the top of the small map window located on the bottom of the screen to suspend action and see a larger view of the map.

Once you've guided your ship to a planet, a summary screen pops up, telling you the name of the planet, the race that inhabits it, and the difficulty you'll have conquering it. Tap on the Cancel button to look for another planet. Tap on Attack to begin your conquest.

When you tap on Attack, your ship automatically launches a lander to the surface of the planet. When you reach the surface, you are deluged by waves of enemy aliens, which you blast away at with your cannon (Fig. 3). The only goal here is survival, and if you can withstand the waves of enemies until the level status bar reaches 100%, the planet is yours. This part of the game is really no different than the old game of Paratrooper, where you destroy enemies from above using a ground-based cannon. The game play is crude but fast-paced—it's a great adrenaline rush.

Fig. 3: When you find a planet, you have to land and destroy the aliens inhabiting it.