Leaders in combat also impart “fate” points, which are used for re-rolls and there’s the ability to research and purchase tactics cards which give you a little edge in a fight. I really like the combat system as a whole, but I do feel that there are times when a “quick fight” option would be a blessing; I’ve had a few minor fights between low-power units go on for 20 minutes and that’s much too long for a relatively uninteresting scuffle. The bigger, more interesting battles benefit in terms of drama and depth from the detail and procedure but the small ones can bog the game down significantly. Here, the two-faced dice don’t help either—when a unit with three attack dice rolls against a unit with three defense dice, expect a lot of ties and re-rolls.

When exploring, you might find an abandoned military warehouse, or some dude with a couple of mechs might decide to join up with you. Or you could wind up in a nest of cannibals. Each faction has an assortment of reconnaissance-class units that can handle the scouting so expect the first few turns of any game to be consumed with getting your bearings in the world. It is a little disappointing that the terrain in the game never really varies; everything is a uniform desert brown. I suppose it’s appropriate, but after a few games the map can look pretty dull.

Research and tech development isn’t nearly as detailed or sophisticated as it is in most games of this ilk and it might leave some tech tree huggers disappointed that there’s no branching assortment of abstract concepts to dump research dollars into throughout the game. Yet, I think the game does a fair job of keeping the essential idea intact by moving all research and development to the leaders—stick a technology leader in your base and he’ll be able to spend action points to develop weapon cards so you can beef up your cheapest, weakest units to fighting fit. Or, you could get lucky and find an abandoned lab that you can raid to find vials of mutagen to grade up the grunts.

What really impressed me about ARMAGEDDON EMPIRES, aside from the great art, the great theme, and the interesting mix of CCG, board game, and PC game mechanics is that it’s got a lot of really “cool” detail to it like finding one of those labs that in a board game would likely create a lot of cumbersome rules. There were many times during my testing sessions where I thought “…man, this game is just really neat.” There’s a definite sense of theme and atmosphere that make the game rise above its shortcomings (such as a somewhat clumsy interface, a few “missed opportunity” ideas like something to change a resource into another, and some odd AI choices like stacking a insanely nasty army with a leader better suited to hold down a desk back at the fort). It has a quality that I can only quantify as “heart”- it feels like Mr. Davis really cares about the game and his enthusiasm carries through to every aspect of it. You may, as some boardgamers have stated, think that there’s no reason to play ARMAGEDDON EMPIRES given the large number of very high quality games of this type out there—yet I’ll say that this is the closest I’ve seen a PC game come to capturing some of the things I like best about boardgames even though it lacks direct human interaction and the tangibility of a tabletop game.

One major point of contention that many will likely have with the game is that there is no multiplayer option whatsoever. No online play, no hotseat, no PBEM, nothing. I do agree that it’s somewhat unfortunate, but the thinking is that the game would be impractical as a multiplayer contest. I think that’s likely true, given some of the detail in the action/reaction gameplay and the overall management of game elements which are, ironically, the chief reasons I don’t think the game would work completely as a face-to-face game. It does seem odd though that even playing against AI opponents (which are mostly pretty good) that there’s no diplomatic element in the game at all. There’s no tech trading, no ugly CGI face popping up every 10 turns to demand you hand over something or face dire consequences, or alliances. Nope, these factions aren’t here to talk things over. There’s no “diplomacy victory”. Only domination. Sweet, sweet domination.

ARMAGEDDON EMPIRES is a very fun, very interesting game that will appeal to both PC gamers as well as boardgamers. There are some really neat ideas and maybe even one or two brilliant ones. It’s a unique title and if you’re itching to drop the bomb on a bunch of squid-headed Xenopods or a bunch of marauding robots, then you’ll probably be completely satisfied with the game. Mr. Davis has also done a fine job supporting it with frequent patches and his development blog really speaks to his commitment to providing a fun, high quality game on his own terms. So let’s give the LCD a reprieve this go-round, and I’ll be back to crack it again for you same time next week.

You can find the game at the Cryptic Studios website.

Questions or comments for Michael? Send them along to gameshark.feedback@yahoo.com .