I WANTED TO BE A GAMER BUT I DIDN’T HAVE THE PATIENCE….

Spectral Force Genesis wants to be more than just one type of game. It touts itself as being a Role Playing Game, a Real-Time Strategy and a War Sim. In the past many a game has fallen by overreaching to attempt to grab more audience. I was worried about this as I read the back of the games cover. But I believe someone said something similar about books (the African journal American Speech in 1944 I think…) so I cracked it open and took a long gander inside. Wanna know what I found?! Click the link to find out.

Here’s what you get: seven controllable nations out of forty – each with it’s own campaign and style, over 150 ships with massive modification options, and a huge cast of characters giving infinite possibilities for customization. Rounds are divided in to months/years. Battles are quick and decisive. The real meat and potatoes is in the little details: collecting taxes, buying and selling stocks, keeping up with foreign affairs, using underlings for recruitment and diplomacy…you get the idea. But most of all – paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork. Now to some this sounds…well…boring as hell mostly. But a bit…alright, a sizable chunk of patience will open up hours and hours of things to accomplish.

As with many games in similar territory, Spectral Force Genesis throws together a melange of things for us to do, but these things are neither well developed nor interesting – these things happen I suppose. Let’s take a look at the laundry list: the storyline is about as thin as I’ve ever seen, the gameplay is incredibly repetitive, the battles are awkward with no learning curve, the cutscenes aren’t good, character design is great but outside of the cutscenes the characters are all dumpy and ugly, and on top of all that the whole game is scripted round by round. A claustrophobic sensation comes over you when you realize that you are simply dealing with what the game throws at you instead of actually controlling the game. Spectral Force Genesis is the red-headed stepchild to serious, quality turn based strategy games.

Well, I don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but some covers just scream out what they have to offer – a lot of objectives and little to make you care about completing them. Overall this game is a shaky purchase. If you have a penchant for doing things then you may find some interest in Spectral Force Genesis. If you’re expecting Sid Meier’s Civilization then just keep going. Personally, I think the developers should have taken more ques from it’s PC brethren. Oh well.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]