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| Welcome to your new universe... | Time to explore: |
Weird Worlds is a fairly simple strategy game where you have the choice of three main mission structures. The first has you as an inexperienced and rather useless wannabe ships captain take on a dodgy job from a dude who runs a pirate franchise. Your mission is to, quote " simply grab anything of value you can find; technology, alien artifacts, life forms, weapons, even hostages" apparently if you bring all this stuff back to him and complete your mission successfully, you get to keep the ship.
In all scenarios, you have the choice of a 10, 20 or 30 year mission, the real trick is not to get caught out too far away from home and not be able to make it back in time, something that will seal your fate in a much less sexy position, like a security guard.
You can choose from a science mission, where your mission objectives are to look for new life forms in return for further grant money, and catalog new worlds and other deep space phenomena. If being a mad scientist doesn't take your fancy, you can captain a terran frigate, and make first contact with alien life forms, determining whether or not they are of use to your home planet. You are also looking out for alien technologies which could be useful for military purposes.
There are several different options to choose from before you even begin the game. One is of course which type of ship you are going to use, which determines your mission type. Other options include map size, which correlates to length of game, nebula mass, and enemy strength.
Every mission begins from your home planet Hope in the Glory system. Got to love Europeans taking the mickey out of the USA. Either that or it was a cultural gesture designed to create rapport with the American buying public, you decide.
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| And trade... | And prepare for battle: |
You must then embark on a wild ride of clicking around a map screen, looking at and then 'engaging' other planets to see what may be plundered there. You can either take things from planets, or occasionally trade with other life forms. The life forms that you come across may try to either trade with you or exterminate you, depending on their nature and how they're feeling, so keep your wits about you and a particle cannon at the ready.
Though it is almost too simple, Weird Worlds carries with it a rather endearing dry sense of humor, both in the text prompts which direct the game, and embedded in the design itself. Click on a planet surrounded by swirling dark matter and lo and behold, you get sucked into a black hole. What the hell were you thinking anyway? It's a game that makes a mockery of the player. Nice.
The humor extends to the strange and wonderful items you find on your journeys, like the "marvelous toy" which transforms into any beings favorite to when held. Looks like they did their market research around 5 year olds alright. Other interesting items include the brains of mad scientists, preserved in glass jars and flung into the reaches of space, and items which include board games called "kill doctor lucky."
The real time battle system is quite enjoyable, mostly because you don't really have to do much. What you do have to do is use the items you find around the place to beef up your ships defenses and offenses, along with those of your flotilla, so that when it times to click your way to bloody combat you will emerge victorious. This is easily done my dragging items from your cargo hold and dropping them onto the corresponding areas of your ship, where they will automatically replace whatever you had there to begin with.
You will need to gain allies, or occasionally simply pay an escort to help you out. The short time limit on missions makes the game somewhat shallow, but it does mean that there is plenty to explore next time you play.
There is also the battle simulator mode, which allows you to pick from the complete range of races and their ships and choose opponents and then see how you fare against them in battle. This is excellent if you're looking for a more full scale battle, which is harder to come across in game.
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| And fight... | I said FIGHT! |
The following planet information: "These stars should not exist, therefore, experts surmise that green stars could only have formed if the universe was suddenly recreated by accident."A Douglas Adams inspired moment if there ever was one. He is sadly missed.
WEIRD WORLDS: RETURN TO INFINITE SPACE VERDICT
The graphics are nothing much to speak of, but then this isn’t really a game about graphics, this is funny strategy game, and for all of it’s early broderbund feel, it is stable and it works. The sound is surprisingly good,with random music transmissions cutting in along with voices. So then, black hole bad, collapsing star bad, getting back on time good. I think we can manage that.
TOP GAME MOMENT
The following planet information: “These stars should not exist, therefore, experts surmise that green stars could only have formed if the universe was suddenly recreated by accident.”A Douglas Adams inspired moment if there ever was one. He is sadly missed.
