Enemy Infestation

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Review: Enemy Infestation

While not quite as accessible as that outdoor World War II entry, this real-time strategy game, set largely indoors, displays an eye for detail, a deeper interest in character and story, a lighter heart-and a difficulty curve that's significantly easier to hit.

As you've doubtless gathered from the title, EI's a bug hunt, sir. Depending on the mission, your team of up to 12 members may include military types, physicists and biologists, cooks and barmen, janitors and mechanics, and robots-each with special skills. (For instance, robots can survive in places humans can't, and mechanics can repair destroyed robots.)

Wrapped together or controlled separately using standard RTS rules, you usher them across 26 levels, shooting it out with the insectoid invaders, activating machines to improve your weapons, health, and access, rescuing colonists, and experimenting with found domestic items-from fire extinguishers to remote controls to hair spray.

Those aren't just neat little asides. EI is the Ultima VII of RTS games. And while the Big Orange Gun pretty much speaks for itself, if you use the wrong item, you may find the enemy multiplying or morphing into more dangerous forms.

The game definitely has personality. The alien AI may lack a certain coordination in combat, but it has a concerted agenda, and it's fascinating to watch. On your own side, everyone talks, whether in fixed story sequences at key junctures or just reacting to the world around them, and I quickly started recognizing voices and getting attached to characters-notably a laconic southern girl and a robot who'd occasionally come out with a "Crush, kill, destroy!"

It put me in mind of Tegel's Mercenaries, an early-'90s attempt at adding a distinctive voice to squad games. The difference: This one works. If I couldn't interact with an object, I was told why. Information is cleanly laid out and easily accessible from the main game-screen at all times. Team members adopt the shortest route when assigned a distant destination and handle multiple elevators with aplomb. (However, they'll sometimes include dangerous areas in their path, so you may need to waypoint around trouble spots.) And the game allows you to play beyond the mission that's currently making you crazy.

Finally, the cooperative multiplayer game (TCP/IP or LAN), with 10 levels of its own, was smooth sailing and deliciously difficult.

However, a side effect of making levels so detailed is that they come off busy and cluttered until you get used to the style. Similarly, in combat, you may find so many characters saying so many things simultaneously that you can't hear any one of them. (While we're on the subject of voices, the one used for the mission briefings set my teeth of edge.)

And while generally the game seems clean (apart from some problems getting the screen to scroll using the mouse), my laconic southern girl occasionally sounded more like Marge Simpson. A military type who'd been knocked unconscious and cocooned awoke, replied to her commander's orders from within the cocoon, and then lapsed into unconsciousness again.

Now, that's dedication for you.

And a little dedication is in order here. After an initially tepid reaction, I've found myself steadily warming to the pleasant intricacies of Enemy Infestation. Like aliens who've been zapped with the wrong gun, it's likely to grow on you.-- Peter Olafson / GamePro