Dominus

With a like Dominus, I'd half expected US Gold's much overdue release to be either (a) a Populous-Powermonger-type clone, or (b) a rip-off of the game you play in the pub with those little black things with spots all over them. Which all goes to show you how wrong you can be. Dominus is nothing as classy as (a) and it hasn't got a fraction of the gameplay or the excitement of (b).

So what has it got? In short, Dominus is a strategy wargame in a fantasy setting. You're a sort of overlord thing with a big castle, a few villages and some wilderness making up your happy little kingdom, all of which are conveniently divided up into squares. Because you're an overlord thing you have armies made up of monster-type things and your kingdom is under permanent invasion by tribes made up of different monster things that want to steal all your resource-type things. If I sound a little vague, it's because the manual docs, too.

With utmost realism, these resource things are left lying all over the place -totally unguarded because the kingdom doesn't have any inhabitants. I suppose it's because they would have got in the way of what somebody thought was a good plot. And what passes for gameplay, simply boils down to two options. You can instruct your generals to put troops in areas you tell them to and let them get on with it. Or you can zoom into each area, throw in a few spells (anything from fireballs to earthquakes), deploy monsters individually and even get in the action yourself if you're feeling heroic. Actually, it isn't that heroic because you can always summon your chariot and leg it back home if it gets too hot.

You've got bad taste!

To supplement the bite of cold steel (or claws or whatever), you can mix new spells or build up traps. Both are applied using the mouse - simple point and click. It's fun for a while but it's about as satisfying as lifting out one of those big yellow ducks at the fair - easy ain't the word. If you get bored by your stock of monsters you can mix them up in a melting pot and create new ones with different attack, speed and defence attributes. Charming. Even big, horrible monsters have feelings, you know.

Information can be gleaned from captured invaders using varying questioning techniques or a red-hot poker, whichever works best. It's borderline bad taste but at least there are no disturbing scenes. On the other hand, options on where to stick the poker might have added excitement...

The interface is well thought out, and most screens are directly accessible from others, so there's no wasted effort involved. The graphics are good and the overhead perspective has two levels of zoom so you can place monsters, traps and spells with accuracy. Amazingly, apart from some neutral background music, there are no sound effects whatsoever. No screams, explosions, and no slurping blood. Add zero gameplay and I'm afraid you can only come up with one answer...

Dominus is a unique genre of games becomes it blends the most unique aspects of action, role play, adventure, and war games into one smooth package!

Play as a reigning overlord where you must position your defenses and understand what your opponents want and, and more importantly, just who they really are!

Throughout the game you can control and manipulate your troops, or even create new ones to do your bidding! Use them wisely or you could lose the possibility of having 72 territories under your iron-fisted rule!

The power has been unleashed and only you can control the fate of Dominus.

This is not obviously and literally for average minds. What we have is a certain mix of strategy and RPG, but more complicated and twisted. You have to operate the castle and creatures serving you. You can hire to employ new characters and study magic spells. In general thinking in this game is really important...

Also you have to think really carefully before making each move in this game.