Soldiers of Anarchy

A lot of people think biological warfare is just an excuse for a kind of futuristic fancy dress party with funny looking outfits and breathing apparatus, but there's a lot more to it than that. Contrary to popular belief, an act of biological terrorism (and that includes any children fathered by Michael Jackson) is very bad for the planet's health.

Soldiers Of Anarchy is a perfect example of the kind of mood you are likely to be in after surviving a global biological attack. And let's face it, if you've been living in a bunker for ten years, you're bound to be a bit irritable. Especially if you also happen to be part of the last surviving group of soldiers in the world, and have no idea how the rest of the population died.

New World Disorder

SoA is a gloomy RTS in which you must guide your solesurviving squad of soldiers through 13 missions in order to discover exactly what happened to the human race.

There's a distinct Mad Max vibe going on, what with the earth now being populated by ruthless gangs who survive by trading humans. Needless to say, killing off these amply armed slavers is a major part of the gameplay. But apart from the bloodshed, there's also a sense of mystery arising from the struggle to find out the terrible Twelve Monkeys-hke truth of ten years previous. So, as you explore the sometimes serenely beautiful, though often very bleak landscapes, you find a spirit of exploration as well as retribution that drives you forward.

Probably the easiest way to describe Soldiers Of Anarchy is as a cross between a full 3D version of Commandos 2 and something like Fallout or Jagged Alliance. The role-playing element is crucial to the gameplay as you have to recruit NPCs to join your cause, and also improve your team members' skills in areas such as heavy weapons, medicine, marksmanship and explosives.

As you progress, you find vehicles such as jeeps, APCs, tanks, jets and choppers. All this equipment, along with any other weapons and ammo you find, can be taken back to your base and used in later missions. One of the keys to SoA is deciding which troops and equipment to take into each level.

Chemical Brothers

SoA's RTS and RPG mix works well, but overall the pace is a little too slow. Cumbersome interface problems such as not being able to cleanly select units also dampen the overall enjoyment. And then there's the poor clipping that mars an otherwise crisp looking game.

SoA isn't a doomsday classic, but if you want a thoughtful and relatively tactical blend of roleplaying and strategy, and can put up with some niggly foibles, this should do the trick.

Soldiers of Anarchy is a squad-level, real time strategy game system set in a post-apocalyptic Earth. In the single campaign included you lead a group of survivors as they emerge from a bunker 10 years after a bio-catastrophe.

It's a system rather than a game in that there is only the one campaign for solitaire play, with linear linked missions and a set story line. Sadly, there is no random mission generator. The mission editor included is billed as the same tool used by the product's mission designers, though, so if it catches on, you can expect to see many fan-generated missions and campaigns.

In that campaign, after emerging, you'll encounter well-armed adversaries and more benign NPCs. You'll gather equipment, information, vehicles and some of the NPCs will join your party.

You'll learn soon enough that the AI soldiers don't fight very well, so there's no real spoiler in saying that they have a tendency to rush headlong into your positions, so lure a few at a time and nibble nibble nibble. Save often and you'll have little trouble solving the included missions.

Characters gain experience and can learn skills but how this is gauged and other statistics are not readily apparent. Neither food nor fuel are modeled and there's no damage system (just the usual hit points). The game design and the controls are well thought out, except for niggling little glitches not worth mentioning. Though passage of time is not modeled, all times of day and night are available to the mission designer as are weather effects. Great graphics are now "standard" in games and this one does not disappoint.

For its T rating there's plenty of moderately strong language. The violence is lethal but not graphic.