Weird Worlds - 304 Words

There is a lot that can be said for the genre of space exploration. After all, it gave us classics such as Elite and the Wing Commander series. Weird Worlds attempts to add to the genre by placing you in control of a space explorer charged with the task of making a fortune. This is achieved by an expedition through space, trading, exploring and fighting.

The highlight of Weird Worlds is unquestionably the combat. Should you discover a hostile race and decide to engage them, then the view is zoomed in to a field of combat showing both your ship (and any allies you may have gained) and the enemy spacecraft. Your ship is controlled through a point-and-click method which works well in allowing you to switch targets or make a sudden movement. There are great particle effects and sounds which really do draw you into the battles and they are certainly the most fun to be had in the game. The tragedy is that initially, your spaceship is about as lethal and fear inducing as a Fiat Panda, so don’t consider engaging anything until you have upgraded your rusty space hulk with some stronger firepower.

Sadly the rest of the game does not match up to the space dogfights. The map you play on is randomly generated for each play, but in practice this means that Weird Worlds is a game which it is impossible to get good at. There are no profitable trade routes you can establish or any consistency to the placement of the enemies. Combat doesn’t play as large a part as it should, meaning you can complete the game with a reasonable score without ever firing off a laser in anger. When the highlight to a game is something that is totally avoidable, then something is deeply wrong.


3/10