Supremacy


Title		Supremacy
Game Type	Management Sim
Company		Probe/Virgin Mastertronic
Players		1
HD Installable	Yes (With Patch)
Compatibility	All (With Patch)
Submission	Adrian Simpson Profiled Reviewer

Review
Supremacy is essentially chess in space, and is a conflict in which you
must gain control of an entire solar system. You and your enemy start at
opposite ends of the this solar system, on your home planets. The
chessboard squares are individual planets and your pieces are the space
ships and the troops that they carry. However, this isn't quite the full
story, as you have a lot more to think about.

The game is well designed, with a central screen leading on to a number of
other screens, each for a different aspect of your society. You can return
to the main screen by clicking the right mouse button, which is easy and
fast. The first screen gives you general information about your planets
and allows you to change the tax rate. As usual, the tax rate is important
- if it is too high, then the people will be unhappy and desert the
planet, but if it is too low, then you will not get much cash. The next is
for buying spaceships, and has a selection of craft that can be used to
create food, minerals and fuels. There are also cargo and troop carrying
ships, in addition to these a solar energy producing satellite and a
planet terraformer exist. The terraformer is important, as it will turn
the solar system's dead planets into habitable systems. This also marks
the planet as your own. Other screens deal with ship navigation, training
and utilising the army, supplies and planet resources.

Good management of all your resources will ensure that your planets are
healthy and that you hit the enemy with the maximum firepower. If you are
doing well, you will gradually take over the whole solar system,
culminating in the battle for the enemy's home planet. There are a
different number of planets in the system, depending on the difficulty
level and the first system, with eight planets, is not much of a problem.
However, the fourth and hardest level of play can be very taxing! The
planets are viewed in a neat little spinning solar system display, which
also has a silhouette of a face behind it. The brighter that this face is,
the more the enemy is winning!

A criticism that has been directed at Supremacy is that it is like a
spreadsheet with pretty graphics, as the game has a lot of numbers to it.
This has some truth to it and most of the action is left to the
imagination. You send a number of troops to a planet to do battle with the
enemy, but do not see the carnage and must assume that they are fighting
away. This might put some gamers off, but the game is really about
management of resources, and not about flying spaceships or taking part in
battles. You set up conflicts, but do not have any direct control.
However, someone at Lucasarts certainly thought that this resource
management was a good idea and released a very similar game on the PC
years after Supremacy. The name of the game? Star Wars: Supremacy!



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