Transarctica


Title           Transarctica
Game Type    	Action Strategy
Publisher       Silmarils
Players		1
Compatibility  	ECS/AGA (Different versions available)
HD Installable 	Yes
Submission    	Joachim Andersson

Review
THis is one of those game that never could have been made in anywhere
other than France. It is set sometime in the distant future, after an
attempt to fix the ozone layer or something has gone wrong, shielding the
earth from the suns rays. The entire world is covered in ice. Your mission
is to travel across the world with the great train known as Transarctica
and try to find a way to open up the skies again.

The game is basically a trading game. You travel between different cities,
buying goods such as mammoth dung and fishing rods, and then sell them to
whoever gives the highest price. All the time you try to expand your train
with different classes of wagon, such as: Merchandise, soldier barracks,
cannon wagons and prisons. There are several different types of  each
class of wagon; for instance, merchandise wagons include the normal ones
which take 20 tons of goods, then there's the Xl ones who take more etc
etc. There's also oil tanks, wagons to store plants in. You get the point.

The games real purpose is to find a way to clear the great cloud covering
the earth. You can get hints in some cities and there are some special
locations scattered across the world. I havent finished the game myself
yet though.

Sometimes you meet enemy trains and combat begins. It is rather fun but
can be tedious. The trains are positioned at the top and lower halfs of
the screens and you deploy soldiers to destroy or take over wagons. Since
your soldiers are very slow it can take time but I prefer to have the
combat solved personally instead of the computer controlled option which
most of the time ends with several of your wagons destroyed.

Graphics and sound are both nice, lending a nice atmosphere to the game.
And thats what makes me play the game. The awesome, arctic atmosphere. The
trading game is, as I mentioned earlier, rather simple but fun. Some of the
text translated from French to English is rather strange at times, but its
not anything particulary negative.

In short:

Transarctica is a nice, atmospheric strategy game with that certain
ambience that only comes from French games. I've certainly enjoyed it but
some people might object to the simplicity of the strategy. I still
recommend it.



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