Game Classification

AI War: Fleet Command takes place after an eight hundred year long human civil war. The humans now have been forced to cooperate to counter a new threat, one that was created by themselves. The AI's used under the war learned to cooperate against their old masters and launched a new war.

The game is a space based real strategy game that also incorporates elements from grand strategy games as well as tower defence games. The game's campaign, which is procedurally generated, can be played in single player or by up to eight players cooperatively against two AI controlled players. The AI's are designed to not be like humans and therefore follow their own rules. There's different kinds of AI's available each with its own distinct tactics. The player starts out with a home command station which is the most vital unit in the game. Once it is destroyed it is game over. In the same way the main objective is to destroy the command stations of the AI's. The galaxy consists of numerous planets which the player moves between with the use of worm holes. These can be captured by both the player and the AI. Prior to moving to new planets it's important to build scouts that can gather intelligence about the enemy.

Four different kinds of resources exist in the game: knowledge, metal, crystal and energy. Knowledge is needed to unlock new technologies that can be used to unlock new units. To get knowledge the player needs to build science labs. There's no infinite amount of knowledge available and therefore after all knowledge from a planet has been extracted the player needs to move on to another planet to get more. The player will need to build ships and for this metal and crystal is required. Both are gathered with the use of harvesters. It is also possible to build factories that converts one resource to another. Energy is used by ships and is produced by building reactors.

To capture enemy planets the player has to build up his military forces. Battles in AI War: Fleet Command are in large scale and often involves hundreds if not thousands of units. With the use of a space dock it is possible to build numerous different ships depending on what technologies has been researched. The most basic ship types are bombers, cruisers, fighters and frigates but more can be built with the right technologies. To capture a planet the player needs to destroy the AI's command station and replace it with one of his own. To attack the player only needs to move his units within range of the enemy and they will automatically attack, although it is also possible to target specific enemy units. Some enemy buildings can be captured such as factories and research stations. By capturing these the player gets access to new ships types and can upgrade his current ships further. The player also need to defend the planets he has captured. This is done by building turrets, most effectively around the wormholes so to make it hard for the enemy ships to enter.

The strength of the AI is indicated by an AI progress level. The higher it is the larger and powerful force will they send at the player. Therefore it is important to pick the right planets to capture so that the AI doesn't get too angry and decides to crush the player. It's possible to lower the AI progress level by destroying the AI's data centers. In that way the amount of and level of ships they send will be lower. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : PC (Windows)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/ai-war-fleet-command/