Game Classification

Influence is a real-time strategy game that can be played singly or online with others. Players choose an 'id', a color and a voice to represent themselves in an arena filled with up to 7 other player ids (human and/or computer) and a number of voiceless neutral grey ids that are controlled by no one. The goal for each player is to assimilate as many other ids as possible to join them and create a flock. As a flock grows, it becomes more powerful. This makes it harder to take over it's ids as well as easier for it to take over others. The game ends when there is only one voice left.

Besides a color and a voice, ids have three other attributes: agility, resistance and speed. Agility affects how well the ids respond to the mouse, resistance determines how long it takes for an id to be taken over, and speed makes ids move faster. These attributes go from 0 to 3 and can be customized before entering the arena by distributing ego points. The maximum amount of ego possible is 9, which would be enough to max out all of an id's stats. Players can choose to use as much or as little available ego as they'd like. The computer randomizes it's own ego distribution unless the player chooses to customize them. Neutral ids' stats are always 0.

Music in the game is generated dynamically by the ids themselves. Each time an id is taken over, it plays a note in the voice of it's new flock. It repeats this note every four measures unless it gets taken over by another flock, at which point it would get a new voice. The volume of the voices increase/decrease as their flocks grow/shrink, and the sound pans so it is possible to tell if a flock is coming from off the screen. At the end of the game, an option to save the music is given to the player.

Online play also offers the choice to team up with/against others by choosing an allegiance. This makes players under the same allegiance immune to each other, but their efforts are combined against differing allegiances. [source:mobygames]

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

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/influence/