Strifeshadow (PC)
	Developer Ethermoon Entertainment Publisher Ethermoon Entertainment Reviewed by Brad "Markup" Cole [Feedback] [Author Bio] Review Date December 21, 2001

Rating (out of 5.0) 2.5 out of 5.0*

Strengths Free multiplayer demo. "Starcraft Friendly" interface should be familiar to most RTS fans. Good unit balance. Weaknesses No single player game. No printed manual. Does not work well with routers and some firewalls.

Screenshots MORE SCREENSHOTS

* Notes Gaming Voice ratings are based on the technical and/or gameplay merits of a given product as well as the developer's choice of features and delivery of same. Our rating is not an endorsement of the thematic content of a given title. Gamers and parents are cautioned to determine if such content conflicts or coincides with their values and beliefs.

Gameplay: Is this Starcraft?!

After playing this game for five minutes, I began to wonder if I wasn't still playing Starcraft. Sure, the units don't look the same, but there are incredible similarities: You harvest two resources to build things; the mouse commands are the same; and the menu layouts are very similar. As well, units have "build trees" that must be followed in order to produce them, and many even share powers with their Starcraft counterparts (Protoss Templar can not engage in melee combat, but do use an area-of-effect damage spell called storm; Dark Elf Warlocks can not engage in melee combat, but do use an area-of-effect damage spell called shrapmetal). To put it another way: if you are a Starcraft veteran, you should have no problem adjusting to this game.

After playing this game for five minutes, I began to wonder if I wasn't still playing Starcraft.

Still, there are a number of innovative features. For instance, "peons" no longer need to be brought en masse to resource sites. Aether, the most important resource, is harvested automatically by aether towers and passed through a network to your "keep." Find your chain of towers damaged, however, and your aether supply will disappear. As well, units can be taught new skills such as engage (which makes it very hard for units they are fighting to move away from combat) and even go up in levels after combat. While not groundbreaking, these features do make the game a much more interesting and enjoyable experience. Hopefully, we'll see them in more games - including Warcraft III.

The basic game of Strifeshadow is still the same as Starcraft, however, which is either a good thing (if you like Starcraft) or a bad thing (if you hate it). Players start out with a "keep" and a few peons who are in charge of gathering resources (in the case of Strifeshadow, building aether towers to gather resources for you). Once enough resources are gathered, the building of more advanced structures can begin. Some of these structures will create units, and others will teach those units new tricks. All the while, players also have to expand their resource network - aether pools and ikon mines are not renewable resources, and will quickly be depleted. Eventually battles will commence, and the hard tasks of overseeing the empire's industry AND directing the armies will be necessary.

All this happens in real time - there is no turn-based combat, nor can you command units while the game is paused. You can speed up and slow down the game prior to play, but your options are limited to "Standard" speed and "Fast Play." Strifeshadow is designed to be played at high speeds, and won't be enjoyed by those who like to sit back and contemplate their moves.

Single Player Game: There is None

Strifeshadow was designed as a multiplayer game, and that's all it is. There is no single player game except for a few non-interactive tutorials which teach you how to play and an "experiment" mode which lets you play a map without any opponents. This, in my opinion, is the biggest flaw with the game: if you want to practice before facing human opponents or you just can't find anyone else to play against at 4:00 AM, you're out of luck.

Multiplayer Game: Where the Action Is!

Like many current games, the multiplayer aspect of Strifeshadow takes place over the Gamespy network. Debates continue to rage as to whether or not Gamespy is on-par with Blizzard's Battle.net, but one thing is for sure: Gamespy works adequately here. There's no major network lag, it is easy to set up an account on, and (if you use Strifeshadow to connect rather than the GS front-end) no advertisements.. at least for now.

Strifeshadow is designed to be played at high speeds, and won't be enjoyed by those who like to sit back and contemplate their moves.

The problems in multiplayer come from one big area: not enough players, especially with the retail game. At the time of this review, the Strifeshadow community was still relatively small - I have yet to see over 100 people playing at the same time. This creates problems in that there may not always be someone to play against. Still, I must say that I was usually able to find a game within a few minutes during peak hours, so this isn't as big of a drawback as one might think.

Extras: Editors and Replays

Strifeshadow also comes with two other important features: an editor and a game replay mode. While not unique, both are done quite well and should enhance players' overall enjoyment of the game.

The editor is an interesting feature that may or may not make this game a huge success. Not only can you alter and create new maps to play on, you can literally change the mechanics of the world. The editor allows you to add new races, units, buildings, resources, and even images.. or at least it appears to. While I was able to figure out how to make some of these changes, others eluded me because there is NO MANUAL for the editor. Still, this aspect of Strifeshadow has HUGE potential, and could even allow fans to make completely different themes for the game. Imagining "space themed" or "western themed" versions of the game done by fans is not hard to do with this powerful toolset. Still, there are no "trigger" editors for maps, so don't expect to make a multiplayer RPG modification just yet.

Game replay is also important, both as a learning tool and as a sort of "trophy creator" for veteran players. Strifeshadow records every move done in the game. When the fighting is over, you have the option of saving this "replay" of the game you just went through or discarding it. Those that save the replay will be able to watch the game as often as they want with the "fog of war" lifted, and thus can figure out their mistakes much more easily. Skilled players, on the other hand, will be able to save their greatest triumphs and show them off to anyone interested; for example, you can now see the "final match" between the two top ladder players if they choose to post it on the web. While probably not the most interesting material to watch, it will certainly be of interest to many in the Strifeshadow on-line community.

Quick Comments

The editor allows you to add new races, units, buildings, resources, and even images.

• A multiplayer demo version of Strifeshadow is available at Ethermoon's website.
• Strifeshadow is an EBworld.com exclusive game. That means, at this time, you can only purchase the game from EB's internet site.
• The game contains NO PRINTED MANUAL. Granted, the price tag for it is relatively low (I paid $35.00 after S&H), but all you get is a jewel case and a CD-ROM. Printing the manual from the PDF file provided would prove quite costly.
• Firewalls and routers give Strifeshadow a great deal of trouble. Though minor fixes for these problems are partially covered in the support document on Ethermoon's website, it is still not addressed completely. If you use a firewall like Zone Alarm, you will not be able to create games, and may also experience strange crashes when trying to join demo games. In my book, this is a big strike against Strifeshadow, and greatly limits the potential audience.
• The graphics are not just dated, they are years behind current standards. While not terrible, they certainly aren't going to win any awards.
• The little extras like hourglass-timers that show when the game is loading and the funny speeches Starcraft units used to make after being clicked on a few dozen times are missing here. While not a great loss, it certainly gives the impression that Strifeshadow is not as polished as it could have been.

Final Thoughts

Strifeshadow has a great deal of potential, especially once more fans figure out how to use the game editor. Still, consumers need to recognize exactly WHAT the game is before they buy it: it is a head-to-head multiplayer real-time strategy game with almost no AI and no single-player game. While this means a lot of people won't like it, it DOES NOT mean that fans of multiplayer RTS games will be disappointed; in fact, Strifeshadow is an excellent on-line game that fans of Battle.net and Starcraft should enjoy. So download the demo while it is still free and try it out - I guarantee there are worse game out there, and most of them can't be tried out for free.