Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power Review

A game that's every bit as generic as its title suggests.

Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power is based on a seemingly popular Russian science-fiction story written during the heyday of the Soviet sixties. We know this not because we've read the original story, but because the game's marketing materials and main title screen says so. The confusing part is how the interesting sci-fi premise behind the Prisoner of Power novel seems not to have had much impact on the story of the game.

Sure, there are some factions at war here and, sure, there are some futurey-type weapons but otherwise the game might as well have been called Generic Assault: Prisoner of Disinterest. Where strategy gamers are sometimes happy to jump into battle on the sole justification that there's someone to fight, we assume that a game based on a book would come with a bit more background and a stronger sense of motivation.

It's kind of a shame too, because with an appropriately dramatic context, the combats and missions might have drawn us in a bit more. There are tons of gameplay options here including a lengthy linear campaign that covers each of the game's factions, a host of single missions and a multiplayer mode.

Given that the game is set in the future on an alien planet, the units seem a bit generic. We're not expecting Tesla towers or tree-smashing robotic walkers here, but except for the Barbarian units, the troops here aren't any more creative than those you'd find in Advance Wars. Basic infantry, tanks, trucks, bombers, rocket artillery, submarines -- these are the best the future has to offer? On the other hand, the familiarity of the units gives players a head start when it comes to planning combined arms assaults. Leveraging our experiences with games like Panzer General, we strategy types already know which units to attack each other with.

Thankfully, there's plenty of tactical flexibility. Infantry can dig trenches or garrison buildings to receive defensive bonuses, engineers can extend the mobility of your vehicles by building pontoon bridges or airfields, and trucks can help slow-moving guns keep up with your advances. Making the most of each unit's strengths and using them in combination with the strengths of other units is where the game is most fun. We've had many tense moments here, from trying to keep our recon infantry from advancing too far ahead of our main force that we couldn't save them if the enemy suddenly appeared, to using fast moving vehicles to lure lone enemies into carefully prepared ambushes.

The modeling of a number of tactically significant factors adds to the excitement here. Your units move faster on roads but keeping them in the forests can help them stay hidden from nearby enemies. Some of your units are very fast, but large hills and river crossings can help your enemy predict where you're going to move. Units that find themselves in danger can even suffer from low morale, making them easy targets for any nearby enemies.

Of course, to make the most of that tactical flexibility, you'd need missions that are a bit more open-ended than those in Galactic Assault. The missions here, particularly in the campaign and solo-missions, seemed designed with only one course of victory in mind. Even the initial briefings and mid-mission updates tell players where to move and how to fight. The new unit recruitment options in your bases are even scripted for you, so you won't have many options to really experiment with unconventional unit combinations. While this kind of hand-holding is welcome in the early stages of the game, it gets downright tedious later on once you've already figured out how the units operate and just want to be turned loose to smash the enemy according to your own plans.

At times it seems like the AI plans are just as scripted. Reinforcement triggers are one thing, but we've had plenty of missions where the AI was simply unable to do more than launch feeble probing attacks at our lines. If they attack in force, it's not because the AI thinks it's a smart decision, but because the designers have created the mission to play out that way. In one mission, we had suffered terrific losses taking an enemy base and then had to turn around and defend it from counterattack. Even though we were obviously weakened, the AI held most of its attacking force in reserve, letting us go on the attack and take them on one-by-one.

On the plus side, the interface never gets in the way of the game. This has to be one of the leanest interfaces we've ever seen in a turn-based strategy game. All the necessary information is right there -- unit stats, movement range, firing radius, morale and health status -- but it never gets in the way of the action or causes confusion. The whole game can be played with the mouse, so you won't ever find yourself hunting and pecking for specific hotkeys.

If there was one thing that the game lacks, it's a way to issue multi-turn move orders to units that need to cross a large distance. Having to remember where each and every unit is heading each and every turn takes up valuable brain space. We'd also like to have seen some indication of which units have and haven't moved or fired in a turn. That annoying popup window that reminds us of the units that can still move and fire is convenient but far too distracting.

We're generally willing to be a bit more forgiving of the graphics in most turn-based strategy games. They are, after all, not really intended to compete with the Warcrafts or Command & Conquers of this world. Even with that in mind, Galactic Assault offers graphics that are muddy and monochromatic, which can make it hard to read the overall strategic situation, especially when day gives way to night. There are some good explosion and weapon effects here, but overall the world of Galactic Assault just seems a bit too lifeless. Some of the later areas get a bit more colorful but the textures are still a bit sloppy. The default "fancy camera" option brings all these weaknesses out much too clearly.

Closing Comments
Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power has a lot of interesting ideas within it but the overall presentation is weak. The game doesn't have a strong enough narrative for players to care about what's happening and the unit list seems too predictable, especially given the futuristic alien world that serves as the backdrop. The combat is enjoyable and challenging in those moments where the scripting opens up a bit, and the overall interface is economical without seeming limiting. In the end though, that's not enough to raise the game beyond just average.