Jumping on the RTS Bandwagon

So I'm tooling around on Facebook today to check out something my friends sent me, and I see this add for "Wasteland Empires." Anyone who know me knows that I get that "deer-in-the-headlights" look when anything remotely apocalyptic crosses my vision.* So naturally, I click.

What I found was a somewhat interesting beta for a real-time-strategy (RTS) game. Being a big fan of Starcraft and Warcraft (gotta love those orc Peons!) I decided I would give it a shot. So far, I've been pleasantly surprised. It doesn't play much differently in that the player is required to gather resources, build defenses and buildings which allow the next level on the technology tree to be built.

A short cut scene plays at the beginning to get you into the feel of the game, not dissimilar to the Fallout series of games. They find "Oasis," call it home and start building from there. The resources are in the rubble around the initial spot, and sending your colonists out to scavenge not only nabs you the materials you need to build but also the space in which to expand as well.

The sounds effects and soundtrack are great for a game built into a Facebook app. I'd even go so far as to compare them to the original Fallout as far as dreariness and appropriate feel for the game. Certainly better than the drek Inon Zur cranked out for FO3.

The drawings are comic-book style, alright but not spectacular. Some of the icons used for the resources don't fit the gritty and grimy feel of the rest of the "world" but this game is a beta so I'm being lenient. I would be happier to see the people wearing real items in lieu of armor instead of the ridiculous fallbacks to oversized skulls on their shoulders. Otherwise, decent effort for the concept art.

At the end of the day, what the makers of the game really want me to do is to give it Five Stars as-is, but I wouldn't. Not yet. Would I recommend it to my friends, however? Sure. A great little app is a great little app to pass the time while chatting on an otherwise boring social networking page.

*There was a time when I was sitting down to watch television and I saw ads for "Friday Night Lights." Not being the closest thing to a sports fan, I missed the few sports references and was a little bit thrilled with the creepo, wastelandish look. I bet you can imagine my disappointment.

Back in Black (Holes)

Only for a bit. The novel is still on track, and I've got an expert reader going over my second revision, pointing out any huge, nasty, gaping, sucking wound in the prose. We caught a big one, and I'm churning out what I hope is NOT filler to make the points richer and more salient.

The truth is the book is becoming more of a murder/mystery set in the post-apoc world. Not what I intended to write from the beginning, but it just began to morph into one. Through the course of the first draft I had the characters moving all around the Circuit, but the central focus of the second revision is keeping everyone in town. This works well with me creating the world, as I can spend more time establishing the locations to make them more "real" and also to make them more integral to the story instead of just backdrop.

Of course, that also means I'll have to get them out of town eventually, so another few books are entirely possible, and I've got ideas for them already. (Publishers just LOVE to hear that the book, although a good stand alone, can lead to other stories. They see dollar signs for successful authors, since the sequels are almost guaranteed to sell).

So that's it. The characters haven't changed appreciably, and the plot hasn't either, but the format in which it is told has matured. I hope you'll still stick around, even if mysteries aren't your thing. It will still be (I pray) post-apoc goodness.

On another note: I'm really looking forward to Fallout:New Vegas, if only to see what the oldies music selections are going to be (and it comes out two days after my birthday, yay!). My parents had some of this music come out during their child/teen years. They actually saw the Inkspots perform live! ("Maybe" is playing. Mom: Hm, that sounds like the Inkspots. You know, your dad and I saw them when we were young. Me: jealous, sheepish grin). Its great to have the GNR station switched on, singing along with the cheery, sunny music while splattering a raider's head against the back wall with a well-placed .308 round from 100 yards away. Its even better when my parents pop in for a visit and realize what kind of game I'm playing while said music is played.

As for the other music: has anyone else turned off the background music in Fallout 3? Post-apocalyptic settings shouldn't have a background soundtrack. Silence is more effective. And Inon Zur's compositions are lukewarm at best. His music failed hardcore with Fallout:Tactics (which wasn't all that great a game, and didn't mesh with the FO canon as far as I'm concerned). If they wanted quality thematic sound, Bethesda should have called Mark Morgan and had him recreate the moods from FO1 and 2.

I swear, the music for the Glow location in the first Fallout is still the creepiest piece of music I've ever heard.