Lasareno

Real-time strategy games traditionally balance the creation and maintenance of a strong economy with the build up of a large military force. Ground Control breaks from the norm by focusing solely on the strategic military aspect. Rather than focus on protecting harvesters or peons, armchair generals must turn all their energies to squad warfare -- the end product is a new experience with mixed results.

Ground Control is the galactic struggle between the Order of the New Dawn and the Crayven Corporation, the two largest entities remaining after an apocalyptic nuclear conflict dubbed "The Sixteen Minute War." Each side possesses about a dozen units for air and land combat. Instead of controlling individual units, commanders send squads of four or more soldiers or terradynes (tanks of the future) against the enemy. Each squad can be retrofitted with an assortment of gear and weapons, two to three choices per unit.

The load-out customization almost compensates for the lack of units but not quite. Units become more valuable because there are a limited number of squads available per level. Plus, they gain experience and new abilities if they survive the mission. The dearth of units per mission may be the game's downfall, though, as many of the missions simply need more firepower than is available.



MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS

• CPU Type: Pentium II
• CPU Speed: 200MHz (with 3D accelerator card), 233MHz (without 3D accelerator card)
• RAM: 32MB
• Hard Disk Space: 250MB
• Sound Card: Windows compatible
• Video RAM: 4MB