Universe v1.0



Creator: Fernando Dominguez Sarmiento / nuF FREE Fun


Nine megabytes. That's a lot of space for a freeware game to take up, but this game manages it. Perhaps it's the classy high-colour game screens done with a 3d graphics program. Maybe it's the superb 3d object animations, or the spaceship .avi clips. Anyway, a person downloading a strategy game of this size could reasonably expect to be playing it for some time to come.
Universe 1.0 concentrates on the trading of planets you've either purchased or built yourself, and presumably the eventual accumulation of wealth or power through this. The planet building menus are complex, allowing you to configure every little detail of your proposed planet before you see how much it's going to cost you. Options include the presence and abundance of the Protista and Monera Kingdoms, the details of atmospheric composition and whether or not you'd like the Greenhouse Effect.

Come on. Just one dollar? Other parts of the game involve buying space terrain and transport ships, although I can see no use for either of these. The aim of the game was also unclear, as when you load it you are landed straight at the main menu without a hint of what to do. As with 'The Ultimate Pong', a game by the same author, choosing the help option did nothing but there was an text file included with the game. Unfortunately it was very basic and only explained what each menu button was for.

Universe 1.0 would have merely required some figuring out before it became enjoyable and addictive, were it not for the many programming errors. If you purchase a planet on the 'buy planet' menu, leave the menu then go back to it, you will find the planet is still for sale and not in your possession. If you create a ridiculous planet (e.g. one comprised entirely of rock and nothing else) and try to sell it, you will find nobody wants to buy it. You can still enter '99999999..' into the price box and click 'Sell Planet' anyway, and you'll end up richer by the price you entered. The saving and loading feature sometimes injects many planets into your saved game, allowing you to sell them for somewhere in the region of $9999999999. Even creating a planet is a bit dodgy - build a planet you believe should be very desirable and if you're lucky one company will want it. If you're luckier still, the company that claims to be interested will actually BUY the planet, even for one dollar. Sometimes, planets will vanish without trace from all your menus, even when you didn't sell them. Some buttons and options appear to be purely for decoration. Changing from one screen to another is also a risk, since the game causes many invalid page faults and Windows shuts it down.
This game has excellent potential, but there are many faults to be dealt with before it is actually much use.

Addendum: nuF FREE Fun have revised Universe and released version 1.1, which apparently has fixed bugs. Version 1.1 is available from softwarezone, but this review and rating refer to version 1.0.

Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 4/10
Presentation: 5/10
Playability: 2/10

My rating: 5/10


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