Exploration

EXPLORATION . . . SINK OR SAIL?

A Review of Exploration

Ever wish you were born in the era of the great world explorers such as

Christopher Columbus or Vasco de Gama? Perhaps you yearn for the excitement

of discovering lands never before seen by any known man. Or then again, maybe

you would like the challenge of conquering these lands for your home country

and church. If so, then you might also be interested in a new game called,

Exploration, from Interactive Magic.

Exploration attempts to combine features such as trading, exploration, war,

and economics into a strategy simulation. Players have the choice of playing

against one to four computer opponents or a multiplayer option that allows a

total of four players to compete against each other. Basically, the main goal

of this game, as is in most strategy games, is to conquer your enemies, or at

least, do better than them. In Exploration, this is accomplished by exploring

the world with sailing vessels; finding other neutral civilizations and

either conquering or befriending them; and developing a good economic base by

trading with these new alliances. War is also another option, but greatly

reduces your meager assets, so should be avoided.

The major factor that determines either success or failure is money. Run out

of it, and you’re finished. Early on, you must develop an income. This is

done by settling a colony or two, having them build either plantations or

mines (mines are very expensive, but provide much more money down the road),

and then establishing a trade route from these colonies back to your home

port. Once you have some money coming in, more ships are definitely in order.

As time passes, more advanced ships will become available. With more ships,

more trade routes may be established resulting in a greater cash flow. Along

with the trade routes, exploration must not be neglected. Having at least one

ship just exploring and forming expeditions would be wise. Expeditions are

small groups of men you drop off on an unknown piece of land for them to

explore. They have the ability to either conquer or befriend the natives they

discover. Certain random factors must also be dealt with; disease,

starvation, fires, and war. These could be either minor or major setbacks.

Installation from the CD resulted in no problems. Exploration runs from DOS,

not windows. Once the game is running, you are given the choice of

controlling one of five different world-famous explorers. The game is driven

by menu commands which are accessible by clicking on them with the mouse. All

menus are at the top of the screen. I found that the way which these commands

were structured was clumsy and not very logical. Many times I wanted to

select something but first had to go through several other screens to do so.

Also, I feel that some commands should have been accessible by just clicking

on a certain ship instead of pulling down several menus and selecting that

ship from a list. As far as the graphics go, I was really disappointed. The

graphics are blocky and simple. Even the few “animations” in the game are

nothing more than simple pictures with a few moving parts. The sound followed

suit as well. More than beeps and buzzes, but nothing compared to what I

would consider the “norm” of today. Being this a beta version released for

review, I was given no rule book or other documentation save for a few playing

tips, so I cannot say what the rule book will be like. Also, save your game

often. I had the program lock up on me a few times. In Exploration’s defense

though, I must say its replay value is high. Each new game generates an

entirely new map with everything randomly scattered.

Honestly, folks, the game seems like it was designed three to five years ago

and slapped on a CD to make it seem “new”. Don’t be fooled; the quality of

games today are much higher than this. Only the most seasoned strategy gamers

might find some entertainment with Exploration. As for the rest of us, let’s

save our money.

Copyright © 1995 Michael Wincek for infoMedia. All rights reserved worldwide.