Anthelion - The Galactic Alliance Review

November 12, 2003 | | format - Other (ar.) | viewed - 98x
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(33 votes) | category - -

Anthelion - The Galactic Alliance Review

>The game

Anthelion – The Galactic Alliance is a space combat game viewed from a 3D first person perspective. Based on a mobile space station in the year of 3047, you are a Bedouin Pirate (with the broadest of Cornish accents), who must live by his wits, abilities and skills to survive in a hostile galaxy (of course being an ace fighter-pilot also helps :-).

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The Anthelion galaxy is occupied by three main parties;

the alien Locusts.

the 'peace keeping' Federation.

the profit seeking Bedouin Pirates.

The Federation and Locusts have been 'slugging it out' in space battles for many years, while the Bedouin Pirates have a poor reputation with both, as the Locusts and the Federation view the Bedouin Pirates as being opportunists who are not adverse to making a quick profit at the expense of others.

It is this opportunist nature of the Bedouin Pirates in Anthelions 'dog eat dog' galaxy that will propel you into a range of extremely dangerous and chaotic adventures.

The game play

The game play follows the normal conventions of most space combat games, generally speaking figure out who's on your side - annihilate the rest. Be prepared though, to rethink your star ship strategies as the game play does vary significantly between steaming in with all guns blazing and using hit and run manoeuvres, as some levels are fiendishly fickle' especially in the beginning, but perseverance and luck does pay off.

Each mission is briefed in prior to starting the next level with updates as you progress, which are essential to completing the various mission objectives.

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The ships all essentially have the same controls (that's the way there built in the 31st centenary) although the controls can take a bit of getting used to at first for a novice space fighter, the more battle hardened space pilots will quickly become accustomed to the movement and controls.

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With five difficulty rankings, Anthelion provides for a wide range of abilities. But even on easy settings don't expect a smooth ride as a couple of the early missions can be VERY challenging, once past these though the full action really starts to flow.

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Anthelion’s variety is quite broad with the missions requiring the pilot to think as well as fight, a particular mission may require you to only incapacitate a ship in order to retrieve information or equipment rather than destroy it or to not engage any ships at all but instead perform a stealth mission as you try to blend in to the battle scene.

It's possible to immerse yourself in the game by taking advantage of the space stations message system (Which is entirely passive) or for the adrenalin junkies the messaging system can be by passed by going straight from mission to mission.

If you do happen to lose a ship during a mission, getting back in to the action is a breeze by just pressing the 'restart mission' option. You'll always start off from the most recent missions beginning, but at least you don't have to wait ages for splash screens and other intermediates to load. On completion of a mission, each level is automatically saved and can be accessed again at any point on the same or higher difficulty ranking

The Graphics

A major plus with Anthelion is the graphics as the firefly game engine keeps things ticking along at a high rate even with 15+ ships battling away the game never showed any signs of slowing down, even when up close and personal (on an Ipaq 3970). The in game cut scenes are minimalist and leave something to be desired, but with Anthelion weighing in at a 5mg download and the inevitable port to a palm device it's a reasonable compromise.

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The Sound

The soundtrack has a thumping military rhythm that is generally unobtrusive and the sound effects are quite pleasing with satisfying laser screeches, whooshing missiles/rockets, an engaging acceleration sound when 'jumping' to your next missions destination and devastating explosions, Which are very befitting for such a game and compliment Anthelion very well.

The Controls

The control settings are selected from the main screen and presents the option to configure the directional and weapon controls of your ship in Anthelion to the hardware buttons of your device, which is a plus for right or left handed play. The ability to choose whether you’d like the ship to move side to side or ‘bank/roll’ and the option to inverse the controls is a great idea allowing a choice between an arcade or flight sim feel. A combination of d-pad/buttons, stylus or both is available with feed back from the control system being very positive and responsive. A software button is provided on the 'dashboard' of your ship identifiable as 'AF' for auto fire, press the fire button once, and the weapon bays continues to fire until either empty or the fire button is pressed a second time, potentially saving wear 'n' tear on hardware buttons.

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The Options

The settings screen (available from the main) provides the option to configure the game to your device by adjusting the lighting and in game detail controls. If you find the game running slightly slowly (hard to imagine) you can choose to switch off the back ground nebulas, the engine trails left by other ships or to reduce the detail resolution of the ships. Of course this would affect the overall quality of the graphics, but if speed is your thing – then needs, must.

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Installation

Installation is by the normal ActiveSync method from your Pocket PC to your desktop or laptop PC, and only takes approximately 5.2 megabytes of storage. If you choose to install to a storage card (SD or CF) the performance continues to run extremely smoothly.