Advanced Galactic Empire (A.G.E.): Introduction

The existence of the game perplexes me. While I liked the original Galactic Empire, it was unique in such a way that didn't really get that much popularity at the time or now. Following that up with a perplexingly named sequel seems odd. While I'm sure that there are bits of it that are more advanced than the original, it seems to be just another game like the original.

This time, the player is a top member of Sersec (the Imperial Secret Service, no doubt the same as in the last game) who is sent to Kaiser, in the Methik system. Methik is independent, but very corrupt. The despot, Konrad Lanasi skims everything for himself. His enemies are all divided. The Techno Lodge has internal problems; The Rachnouist Church is the main religion here, and is currently being persecuted; Allegedly the general of the army, Massadeh, is planning a coup.

What the player is supposed to do is a mystery, but we know that the imperial embassy is about to open on the capital, Shade, and our colleague and friend, Dale, is going to meet us there. That's the backstory. The game is much the same as most Coktel Vision games around this time, various languages to select, sound card, and their code system, assuming it wasn't cracked. Also, a demo function I didn't test out.

The game itself opens up with a weird cutscene featuring a bunch of computer stuff flying through the air before a Tomahawk hits the screen. Ah, yes, Tomahawk, Coktel Vision's label for dividing their games up. I forget if Tomahawk is supposed to be the family friendly games or not. Then there's a real intro showing two groups of ships, seemingly about to fight, only to just be movement and then the title screen and a remix of the original's music.

Frankly, a DM-styled game would be a lot cooler and mean these awesome pixel artists wouldn't be wasted.

There's a menu before dropping yourself in the game. Guided tour, which I would have assumed would show me a demo, but instead explains everything. This is actually very helpful, if you didn't play the original. It even shows you most of the weapons, which is nicely done, well-animated. I question the reason why these were made, since frankly it just makes me wish this was done Dungeon Master-style. In addition you get nice but useless maps of towns and the nearby areas, as well as space. After doing all this, the game automatically starts.

Where the game differs from the original is a mystery to me, because it's nearly exactly the same as the original game as far as controls go so far, and basically everything seems to be the same. As far as technological advancement is concerned, it looks nicer and it runs smoother, but nothing else. I daresay Beginner's Galactic Empire is the better word for it, since there's a tutorial here. When I was searching for the intro, someone apparently gave up on it, so that clearly worked in Nedelec's favor. (But again, you try searching for Galactic Empire anywhere without getting a bunch of unrelated crap)

As usual for science fiction, this game predicted the future, because the tutorial brings to mind the very annoying trend of making computers do cutesy, "funny", information or error messages to ensure normies don't think their iPhone is going to kill them in the middle of the night or whatever it is that made people soil themselves in terror before AI suddenly reared its head. (Or whatever made people make error messages cutesy, all I know is I find it annoying) My AI companion helpfully informs me that this is the city of Shade, capital of Kaiser. There are many enemies and friends here!

What the game doesn't mention is that you have to right click to activate mouse mode, then left click on the item. Two lines of text.

Okay, not that helpful a tutorial, because it just says "pick up the weapon" as if that was obvious. I forgot the method of switching to the semi-decent controls, right click, which frees up the mouse to act like a mouse while the keyboard can do things like move and look. It's not quite traditional, 4 and 6 on the numpad to turn, - & + to move. It's a laser, which gives me slight pause. There are sprites in the game world, which shouldn't be a source of praise, but come on, a good sprite beats out most early 3D models any day.

It's a good thing the game told me, for all I know he could be a valuable member of the Galactic Empire.

Ah, I see I'm using it right away. To shoot, as I hope you either remember or went back and checked, you click on the object, then on the target. The ugly beast, as my AI companion says, dies quickly, but explodes, causing almost no damage. Two very interesting things, exploding enemies, which is early for that sort of thing, and screen effects, always nice. Always.

I wonder if game developers were in a competition around this time to get players to associate good things with stranger and stranger objects.

Next up is a medibloc, which my little buddy helpfully tells me about and heals my minor damage, but doesn't seem to recharge energy. Guess that's a different device...or I just don't have any perceptible change in this regard, because I'm told it healed everything. "For express service use a TK". Checking the manual tells me nothing, except that I might actually fly for once. Incidentally, the radar, which is much improved, has sentients in blue, animals in green.

At this point, the game tells me that oxygen has popped up because I can now activate missile mode to get it. From the manual, you press F2 to activate it. This is some sort of exploratory missile you control remotely. It's sort of like flying, except you're on an entirely level playing field, just in the air. I guess I'm supposed to crash into the oxygen, except it's faster than me and I can't quite predict the path they're going on, and I can't stop to do so. I hope that doesn't turn out to be of vital importance.

Oh, animal gas, guess I won't have to worry about skunks. ;)

Next up, shopping. The game tells me to pick up an object next to the merchant before talking to him. It's an anti-gaz screen, anti-gas. Not sure what weapons in this game will be gas, possibly animals. Okay, now to talk to the merchant and...oh...it's not the clever dialog system, it's just automatic. I understand that in theory, it was really easy to end up with a merchant who told you to go stuff yourself with the robots and then open fire, but man, that was cool. In fact, the item I picked up was what he sold, and my account was automatically credited. No item bartering or anything. That does make things easier for me when I inevitably go shooting everything.

The blue and red bars at the bottom determine the power towards weapons/shields. Up top, blue, oxygen, red, ammo, green, shield.

As I go forward, I notice the surprisingly dark sun is lowering in the sky. Interesting. Sleeping Gods Lie had day and night cycles, but unlike that game, this works in all versions. More shooting, seems like there's no way to avoid exploding enemies, which makes it less clever and more annoying. Then an automatic laser turret, at which point the game tells me to reinforce my armor. In this game you have the ability to increase power to your weapons at expense of armor and vice versa. Even without enemies exploding, my range is so short that going to far in offense is pointless.

Despite the nice sprites, they function no differently than decorative ones, I.E., no turnaround sprites.

I cross a weird bridge. Now there's a Tecnos, who gives me a decompressor. Why? No idea, but since this is Coktel Vision, it will probably be important later. He also warns me about the shark-lions. They're more wildlife, nice-looking but not a threat if I spot them ahead of time. Quite a few in fact.

Then there's this thing. It's an animal, apparently, and it takes a considerable amount of shots, so much that I'm out. Guess I better...

...die. That's an unfortunate situation. That's also a change, because I don't remember that happening in the original. Did I do something wrong? No idea, because that guy is actually sentient and always attacks. Running out of ammo definitely causes you to die which is, again, unfortunate. Wait, I picked up a grenade somewhere. Well, that kills him, but there's not much point since I managed to run past him anyway.

Here I find a combat dose, read, ammo recharge. I'm guessing that's a French turn of phrase that doesn't translate into English. There's a guard after this, hostile, hope that isn't a bad sign, and then...

The weird faces seem intentional, possibly to make up for the loss of the dialog system.

...Why, who's this? How intriguing. He gives me a Stunner. Aw, yeah! Now we're cooking. This is a more accurate representation of a less-than-lethal weapon, it hurts, but it requires more shots, only in this game that doesn't matter. Curiously, it's another "I'll debit your account" thing, so the game has just completely removed the barter system. Behind him is an oxygen module or whatever the name is. It gives me oxygen. After killing another sentient guard, I find a survival dose. No longer does the shield drain when moving and regenerate automatically, this restores it. It is curious that the systems I kind of liked are being removed and I still have to rely on items to restore my health.

After this is an inflatable barrier. I shoot it, expecting it to pop, but no dice. I go back, thinking I missed something until I remember, hey, I have a decompressor. So it's a puzzle. A more proper puzzle compared to the last game. Then after this is a simple key and lock puzzle, with the key being held by another robot guard. Guess I was mistaken about everything outside of dialog. At least the robots are easier than in the original.

The Centurions Bar, as I approach I can enter. This isn't like the original, for there are interior scenes. Makes me wish they just made it into an adventure game to begin with. It's very indicative of the direction Coktel's adventure games had, except you can only interact with people and it's all about what they say. Okay, you can turn the TV on and off.

Dale isn't here, in her place is a man. She's been taken and the alien in the middle knows more. Not the alien to his left, my right, the one looking at me. He'll tell me where she is, but I need to bring him a Gravatik grenade. At this point I try to leave. Nothing happens. There are a couple of unnecessary aliens, and the lady is a reference to another Coktel Vision game, but I can't do anything until I try the man again. He gives me a pass to a factory, which is where I'll go next time.

So far the game has been interesting. I don't know where this is going, because by all rights someone replacing my contact is such a big red flag I should be on the first starship back to the core empire. It's been improved in nearly every way except the controls being the same and the removal of the dialog system, but despite that I think the changes have been for the better. Combat is actually fun now if simple.

Side note, there's (more) limited inventory space now, but in general this system works a lot better. You get three on-screen items and a bunch of inventory space. You can only use one at a time, from weapons to shields, with the other two being quick change. Picking up an item requires you to place it in one of the two quick change slots, as you can't open the inventory with an item in your hand.

This Session: 1 hour 40 minutes