Advanced Galactic Empire (A.G.E) (1991)

The E doesn't quite work with the chunky font.

Name:A.G.E. (Advanced Galactic Empire)
Number:212
Year:1991
Publisher:Coktel Vision
Developer:Coktel Vision
Genre:FPS/Adventure
Difficulty:4/5
Time:8 hours 10 minutes
Won:Yes (88W/68L)

I had no idea what to expect when I opened up AGE. Was it going to be a space sim? Was it going to be another game like the original? Was it going to be just as audacious as the original? The only one that ended up being true was being like the original. A bit too like the original at times, if you ask me, and a bit too little like the original at others.

The big question is, is it more advanced than the original? That's a tricky thing to say. The inventory screen has been simplified and made easier to use, which isn't a bad thing, but is clearly simplified. The only shield automatically activates, you have one radar which is always on, and the equipment you use is three slots you get. Despite a rather low number of inventory items, I don't even think you get the entire inventory screen filled, I like that better, but advanced it is not.

Dialog is simplified, you just click on a NPC, and the conversation happens automatically, you get whatever, automatically, no trading. I mourn the loss of the dialog system, but not of the trading system. I don't mourn NPCs being less likely to start shooting at you, or your vehicle being incredibly fragile in general, to the point that touching an NPC could hurt you.

It's hard to describe the rest of the changes one way or another. It's faster, but that comes with the "cost" that some characters are sprites rather than 3D models. They're nice sprites, but they have basically zero animation. (Which fits with the uglier models, so neutral) The most interesting addition is choosing where your power goes, to the shields or to the weapon, but it's basically a binary choice as to if you want to shoot something or not die.

There's an exploratory missile mode, where you go over the world in some sort of missile path. Frankly, it's a bit odd, since it doesn't show you enemies, only locations, and it's not like you need that. You also get the opportunity to pick up oxygen barreling around up there. In practice, it's too fast to be easily caught and there really isn't a situation that you'll be desperate enough for oxygen to check. The various dispensers are enough.
 

I think what AGE has going for it is approachability. It lacks the cooler aspects of the original, but it's also less user hostile. It at least tries to tell you how to play, before throwing you into a world that doesn't want you dead nearly as much as the original. It's still going to try to kill you, but at least it gives you a fighting chance and some sense of fairness. The worst moments of this game do not compare to the worst of the original. In this respect you could call it dumbed down, the lows and highs are shaved off to present a more average title.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since this makes AGE come off like you always have something to do. You do in the original, but that came at the cost that one section was very easy to get stuck on. This is basically just a nice ride from start to finish. As always, that means there's never any wondering where to go, but once you've played it, there's zero reason to replay it. In theory, you could try to go through the prison without first getting the okay from the governor, but I doubt the game accounts for that.

It's also very dense, so it feels larger than it is when you're making progress, but when you have to go back, suddenly you realize you haven't gone that far. Since trips to healing stations were somewhat frequent, this isn't as bad as it sounds, and it makes the game much more denser.

The story is an oddity because the focus is both less and more on it. Outside of dedicated conversation areas, most NPCs just tell you where to go or give you stuff, but inside it's very important. (This is how I'm describing the more traditional pixel art backgrounds) Early on, it seems as though you have to figure out where things are going, only for the game to go for a shocking direction that to me, just felt like a random change, no more interesting than hearing a Foreigner song after a Cannibal Corpse song on the radio. Unusual yes, but not shocking or even something I would note if I didn't have to talk about.

That said, this aspect ties deeply into other Coktel Vision games, because while we got these kinds of backgrounds in the last game, they divided the game up. Here we get a taste of Inca, action sequences broken up by, not really adventure game sections. Adventure game sections are more a part of the actual game here. They look nice, but just serving to give us dialog is disappointingly mundane. Outside of the bar, there's basically nothing optional.

As I've said, these games were considered failures, which makes it odd that they never gave up on it, and never really learned anything about it's failure. You can clearly see the transition between the two, despite a mostly different team. Is failure in this case a hindsight view, and they believed that it could work until the company eventually gave up? I don't know, but something about this story is fishy.

From another perspective, I don't think they did anything wrong, save for going for something that technology could not yet achieve. At least here. From a playability point, I think these are the best of their action games. These are intriguing worlds and intriguing situations, and if they came out a few years later and were sprite based rather than early 3D, they'd be cult classics. These are ahead of their time in so many ways, the problem is getting over that harsh, ugly initial point.

I think that people at Coktel Vision learned the wrong lessons from these games. Inca is in many ways inferior to these games, the space sim aspect is simple and hardly an improvement over this ground combat, and the ground combat is basically a light gun game. They're not exactly great examples of either. What Inca has is a mood, it so completely defines it's vague Incan setting that no one else can ever hope to measure up to it, even if it's technically better. Whereas AGE and GE don't define intergalactic secret agents the way they do, even if it were suddenly the most beloved games around.

That said, it is hilarious to see the stark contrast between these stunning backgrounds and the utterly bland 3D.

My desire to see Galactic Empire as an adventure/RPG hybrid is less pronounced here. Sure, it'd still be the better choice, but because this one is more straight-forward, what it is is more acceptable. You'd have to build up your additional choices and paths, and while I like that, this felt good enough as is.

For the most part, I'm not sure on a lot of aspects that don't seem to be very changed, yet also seem better. The controls are mostly identical to the original, yet I never had any trouble this time. It then occurred to me that the game no longer hurts you for touching objects, and your shield doesn't slowly drain as you walk. Instead, the only thing you're racing against is your slowly draining oxygen.

Combat seems identical, but gave me less trouble, probably due to the whole power system. There are four real weapons, then grenades and land mines. Land mines are nice, since the AI is your usual braindead AI, so setting up a trap is easy. The actual weapons, meanwhile, I ended up only using the stunner until I couldn't. Higher damage means little when it costs a lot more ammo and you don't know when you can reload. I'm not even sure some there was a purpose to the fusion gun, despite someone handing it to me like it's something amazing.

I feel like the biggest loss in this game, outside of the dialog, is in the mood. No longer do I feel like a secret agent in a strange world with strange sayings, it just seems like another Galactic Empire. Perhaps in being more advanced, it loses that which made it what it is. Music is the biggest loss here, it's rare for me to not complain too much about one track throughout a game, but that added something to the game. Here, no music outside of the intro.

Weapons:
A basic motley of weapons and extras, with landmines that actually work! 3/10

Enemies:
I'm pretty sure that the difference between most enemies is in stats behind the scenes. Otherwise they all seem to move the same outside of a few endgame oddities. Slowly approach, then deal constant damage. 2/10

Non-Enemies:
Basically just story dispensers, but I like how if you screw things up, or don't want to pay tribute, you can attack some and save yourself some stuff. 3/10

Levels:
There's always something to do, but on the odd occasion you get stuck, it can be very annoying. 5/10

Player Agency:
I probably shouldn't be too generous, since even if I'm used to it, it's still a janky control scheme, but most of the crap has been removed. It's still some effort before it gets entirely reasonable though. I still think the inventory is a bit bad even if it's less crap now. 4/10

Interactivity:
Some clever puzzles, but mostly limited ability to do things, making brute force not just attractive, but easy. 5/10

Atmosphere:
The strange French atmosphere of being able to do anything, even if it doesn't make sense, is still there, but considerably less pronounced this time around. 5/10

Graphics:
The 3D is ugly, but the 2D is pretty nice. 3/10

Story:
Intriguing, but very much a case of just following what the game tells us to do, without trying to understand what's going on. No shocking revelations, no sudden twists, just victory. 3/10

Sound/Music:
Some nice sound effects, but otherwise silence. 3/10

That's 36, but I'm going to be nice and throw in 2 points to bring it to 38, one point less than it's predecessor.

None of the reviews are in English, and seem to be a range of middle of the road scores. I'm guessing that this had no appearance in America, as even the British presence is absent. Pretty disappointing, but to be expected. This game wasn't really well documented and that had to start from some point, but at the very least I'm glad I made it through.

That pretty much ends 1991 as far as FPS titles go, but we'll still be around here for a good few titles thanks to both Apogee and Epic's first FPS titles coming up. Well, in Apogee's case, again. In the meantime though, we'll see a cutesy arcade platformer and another Japanese FPS.

A.G.E: Won

I'm really sure what taking the back route from the church is going to actually accomplish as far as breaking this Saar guy out of prison, but I start off doing it anyway. I kill some wildlife, shoot another target blocking my path, and find another kind of enemy. Humanoid, some kind of mercenary. He drops a grenade.

Then I end up here, in this spinning Myst device in which I have to do...something. Oh, I just shoot four "drawbridges" to get down. Every time you want to pass it. Past this is another humanoid, but before I determine if it's friendly or hostile, I just randomly die. I guess he shot me. He's a touch little bugger, or maybe attack power determines a heck of a lot more than I'd thought. I kill him, walk past him...and die again. I guess I'm not going this way yet. Fine, frontal assault works for me.

I think to talk to the priest outside the church again. He upgrades my laser to either Laser B or A, the font in this game isn't clear. I'm going to wager B, but man, this game is going a heck of a lot faster than the original. When I walk back and see I have no path back, so I need to figure out what the problem is. A mine? An invisible laser field? This is tricky, because I don't see anything, but it pretty clearly happens at a set point. Ah, don't tell me I needed something I dropped back in town to clear up space.

I figure out that it's not something invisible, the things on the side are really faster crushers. So fast I couldn't get a shot of them moving. It's not a question of moving faster or of having a higher powered shield. Shooting it is also out of the question, as I'm operating on the assumption that anything in this game I can't destroy with two grenades simply cannot be destroyed. Which means...I have to reload. Nuts! I have one more idea before replaying an entire game session, what if I have to trick the enemy into the trap? YES!

A couple more enemies, and another type of dispenser, this one gives a medikit, basically just a portable full service. Then I find a strange item, and try to pick it up. Uh-oh, my inventory is full, so I have to drop it. Uh-oh, the game is screeching at me when I try to drop it and says my inventory is full. I know that, that's why I'm dropping it! Eventually I manage to drop it, and then walk past it so I can drop something else, only to find out it was a mine...and I just set it...and it dealt 19000 damage. Which, no matter how you slice it, kills me.

That building, oddly enough, is just decoration, most buildings in this game are.

Second time, I use up some grenades, since between a grenade and a mine, I suspect the mine is more powerful. I can afford to drag guys back towards mine. I also discover that the moving mines can be stopped, simply by hitting them with the stunner. I wonder if I'm actually going to need the Laser A at any point? My wondering stops when I encounter another inflatable barrier. There's no getting past it this time, I have to do the last session again. Sigh...That's basically the entire game outside of the tutorial. Damn it.

While on my way through the Teknos factory again, I realize that I wasn't going through the guards properly. I should have been using the Teknos pass on them. Oh, well. The Teknos factory is actually somewhat buggy, it's not clear what the hotspot to enter it is, and you can actually go through the walls. The last game gave me a deathly fear of touching anything, since that drains health, but here you can touch things without trouble. Just don't get shot. I also realize the monk on the island tells me he can't help me find my fiancee. Did the translator forget to mention my character is some kind of Valerian-style agent or am I not a secret agent at all and they just goofed?

The area past the inflatable barrier is full of enemies, five, which is a lot for this game. Meaning a trip back to a service station. I really hope that other formec isn't a straight upgrade, because I'll be a bit annoyed if that's true. After that group of enemies is another, larger group of enemies. If it sounds like I'm glossing over combat, well, there isn't much to gloss over. Moreso than other games, Galactic Empire is a lot of backing up and shooting, with added trips to a healing station because you technically can't carry that much ammo.

The mouth movements of a calm and rational governor.

I just break my way past a group of gremlins, it would take too long to fight them directly...and it's the governor's mansion. Try not to think of the geography of what I've described here and the poor relations between the church and the governor. Yeah, he confirms that Saar is in his prison. He's not on my side anymore, because I'm plotting with Massadeh to get him a bomb, I guess that's the guy who asked for the Gravtik Bomb. He tries to gas me, and then offers me a proposition I cannot refuse. He'll free Saar and give me the bomb, but he wants me to blow up Massadeh's bunker with it. Since this doesn't give him any leverage over me, he tells me his police have found my friend/fiancee. If I'm given a choice, I'm definitely not going with Konrad.

Yeah, but it feels like I had to make a deal with the devil to do it, which I suspect you wouldn't appreciate.

This takes me to inside the prison. Because I was low on supplies, I reloaded, and found out that there's a service station off the path. Since most of the area off the path is impassible, I think it's water, I didn't realize. I didn't actually need to worry about this, since after the conversation confirming that Saar is out, the both of us are sent directly to the church. It's still a good thing I recharged, because I'm sent back to the desert to get the DARC. Oh, and it's right next to the monk and his pet crabs, who are alive again and attack me. Sigh...He tells me not to trust Konrad, yeah, I know.

This doesn't mean I'm sent back, instead, the Technosector is east of the monk. Okay. It's basically the same area I was in when I first came to the island, only there's a central tower I can enter now. This is different than the usual gameplay, instead of shooting your way through, you're forced to sneak past enemies, then once you're at the obvious end, using the DARC, which is an item not a weapon, to deactivate the head robot. Now, back to Shade, where I converse with the Teknopopess, I give her the DARC, she gives me the Gravtik Bomb, off to Massadeh.

This is straight-up the coolest shot of the game.

There's a fancy animation to go along with it, and now I'm at the fortress. NPCs aren't shooting me, which is a good sign. I did only have one pass, which is used up after one passageway. Luckily, another NPC was willing to give me a pass in exchange for an air compressor. There are tents, which are traps, activate one, and an enemy pops out. I don't have a way of healing, or more importantly, recharging ammo, so I'll let them live.

Then there's a quicksand arena full of monsters which are hard to hit, so the trick here isn't to have attack at max, but shield at max. They trick you into thinking you can fight by dropping two grenades. Past a robot and another passageway, I find a service station. Whew. Now what? Toxic gas, finally, a use for the anti-gas screen; Another, faster spinning room where you shoot pillars, and then two robots, one kind of friendly, the other berzerk. The friendly one warns me about a distributor which has a questionaire, and a weapon thief.

That weapon thief? Not optional, it's some sort of machine. He takes all your weapons. Rather than work through this, I try to just make it past him. This isn't totally unworkable, with shields at maximum, I can tank most hits without any damage, the big problem is a tricky little puzzle, which only gives you optional items, which drains health on the wrong choice. It was green, I think there was supposed to be some trouble, but I couldn't make heads or tails of what the way to figure it out was. Not much point, I think. Until I reach another passageway, I don't have a third key, and the guard talks about how he isn't going to let me through until I give him a medikit, which I used back in the factory. I reload, hoping I can trick my way past the weapon thief, no dice.

Probably because the building is on fire!

Instead, I just missed a lot of stuff. There's another weapon, a spherogel, kind of crap, but I don't have anything right now, another medikit, and in an animal enclosure, the third key. I didn't even notice that, since I was just rushing on by. I also notice the creatures I'm moving past are called aliens. That's a bit non-descriptive, don't you think? Aha, the final building...and I shouldn't have entered that, it's set me on fire. The one freaking time they play with internal temperature, it's to set me on fire.

The answer is, either you keep the earlier medikit, or you just kill the guy who demands one. Next, Saar astrally projects to tell us there are mines in the next area. Mines in this game would be a lot harder if I couldn't disable them easily. There's another pass in the maze, and after is a service station. Finally. This leads to a section which wouldn't be notable, except I get to use the mine on a robot guard, and I pick up a "teleport magnet", whatever that is.

This is by far the most annoying puzzle in the game.

This leads into something tricky. Two crushers, one after another. It takes many attempts, many views of the game over messages which do not particularly help the view that the French are cowards, but eventually I figure out that you're probably supposed to be walking behind the crushers with the teleport magnet activated. Probably. Saying this game still has issues with collision is understating things. Eventually, what I actually figure out is that you're supposed to bait out the crushers, back up, then shoot them with the spherogel. That's...better. You can't do it while it's stationary, because that would be too easy. I'm not really sure this is the answer either, the game still feels like it's breaking.

More robots, another pillar thing, which is slowly but surely draining my ammo reserves. The spherogel is not a weapon which conserves ammo. At this point, the game tries to trick me by throwing a monster disguised as my friend/fiancee at me. Fortunately, there are plenty of mines around to make up for the ones I've used. Over some water, where something is shooting at me...

...and now for a stretch before a spaceship. Other spaceships are shooting at me. Bizarre. This is the final stretch. The big problem aren't the ships, they attack once and fly away, instead, the guards have some kind of super cannon which shreds my shields. Some clever placement of mines, and a few tries, and I'm through. Next, I have to activate the Gravitik Bomb on the ship. This takes me a while to figure out, you drop it under the center section.

So here's a nice picture and five lines of text.

The game ends, and you get a series of text crawls saying that Dale is back on the ship, Konrad will remain governor, and I've been promoted to Major. I would have expected if I had a choice that Konrad would have been the worse option, but the choice is out of my hands. It's a bit disappointing, frankly, getting just an ending about the inevitability of corruption.

This Session: 4 hours 30 minutes

Final Time: 8 hours 10 minutes

A.G.E: Monster Hunter

With the key I found earlier, and the key I got from the alien inside the bar, I now have two keys. I don't remember which is which, Tecnos is probably the new one. It does present an interesting problem if keys don't disappear. The whole thing turns out to be moot, because the game turns out to display the symbols on the gate. It's never occurred to me, but that's better than the color system.

I explore elsewhere first, because the factory is the next location and I need to find some restorative place. Instead I find a place I can deposit my weapons. I can't imagine I'll ever need this, but okay. Then I find out there's a prison, with a guard in front of it, another combat and survival dose, and then another guard tells me about express service. Nothing I didn't figure out last time, it's fast travel, but I need a TK from the administrator. This is actually playing out a lot like Strife will a few years from now. I wonder if they played this?

More complex than Resident Evil, not that complex, but it's early days.

As I examine the express service, I back up and something talks to me. Only one triangle is the TK? So this is some weird puzzle. Guess which triangles are telling the truth and which are telling lies to figure out which one has the TK I need. I didn't think it was possible, but Coktel Vision got weirder than Inca. This also seems confusing, clicking has the triangle talk to me, how do I pick one up? I get distracted by my Formec running out of oxygen and while trying to find a station rather than using my held items, die.

The actual puzzle.

Straight down the road from the above leads to a guard who gives you an audience card, which seems to allow this to show up, which is the opposite view of the above. Thus this is the administrator? The green triangle says it has the TK, the white triangle says the TK is elsewhere, the blue says the white one is correct. Now I didn't quite figure this out at first, because the hint that only one triangle is lying just registered in my mind that some are lying and some are truthful and I got confused. That said, I really should have figured that the red one wasn't right. The correct answer of course, is the blue one.

The express service, which I now realize means an express service teleporter, like a train, does things somewhat cleverly and somewhat annoyingly, depending on what you have in your inventory you can select a multiple amount of destinations, in this case, to the administrator's office. The game loads here.

I didn't realize this at the time, but this is the ruler of the planet.

So this weird sphere is the governor, who knows I'm an imperial agent. I don't actually know if I'm supposed to have cover, but in a different game I would be very worried if my cover was this blown. He basically tells me everything has gone to hell, there wouldn't be a game otherwise. Interestingly, he tells me not to contact the General, he's plotting against him. He has his police looking out for my friend. I would question if I should trust him, but the last game went nowhere near where I was suspecting it would, this could go anywhere.

More importantly, this actually changes the context of the Galactic Empire duology. Before it seemed like a weird Coktel Vision game series that didn't sell as well as they hoped, and now it seems like a series they genuinely believed in and continued the same vein with Inca. With this one, it no longer feels like that oddity, it feels like an integral part of, at least Coktel Vision's adventure game history.

Now to go to that factory. The game continues to be generous, I get what I'm just going to call night vision. I'm not liking how everything has to be in the use slot though. (Shields work automatically, which is the one good thing) It just turns the screen green. After another turret, I spot this android lady. She just asks if I have a pass, I say yes and she lets me through. Guess I do. Another guy, one of the weird-looking ones, upgrades my laser. I didn't realize that Laser E referred to its grade, now it's a Laser D. I wonder if that's an indication of how long the game will last?

There's another android lady who asks the same thing. I get past her, but after her she starts shooting at me. Guess she wasn't fooled. I blast her, use my items to restore health, and then ponder how to get past the blockage. I guess I should just shoot this thing. And it works. After this, I find out my restorative efforts were wasted, there's a healing station and a teleport just past here.

Past this is the factory, guarded not by a Tecnos, he just lets me in, but by two crabs who can't be hurt. "I had to use grenades to kill a crab" is not a sentence I was expecting to say on this blog, and for all I know they do nothing, because I'm not wasting grenades on them, I can run past them. Only I can't, because I don't actually know how to open the door. Aha, I realize, I can crank up my weapon power. Now how do I get in? Just a lucky click.

It's another interior screen. Talking to the person, not robot, on the left here, tells me that the robots have taken over here, and I'm guessing I don't want to talk to them. They're making the people work like animals! So I have to play a game of which person is...a person. Or not, a screen pops down. It's Karin Gestalt, Teknopopesse. Translated from French, Teknopopess. No, I have no idea who it is, she just appeared. I wish this game had the nice dossier that the original had. She'll give me a Gravitik Bomb in exchange for fixing the robots for them. Since she has the lofty title of Teknopopess, I'm guessing fix means blast. No, just bring them the DARC (Anti-Robot weapon, I forget what that actually stands for) from Saar Soufi. As soon as I get it, I'll go to Tekno City, anyway, I now have a fusion gun.

Apparently, Imperial Agent is tattooed on my forehead.

I don't have any other location to go, so I return to the bar. That's right, it seems. Man, this setting is wasted on what this game actually is. They know I'm an imperial envoy, man, I have no cover story, everyone just knows I'm an imperial agent. He's a Teknos and doesn't actually have any information for me. The woman is Mother Lio a member of the local church, the Rachnou, I forget the exact game. She gives me a pass for her church, where the DARC is.

So I go back to the various express stations. There isn't anything that corresponds to the church in any. Then I spot a garage for formecs, where I can change formecs for some reason. There's no sign I'll need it yet. Past that, however, is a tunnel that the new key I got opens. I meet a church member, who tells me to watch out for the mine, Konrad, the local despot put it there. I'm thinking that it's a safe bet that I'm not going to be friends with Konrad at the end of this. Fortunately, I can shoot that, unfortunately the flying octopi after it are less killable, and the path back has been removed. I have also run out of inventory space, in the sense that the game won't let me pick up anything more, not that I'm out of spaces.

Another interior scene. We get a nice animation before we see a priest through a long range communication device. They're willing to give me the DARC, but the priest who had it, Saar is missing. Instead, I have to find a hermit, on his island in the desert where he and his pet octopi live. (That must be a language quirk that didn't translate properly) I foresee this is going to end poorly.

NOT A SKUNNY GAME!

I'm brought to the island via a map...

And now I'm here. This is an extremely dangerous situation to be in, because I have practically no way of restoring my meters here. I'm just running off supplies, which is a dangerous game to play. The game has a grenade dispenser nearby, which I take advantage of, because I don't have the firepower to deal with anything else. I meet a person who tells me to find the hermit in the desert with a tracer he's given me.

This guy's a hunchback who immediately attacks me.

The area is far more open than the endless pathways that made up Shade, but it's not that much more open. You get a big central area with one pathway leading into the smaller central area. Once you talk to a priest you get the pathway to another big area that works the same way. There's no service station, so I'm fearful of running out of something.

This fear, while not unwarranted, is not entirely correct, soon enough I start finding restorative items and now the game becomes a question of juggling this all. I haven't dropped anything outside of empty restoratives just yet, a major problem. And it's at this point that I accidentally drive into a river and die. Because I spotted the hermit on the radar. Well, I can fix this...sort of. The weapon I can drop off, items that aren't important right now I can place where they are important. It turns out I don't even need the cards for travel, they're just for some doors.

The second time around I notice that my oxygen sure is dropping fast. I reach the hermit and find out why, the damn aliens are draining my oxygen with their attacks, and there are no visible sources. Worse, the hermit is as foretold, surrounded by octopi, and grenades don't seem to work. Nor does the stunner or the laser C I somehow acquired. Apparently Jeremy Clarkson had a hand in this game, because the answer is always more power. At least when I finally get rid of the hostiles, Monh the hermit is friendly, but doesn't have the DARC. He does tell me that Konrad, the despot, probably kidnapped Saar and I already met him, he's the governor. When I go back, the priests tell me that I should break him out of prison.

Before I end, I just want to note that just past the church I found another service station, curse my luck and another thing that seems to require a decompressor. Still, at least I'll be able to kill those octopi floating around, but it looks like I'll actually need to grab some of those floating oxygen items, since I used my last one surviving the desert island. Gah...

Further observations, I should really be paying more attention to names, because I didn't realize that despot/governor/ruler Konrad were all referring to the same person.

This Session: 2 hours

Total Time: 3 hours 40 minutes

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