Game 31: Midwinter

Name:Midwinter
Number:31
Year:1990
Publisher:Microprose
Developer:Maelstorm
Genre:FPS (?)
Difficulty:4/5
Time: 16 hours

I was first aware of Midwinter as a child, my parents had a couple old Microprose games, complete in box, back when that didn't really mean anything. Midwinter was some small advertisement in a catalog of a soon-to-be dead company. There wasn't much, beyond a strange description of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It sounded interesting, but ultimately of no consequence. Every time I vaguely heard of the game since then, it was with a subtle, "Oh, yeah, I remember that."

Midwinter is interesting. Not good. Not bad. Interesting. There's a lot of little things, some I think I take for granted, that made it feel really high quality. But that was offset by key gameplay parts that were just bad. Nothing that ever outweighed the good or made me wish I was playing something else, but just enough that I have that nagging feeling in my head. Its like Sid Meier's Pirates! and Covert Action in that its a bunch of tiny sections making up a whole, but unlike those, the action sections aren't very good.

The amount of enemies is every bit as difficult as it sounds.

The backstory is very long, almost like a novel. Its okay. It explains how the game got to this point. A meteor hit the Earth, causing a new ice age, and Midwinter is some island that was submerged and then surfaced after some time. A group of people go out to it, because the land they're currently in is pretty bad. They discover some more people there, and they build up a community. Refugees come in, some good, some bad. Eventually there's a dictatorship in the southeast, while the rest are the Free Villages. The game begins with General Masters, the bad guy, starting to invade the Free Villages. What there isn't an explanation for, is who General Masters is, beyond some disgruntled Englishman. He's just some random refugee in the backstory.

If you're lucky, this is what happens when you ask someone to join.

There are two different parts to the game, the strategy section, where you see how your characters are doing and have them do things in towns. The idea of different stats for each character is clever, but changed little in my opinion. There was surprisingly little difference in shooting abilities, and it didn't matter how hard your character was breathing when the enemy vehicles were driving around like a maniac player. I had maybe three different vehicle kills with a gun. The only real difference was in endurance and skiing. Vehicle driving didn't seem different, and hanggliding was too rare to be noticeable.

Shooting these down is about as fun as simulating a papercut.

In towns, there's a bit to do. You have areas that give ammo/bombs, fuel, vehicles and food. None of that really matters since the optimal strategy is to blow everything up that the enemy can capture. There is no protecting these towns, short of a miracle in vehicle combat.

Cable Cars offer a brief respite from enemies and driving.

The action section has three parts. But first, loading times, I only mention because they're basically a non-entity. Its like Morrowind, the loading times happen so they can load the rest of the island. Might be as big as Morrowind too.

A rare finding, actually hitting someone dead on.

Your modes of transportation are skiing, snowbuggies, and hanggliding. These are all difficult in different ways. You are going to feel put upon in some way.

Towns being captured is rarely interesting

Skiing is a joy, even if you're playing as a fat Welshman instead of a ski instructor. I didn't realize how much I wanted a first person skiing game until now. A lot of good effort went into this and there's nothing like the feeling of going down a hill after spending too much time climbing it. My only complaints are that its a pain to cross not so bumpy territory, and shooting is bad. You can only shoot when your stopped and the PC breathe. As I mentioned, enemies are insane in their driving skills, add the view bobbing like crazy and you have a recipe for failure. There are grenades, but you have to get close to do that. Fighting is not fun. Fleeing isn't fun either. The enemy's missiles follow you, and they are faster than a skiier. You've got to turn like mad and hope you don't suddenly stop.

Snowbuggies are okay. They're basically snowcars. There's three kinds, with different speeds, passenger capacity, and firepower. In practice, I found I never really cared too much. I never ran out of missiles, and I usually only had two people in at once. But these are vital to the game, without it, most of your characters are just sitting around, waiting to get run over. Fighting enemies is possible, but requires a great deal of practice. Fighting a complete enemy unit, which is around 100 vehicles, good luck with that.

Character backstorys are a fun stop from the grind of the game.

Hanggliders are basically a quick burst of speed atop a mountain. They're at most cable cars. You just sort of glide around, hoping you hit one of the odd updraughts. They're equipped with air-to-air missiles, useless against ground targets. Its not very effective at long distance transportation.

It looks like I'm about to hit him, but looks can be deceiving.

At this point, you run around in a mad dash, hoping to stop Masters before he takes all the heatmines, the only source of power here. While fighting in a direct confrontation is very difficult, you can find ways around that. See, the game takes into account how well equipped the enemy is, with it being a plot point that they're not in great shape. By blowing up every equipment plant, warehouse and anything else the enemy can capture, you make their advance slower. The practical advantage to this is you slow their advance before the guy you sent into the southeast blows up the enemy's HQ, but if you're feeling confident, you can try to wait the enemy out for 40 days. That causes his remaining forces to rebel.

This actually hit, which should tell you about combat here

Fighting against these enemies is not particularly fun. All of the enemy's forces are vehicles, mostly snowbuggies, with some drones, some bombing, some sighting for mortars. You can toggle off the aircraft, they increase the difficulty quite a bit. The game offers a kind of radar where you can hear which direction the enemy is in. This works...to a point. At one point, I was seriously trying to fight off the enemy, and half the time, the area they were supposed to be didn't have them. The AI doesn't screw around, as they move like a player would, erratically, hoping to not get hit. Supposedly there's a commander around these enemy units, but I've never seen 'em. It doesn't help that enemies attack you one at a time.

Weapons:
These depend on how your moving around, with the sniper and grenade being delegated to skiing, and missiles of various types delegated to driving/flying. There's not really much fun to be had in the act of using them. 1/10

Enemies:
They were all basically the same. There's more variety in types than I mention, but they're basically unnoticeable. 1/10

Non-Enemies:
There's not really any as such. Any characters not controlled by the enemy are eventually controllable by the player. 0/10

Levels:
Despite not having much to it, I really like the island. It feels like an island. An island I'd like to explore. 4/10

Player Agency:
Its clear that despite its failures, a good chunk of effort was put forth here. Little things make it fun, big things don't. I want a skiing game made in this engine, and I'm never getting it. 6/10

Interactivity:
I am reluctant to give points here, as the only interactions are in the strategy sections. Most of which are simple strategy game actions. 3/10

Atmosphere:
Despite doing little to actually produce an atmosphere, the game does a good job of feeling like you're in a really cold environment, desperately trying to stop an evil enemy from taking over the free areas. 6/10

Graphics:
The pixel art has a few issues with it, leaning toward gruff-looking dudes. I like the simple terrain, but whenever a vehicle or tree or building comes on screen, it becomes obvious how bad the 3D is. Terrain far away fades into white, a fitting use of a now obvious limitation. 3/10

Story:
Despite the amount of backstory, little comes up in the game. Despite the much hyped relationship between characters, its not much deeper than a generic action game. 1/10

Sound/Music:
A lot of nice sound effects for the era. Different levels of speed, for each vehicle. The only thing I didn't feel was satisfactory was the sound for enemy vehicles. They always came off as more confusing than helpful. 3/10

That is 28 points. Below Spear of Destiny and above Catacomb 3D. I actually still suggest it despite the relatively low score. Its off the wall and most of its appeal isn't in the shooting aspect. Especially if you like other simulation/strategy/RP games like Pirates, Covert Action and Sword of the Samurai, although I would put this in an inferior category to those. Come to think of it, Covert Action applies as a shooter by my logic...oh, good, another game to add to the not win column. But enough about that.
This game is almost universally praised. In the past it was much loved by those who played it, and today its called a hidden gem by everyone who's heard of it. Its curious as to how outside of this praise there is very little in the ways of casual discussion on the game. Curiously, this consists of nearly no Youtubers. I guess nobody wants to upload something with the early 3D look. Its even gone as far as to be included in the 1001 Games You Must Play Before You Die book. Now, while I do agree that it was a good game, and certainly a hidden gem, but it isn't that good. Part of this game is action, and the action part isn't the best. Vehicle combat is tricky at best and seriously off-the-wall at worst. I'm not going to repeat about what I've said about other kinds of combat.
Next time...its getting moved up a bit, but Catacomb Apocalypse, the sequel to Catacomb Abyss. Does it live up to its predecessor? I don't know, I haven't played it, but I need something that isn't untextured polygons for a while.

Midwinter: The Final Countdown

This is it, one way or another this is ending here. General Masters will be defeated, or he will be victorious. His HQ is just right there, southeast central. Unhidden, near a mountain. Stark is the only one near him, and he is still quite a ways away. Kristiansen is realistically the second best option in reaching there before his victory is assured. The rest are currently too scattered and too far away to reach him in a reasonable time. The following takes place of 6 in-game hours, and a little something extra.

Stark's journey begins by backtracking to the cable car, where he does not find a hangglider. Fortunately he is unmolested on his ski down to a garage southeast of him. The drive southeast around the mountain, however, brings a great deal of stress. But, as it turns out, putting the pedal to the metal and turning like an alcoholic completely bypasses everything. It gets dicey at a valley, but he makes it to the enemy's HQ. Does he succeed? Yes, he does.

Davy was not far from the radio when I left off last time, and succeeds in destroying it. I was wise to have Caygill advance to the northeast, as they have captured the last tower. I don't really have anything for him to do at the moment.
Caygill continues her journey northeast. The radio station falls quite quickly, as they left it unguarded. Undoubtedly, this will result in my downfall, as the enemy seems to only move where the player is, and now I have everything. I'm not really sure what I'd even do with everyone, since the game isn't that difficult from a strategy perspective, just a combat one.
Kristiansen and Flint make their way to the western edge of the Masters region. Little resistance, as to be expected, but everything is already destroyed.
Mueller and MacLeod are on the northern edge, and begin chase on the northern have of the region.
Rudzinski, Cropper and Adams, in a village on the northwest side, are not captured, despite the village being captured at some moment. They don't have any explosives and seem unable to do anything to help Jenny's wounds. Well, Jenny does, but I had her rest the first two hours.
Tasker, who I said last time wouldn't be doing any recruiting, fails at recruiting resident fool PC Jackson. With that out of the way, Tasker repairs a snowbuggy in record time.

Here's where I somehow screwed up a bit. You see, I saved after I blew up the enemy's HQ, and then everything is fine. I even saw the victory screen. Or rather a part of it. Pressing my screenshot key caused the game to skip it. I mean, it wasn't exactly thrilling to see, since its a fairly generic victory screen. So, I won. Feels kinda lame. Maybe there's a more interesting way of ending this?

Enter PC Pringle, a man with an unfortunate name and an even more unfortunate backstory. Pringle here is going to find out what happened when you ski into the ocean...is what I'd say if he wasn't captured. In fact, nearly every PC is captured. So, instead, I'm just going to plunge poor old lady Mrs Randles into the drink. Not out of any malice mind, I just want to find out if you can die, or if they're merely captured. After trying a dozen times, I don't think you can. Each time, the citizens rescue her. There's a certain point that causes the character to be unusable for a time. How disappointing. But I guess the image of an elderly woman trying to kill herself in a post-apocalyptic situation while the people around her keep saving her would make for a pretty funny, if dark film.

This Session: 1 hour

Total Time: 16 hours

Midwinter: Lust for Power

I start off this session feeling decent about my chances. Sure, I don't know where the Masters troops are, something of a problem in a strategy game...I don't have any ability to stop them for that matter...Just the ability to pointlessly blow up something that might not help me in-between actually trying to take out my enemy. The following takes place over 6 in-game hours.

Stark starts off in the bombed out remains of a factory he blew up. His arms are still broken, which makes a mountain climbing ski trip seem questionable at best. I think he also has only had 6 hours of sleep in the past 36. A tired man, climbing up a mountain, with explosives. What could possibly go wrong!? I think he could use another hour or two. Only an hour. That radio station isn't going to blow itself up. He gets a real rest after the tower disappears.

Sgt Llewellyn was last seen outside a town with a radio, held by the evil General. How much sleep is he running on? Another 6? After blowing up the radio he was sent to destroy, he deserves another hour. I can't actually think of anything to have him do for the time being. More sleepy time it is!

Jenny Adams, grade schooller, previously drove over a mountain, is somehow miserable. Damn uppity children and their desire for sleep and not getting shot at. No rest for the virtuous yet. Lt. Courtenay isn't going to join without assistance. Or the begging of a child for that matter. Well, at least he isn't captured yet. Might as well have Jenny sleep this off, she isn't helping in the near future.
Last time, Caygill unsuccessfully fought off a bunch of enemy vehicles, but it wasn't for a lack of killing them. They captured the town she just left, and with that, Sgt. Doughty. Oh, well, time for her to waste time blowing up everything of value in the town in order to free our friend. Then, the northeast, there's another radio tower there and Kristiansen isn't going to make it to the southern one in time.

PC Muller is heading east, in hopes of freeing fellow PC MacLeod. He's in a snowbuggy, so that shouldn't be difficult as long as the enemy is out gunning for me. That's what actually screws me over? Not blatantly saying there's no way it could go wrong, just mildly hoping it won't be difficult? He takes out three buggies, which amounts to a decimal point of the enemy's army. Naturally, the town is held by the enemy. At least MacLeod actually gives a crap about things. Which means the two of them are going to go into the southeast.

PC Wight is also in a bad mood. I guess being powerless to stop an evil dictator run rampant over your friends and family does things. He asks for Sergeant Tasker's help in stopping the evil Masters army, and thankfully someone isn't putting this down as a rumor. Now, what? I guess I better throw him southeast in the hopes of hitting something.

Flint, seen here as an example of how not to have someone say something.

Kristiansen, who I think has been awake maybe 8 hours, is doing abysmally. Nice. He and his grandson, Hart, continue their trek toward his peddler friend, Flint. Naturally, he joins up, but that gives me one final problem. The tower in the south is a steep climb and there's no cable, nothing. Driving up there would be painful, and having Kristiansen ski up there doubly so. That means its his going to be his grandson climbing up the mountain to blow it up. Yay. Also, I don't mention it often, but the location of this tower is MacLeod Mountain.
The journey there...isn't so bad. A group of snowbuggies are encountered, but nothing really comes of it. Davy Hart is ready to meet his destiny at the top. As to Kristiansen and Flint, they have things to do on the southeastern corner of the isle.
PC Cropper is pointlessly up northwest, where he failed to prevent the enemy from holding a heat mine. I guess I better have him try to recruit those Jenny fails to. Rudzinski proves receptive. In fact, Rudzinski is perhaps the best recruit out of the police force, excepting his fiancee. He's a capable driver and only lacks skills in skiing, a minor problem considering he starts in a garage. I don't actually know if he's any better or not at driving, I just assume he is.

Sarge Tasker has a dead son and a distaste for 'time-servers and faint-hearts', which doesn't matter because he isn't going to be recruiting anybody, instead, he's going to be blowing up stuff. But that means, I gotta get him to a magazine to the south east. More fun skiing with people who suck at skiing. I'm having so much fun!
PC Doughty, after being rescued, heads southeast, because there are only two things I'm any good at, recruiting and blowing up inanimate objects.

At the results screen, I come to the conclusion that this isn't going to end in my favor. Two mines left, only a matter of time before they come crashing down too. On the other hand, that's a pretty sweet hour total. 20 hours even if you hadn't a clue about what you're doing.

This Session: 2 hours

Total Time: 15 hours

Midwinter: Everybody's Dead, Psyche

Perhaps I should have put more thought into it beforehand, but its clear I need some kind of strategy to beat this strategy game. Obviously this plan of hoping I stumble upon the bad dude's lair only has luck in its favor. So, instead, I should take out all the radio stations, since I have no real way of protecting areas from attack. And hope that with a sudden burst of people, I can overwhelm the enemy's stockpiles. The following takes place over the course of 6 in-game hours.

The problem with this is that the radio stations aren't fully shown on map, as you can see in this helpful screenshot I took. Only the individual ones, out by their lonesome. The ones in settlements are very clearly marked. There's only one near Stark, back up north at the top of a mountain. Man, that's going to suck going up, but at least he can journey elsewhere quickly. The rest are scattered around, quite loosely.
So, for Stark, its a harsh journey back the way he came, straight north. At least this time, no one is chasing him. Until the second situation report, when he's promptly captured. Oh, I'm sorry, the game just said everyone was captured for some reason? What the hell? He blows up a factory to end this segment.

Llewllyn's journey starts off heading southeast from the central valley toward another valley just within Masters territory, through a gap in a mountain range. He gets there uneventfully, where he blows up the first radio station. At this point, I realize that I left Mueller behind when I mean to bring him with, separating characters I didn't yet want to separate. His car flips sometime around the journey to the second radio station. No matter, that was inevitable. Back to the swift Welshman.
PC Mueller, having been accidentally left behind, is forced to have a new plan. Blow up nearby enemy equipment. First, get the explosives, northwest, then go south, blow up a factory. Works well, but without anything further in the area, I have him go southeast.

Caygill starts by going north to PC Doughty, as the only radio station near her is far away northeast. Doughty joins and quickly the two seperate. After leaving that settlement, Caygill is besieged upon by the Masters's troops, quite a few of them. I think its a shame that the game doesn't count each character's kills, because she got at least a half dozen of them. Holy cow. Then she has to go back right away because the enemy's troops captured the town, and I'm not letting Doughty just rot.

Kristiansen, being at the same place as Caygill, goes southwest instead of southeast. I learn something about driving in this game. Don't drive on the side of a mountain. I feel like that's something very logical in the way tou crash. As long as you aren't doing some weird horizontal turn, its fine. He manages to blow up one radio no problem.

PC Wright was back at a cable car last time, placed so I could have him hangglide somewhere helpful. I decide east. If he makes it far, he'll be of more use in the war effort. If he doesn't, he'll be closer to a recruitable character. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't get far, and the ground is swarming with enemies, none of which he hits. With anything. Well, he gets one with a grenade. So much for being average, more like seemingly good, really bad. He reaches one town, held by the enemy, naturally, and blows up an ally out of jail. No doubt this ally will refuse to join us.

PC Cropper is left at the northwestern heatmine as protection. He instantly has to spring into action. Oh, I'm sorry, I mean he fights in vain to do so. Great, half a dozen guys down for nothing. Two towns down. That's with a bit of the ol' save-scumming because I lost my ride more than a few times.
Last time, Jenny was on the far north-western end of the island, a place that will be the last stand for PC Cropper, as this is where he'll stay. Both of the next characters Jenny might be able to recruit are on the far end of the island. Well, Jenny is going to pick after she rests. To the northeast, where she bombs a radio station. She's going to have issues.

Three radio stations left. Not going to matter much, I think. Most of the far ones are going to be of no help, and most of the close ones are going to be captured. Victory is coming for someone next time, will it be me, or General Masters? There's also something to be said about moving any PCs out of their stations before continuing.

This Session: 2 hours

Total Time: 13 hours

Midwinter: Sky's Unclouded

Previously, Sergeant Llewellyn had just convinced ski teacher Virginia Caygill to help protect the free villages against the evil General Masters sneak attack. Captain Stark left off as he was attacked by a tank deep inside the enemy's territory. Llewellyn and Caygill go their separate ways, in order for them to best recruit more people in the hopes of repelling this invasion...assuming Stark doesn't just take out Masters powerbase all on his own. The following takes place over the course of 12 in-game hours.

Virginia was a wise choice to recruit, as she is very good at skiing, or I'm lucky enough to get a good patch. She goes northwest to where she recruits Jenny Adams. From there, she goes northeast, to a cable car to get across the mountain, where she will attempt to recruit Professor Kristiansen to the cause. Unsurprisingly, the old man joins up. The duo accidentally travel across the same stretch of land, before Virginia goes northeast where she recruits Davy Hart, her other pupil. Then, its off over another mountain to get Rudel, a hunter. He says he won't be able to join up, like she asked him to repair a snowtractor or something.

Jenny is 11 and a better shot than a small child planning on being a doctor has any right to be. She goes northwest, hopefully to convince some of the PCs up there to do something. Only the cruel will be able to resist a child saying the evil men are coming. I'm not actually sure what I'm going to do with all these people. She also has some good skiing, probably because she's 11. She can also drive very well for someone who is 11. She only ends up losing the buggy because I didn't react in time to a tree. I half-expect her to kill a dozen people. After, she recruits PC Wright. After a brief rest the duo head north, where Wright gets off at a cable car. Jenny continues driving in another buggy, along the west coast of the isle.

This location takes me through some great scenery, probably the flatted part of the island. Surprisingly isolated too, not many places of interest. PC Cropper, the fellow she finds there, is eager to help. Unfortunately, he lacks skills such as skiing, hanggliding, endurance and driving to a certain extent. Better than having an 11-year-old drive, I say. Its quick journey north, but a gas-guzzling one. One mostly for nothing, as the inhabitant there is interested in helping neither of the two people. Apparently some can resist a child saying the bad men are coming.

Llewellyn barely makes any distance, probably because...uh...I don't know of a Welsh stereotype that'd make him slow, sorry. Somehow, he manages to take out an enemy buggy with a gun, although he's now lacking for bullets. He eventually reaches a garage, which makes his next recruit easier to reach. Unfortunately, the town he reached was held by the enemy, and thus, the taking up of more time. Fortunately, the person inside, PC Muller, is not an ungrateful ass. I bring him along in the buggy, because he'll probably help in recruiting people.
To the northwest, there is a man I previously tried to recruit, PC Jackson, who has many enemies. Muller can't recruit him, despite Jackson getting locked up.

Stark loses his snowbuggy after taking out a bunch of cars. This area is swarming with the enemy, which is to be expected. Hopefully taking out those vehicles and a warehouse will do some damage. Escape is difficult, as Stark is as fast as a Welshman on skis. Shooting a gun at a tank with little rhyme to the direction it goes and breathing like crazy, also difficult. After the first two hours Stark is left many miles away from a garage or any settlement beyond the one he just blew up. So I just have him sleep, he needs it. According to the manual that's a concern. Staying up for a good twelve or so hours probably does things to you. Sleeping for four hours helps him a good deal, but anymore is a luxury right now.

I assumed that the area had nothing of interest beyond towns. I was wrong, but its hard to reach the right area when there are dozens of vehicles in the immediate area. Getting shot twice. Stark loses the ability to use both his arms, making sniping things impossible. He can't use his arms anymore.

Kristiansen, the newly recruited electronics researcher, is old and terrible at such things like skiing, shooting, and things required for people rushing about in the snow, trying not to be killed by an evil psychopath. However, he's good at blowing things up, and the manual tells me that if he gets to a radio, he might just have a shot at recruiting people over the airwaves. While skiers don't travel together, he does travel along the same path as Virginia, until I have Davy drive back in a car for him. With the radio he was going to journey to captured, I have him go in another direction.

PC Wright, who apparently suffers from being too nice for PC Jackson's taste, is the generic character with generic stats. He seems like a good choice to assist Kristiansen or Stark in blowing things up. So, after leaving Jenny at a cable car, he wisely takes off in a hangglider, safely lands slightly uphill of the next town, then skis down. All for nought, as Dr. Revel, the inhabitant, doesn't particularly care for Wright. He's polite at least. The radio here is held by the enemy, not a good sign for wherever Kristiansen has to go. I have him climb back up to the top of the cable car, where he'll try to take off for a real amount of distance.

Davy Hart is 12 and also a good shot. He's Kristiansen's grandson and I have him ski northwest to get a buggy to get his grand papa to a radio. With that done, I have no idea what I'm going to do with him. I just have him go along with the professor. To the east, and then to the enemy's HQ.

So far, I've done some damage to the enemy's supplies, but not so much to the enemy's forces. I've got a good shot at destroying them in the long term, but not so much in the short. The manual says I can win by keeping at least 1 heat mine for 40 days, then the Masters's troops will revolt. I think you have to be really good at this game to do that, as a sort of challenge.

This Session: 4 hours

Total Time: 11 hours

Midwinter: Extreme Cold Weather

Its pretty easy to look at me restarting the game twice as a method of failure. I guess that's a fair statement. Inability to continue after suffering losses. Its one of the reasons why in my own games, I don't make the after effects of your failures readily apparent. Which is something more games should do. Or do it early and have a whole half of the game dedicated to that section. Is it because most people refuse to lose in a non-pride protecting way? I.E., I didn't lose, I merely gave up.

The next few minutes don't prove me that I'm not just doing that. I start off at a place with a nice snowbuggy, and outside is one, maybe two enemy buggies. Since this is literally just me starting out, I reload over the course of the half-dozen times I lose the buggy. After a pathetic showing, I head southeast, which is held by the enemy. Fortunately, this time I know what I'm doing.

You see, you can't reclaim towns, but you can blow up the places a prisoner is held. This let's you recruit the prisoner as if you just casually walked up to them. Fortunately, Sarge Wales here doesn't seem to have an issue with Stark, but I'm sure someone else would complain despite nearly dying to the enemy. What this is, right now, is just two guys in a snowbuggy.

So, without much wisdom in the idea. I decide to head east, roughly the location of the enemy's base, the two nearest recruitable characters seem unlikely to join up with either of the two guys I have right now. Although halfway there I decide to take a detour north east, as the town isn't out of my way and you never know. It might be held and I can do some damage to their supplies. I also take out the production plant here, because I should be doing that.

This takes more time than I really wanted to engage in. Apparently, I can't drive a snowbuggy without its skis reaching for the sky. Whenever I do, I forget Llewellyn or I accidentally press the SOS button, which is the most useless thing. Its like getting captured, but you choose to do it. Anyway, Flint, the guy I assumed wouldn't join up with two policemen, doesn't join up. Because he definitely hates Flint and probably dislike Stark. I do get some more explosives for Stark, dunno about Llewellyn. Anyway, onward to the next town.
There, I basically only destroy some things. This is where the two split up, with Llewellyn going northwest, to recruit some people, and Stark going east, to use his explosives, assuming he has any left. I love it when games are so descriptive about how much of something I have.

Another fun two in-game hours pass. I'm pretty sure I crashed my snowbuggy twenty times. I'm going to put this down at me being horrible at driving in this game, not anything to do the quality itself. Well, maybe all the sudden dives are crap, but otherwise. Write a bunch about people not accepting failures and don't accept failure yourself. On the other hand, some of these crashes don't make any sense and some of these smooth sailing doesn't. Which is the only interesting thing that happened, except some of the time I got crushed by an enemy snowbuggy firing a single missile.
The next two in-game hours consist of a lot of tedium on my part. This is what I'd like to call, "Save-scumming to get over a mountain". Which is, you know, a very good idea for very smart people. Stark is climbing over a very tall mountain in order to reach a town...I guess, at the top of a mountain to destroy a radio tower. There's no real point on my end for this. Climbing down the mountain is also so rage inducing, but at least Stark is back on solid ground and near the enemy's area. It'll be interesting to see how this part goes.

Meanwhile, despite crashing his buggy, Llewellyn journeys fine. Almost had to rest, but fine. There, he meets the ski instructor Caygill. Fortunately, she has no problems with the local rozzers, but if I brought Dr. Revel instead she'd probably tell him to go soak his head. The manual says that because Caygill is a civilian, she won't attract as much attention from the enemy. Additionally, I suspect very few characters will say no to an attractive blonde woman.
And its here I shall stop. I'll plan my next actions around this new character.

This Session: 3 hours

Total Time: 7 hours

Midwinter: Empire Now

I regret picking up this game opposite Galactic Empire. With two very similar weird, early FPS ancestors its hard to muster up the energy to alternate between them. Two people won't make the game go any easier, but hopefully I can get a car this time...again.

Okay, last time I found another member of the...guard force? I guess that's what it is. Doughty gives some helpful hints on who he can and cannot recruit. Some guy named Courtenay considers him to be a "noisome troublemaker". A very British way of saying things. This game was designed by the very British Mike Singleton, known for Lords of Midnight and the Indiana Jones game no one remembers. The one people say no one remembers, but they vaguely know what it is, not the actual one no one remembers*.

My plan for this session is to have the guy I just picked up go around south and pick up some other people, while Stark goes north, gets a buggy, and pick up some people, and his girlfriend. I fail to see how this can go wrong.

The new good friend heads south to a cable car station, because I plan on going over the mountain. This seems to go along without much incident. I figure the flashing thing and the sound are some kind of radar, not the actual sound the enemy equipment is supposed to be making. I get some good fortune in knocking out an enemy snowbuggy.
Stark, meanwhile, encounters nothing but some smooth skiing. I just had Doughty draw them off, didn't I? Well, he's be okay. He looks like he's having a good time.

Situation report, 1 down against...a lot. Joy. That's another two hours, but this time it felt a lot shorter. They all feel a lot shorter now. I think that's because I know what I'm doing.
This time I go with Stark at first. He's got a snowbuggy now, and driving at 30 MPH seems to be a safe bet. No thought yet as to how this is going to handle when the fighting goes down. At the first of my next new friends, we'll see how that goes at the end of this phase. Doughty still has a bit to go before the cable car station, he only reached a supply depot. His journey also turns out smooth, and I learn something regarding skiing movement. It actually functions semi-realistically. I say semi, because I don't imagine most people are going to be capable of going 14 MPH in the snow in full military gear. In mouse mode, I move up and down to control walking speed, and when he starts going down, the mouse doesn't really control the speed anymore. Like skiing. Hence why at times it can suddenly stop for no reason despite being otherwise fine.

My luck slightly changes for the worse when the local guard, named Grice, tells me to stuff it. There's always one of those. The manual helpfully tells me he's bitter and has no friends. Specifically, bitter about Stark getting promoted above him. I'll have to send Courtenay, the only person he respects, back to get him. So far, he's looking like the only guy who's capable of using explosives on something. Yeah, plan for this one, go north, get PC Flynn, have him get Courtenay, have Stark go east to his girlfriend and have her pick up some others. Things are looking up.

I gotta get a better shot of these missiles

Even an encounter with another snowbuggy does nothing to screw me over. A little bit of spinning then one missile out. If I ever catch it, you'll see its nothing special, just flies away like a rigid body in zero g. Two down, this is going really well.

Doughty starts off easy as well, I made it to the ski lift last time, so I start him off with a ski lift. Its not very impressive, but its nice just not being shot at or having to navigate. Up here, I can hangglide. Ha. Even if I could, Doughty is crap at it. I see no way just skiing down to the other side could go wrong.

Its more intense in motion.

Its quite intense, but thankfully nothing goes wrong. The little bit of climbing up I have to do is offset by managing a lot of distance downhill. I'm still quite a ways away from the village proper. But I'm getting there as he starts to run out of health. This ends up being a double time for ol' Doughty, as I must have went way over time moving around as Stark. So after a brief rest, I make it to where I wanted to be.

Leading to another fun dialog where a PC refuses to join. His little profile in the manual says he was nearly thrown out of the force for being suspected of stealing. Real winner here. If I have the time for it, I'll get him, but otherwise Doughty gets a meal. There's a garage here, but Doughty's driving skills are below par. I don't want to know how bad that'll be. This is fortunately, a relatively recruit rich area. And what do you know, Muller, one of his friends, is near.

Also, they put him in a sleeping bag for some reason

Then, suddenly this gets bad. Stark is captured...somehow, and when I reach Muller, the area is also held by the enemy. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to make it unheld. I unwisely choose to blow up the heat mine here. That does nothing. At this point, I think I'm going to restart. Call it gaming the system, but I think its best if I start off in a village that has a buggy to start with.

This Session: 1.5 hour

Total: 4 hours

*This would be the Indiana Jones text adventure. Yes, that is real.