M.A.X. - Mechanized Assault & Exploration

One of the best unknown strategy games available.

You control every aspect of your colony, including in some scenarios what you start out with. The game makes you worry about many different things, but not of them are so complicated that it is annoying to remember. For instance, you must mine and store 3 natural resources or provide power for every single building while still providing gas for your power plants. Unlike many strategy games, attack strategy is very important. One must choose whether to attack the power plants, the mines, or the war buildings. The variety of military units available is enormous, with everything from infiltration soldiers, to air-to-air fighter jets, to hit and run sea vehicles. Each of these units is produced at a different building, and can be upgraded for different purposes.

The turn-based system of this game is incredible. Each unit has a certain amount of moves alloted to each turn. Military units have a certain amount of shots per turn. Each shot requires a certain amount of moves, so once a vehicle moves far enough, it cant shoot. Each building is built in a certain amount of turns, but if you double the resources spent working on it, you half the building time. The same goes for building units.

If there is one downside to this game, it is the fact that the factions are not different enough. The difference between one faction to another is maybe 2-4 turns off building a unit, or 1 unit more sight radius. The difference is very small, but the variety of what can be done even with this is incredible.

Good enough for the game, but not mind-blowing. These graphics are the best you'll find from a game this old, and the game doesn't slow your computer at all. The cinematics in the game are few, but excellent.

Sound is good. You can tell what each sound is, and none of the sounds really get on your nerves.

The hotseat multi player feature in this game is incredible. You can play with up to 3 friends in one game all on the same computer. You can also play a friend by sending your turns to him via e-mail, but this can take forever, especially with 3-4 people.

The price is 5.00$. This is an amazing price for such a good strategy game.

The controls in this game are very good. Every hotkey is very easy to remember, and you have all the time in the word to think, because it is turn-based.

 NAME: M.A.X. - MECHANIZED ASSAULT @ EXPLORATION

SYSTEM: PC-DOS