Nexagon Deathmatch: Doesn't get ratings to remain on the air

Nexagon Deathmatch is set in the far future of humanity where criminals compete in the Nexagon for fame and a chance at 'rehabilitation' or so the manual tells me. Corporations sponsor various teams. Unfortunately that's about where the story ends. While Smash TV didn't have more of a story it managed to make the same fun in spite of having less story than Charles Smith's Trick or Treat. Nexagon makes Trick or Treat almost Emmy worthy.

Nexagon is still a fun game to play, but only in small doses. When the action gets going and you get past all the other issues I'm going to ramble on about below, it's a fun game. The carnage and mayhem is excellent, the concept of the game is fun, but the drawbacks still outnumber the advantages.

Gameplay

When you start a new game, your first choice is which one of four kinds of horde you want to use. You have the Tekhan, who are tribal hand-to-hand fighters, The Strunar are warriors from previous wars who use heavy firepower. Ghandros are cybernetic warriors, while the Olfrum are strange aliens who are cousins of the Zerg. Once you've made your choice, you're given a handful of warriors or 'Thralls' as they're called, some loose cash to spend, and you're sent off to fame and fortune! Of course, you'll be on your way once the game loads. I clocked the game taking over a minute to load at the beginning. That's longer than Unreal 2 took to load.

Or maybe not. The manual doesn't do a very good job of preparing you for the game so most people are likely to spend most of their money on other thralls or on their Sanctum. You see your sanctum has the Nexus, or a glowing sphere that each side must protect. The manual says you can add traps and decorations to your sanctum, along with walls and ramps. Yes, you are supposed to add decorations to your base, because at the end of every match you earn money for the decorum of it.

After you've blown all your money, you head out into the Nexagon to make your name with blood, sweat and tears. In reality though the blood and sweat will be on the screen, but the tears will be coming from you. Trying to manage your thralls is a painful process, as they seem to have the intelligence of grapefruit, or perhaps a small watermelon. If your thralls have projectile attacks they will have a tendency to shoot their own team members, the walls and pretty much everything except for the enemy. Sending your thralls to attack sometimes results in them walking up to the enemy and attacking. Other times they walk to where the enemy used to be and stand around waiting to attack.

While you're trying to get your units to obey your commands, the computer is more than willing to punish you in the mean time. If the same thought and care had been put into the unit AI as was put into the computer's AI the game wouldn't be as frustrating as it is. The computer will run rings around you. Once you get the knack of the game it becomes somewhat easier, but the computer is still far more skillful than you. Without a difficulty setting you're stuck getting frustrated playing the same levels over and over to advance the game.

Your thralls can get more experience and become more powerful, but I've yet to have any of my thralls survive long enough to become fan favorites. There also doesn't seem to be much benefit in having experienced units.

Graphics

Graphically Nexagon is quite nice for the low system requirements. It's easily a step above Starcraft. The thralls have wonderful details to them, and have the nice touch of slowly changing their appearance as they get more experienced and become veterans. Unfortunately the game suffers from considerable video lag whenever more than 10 thralls are on the screen fighting and shooting at each other. My machine meets all of the recommended requirements for the game and still suffers from the lag.

Sound

The sound in Nexagon is fitting for the game but quickly becomes nothing more the repetitious background music that is drowned out by the sounds of carnage and the announcer. Unfortunately the announcer, while fun and entertaining in the beginning, quickly becomes annoying as the same sound bites are played over and over. For being on CD I would have thought that Strategy First could have put more content for the announcer to speak.

Strategy First did get something right in the sound department, which is that they allow you to use your own mp3 collection for background music. In modern gaming there is no excuse for not allowing the players to choose their own music, and Strategy First has indeed come through in this regard.

Overall

Nexagon has some fun to it, if you can get aside the controlling issues, the load times, the annoying announcer and the difficulty. Unfortunately it seems that the game was aimed a little too high but didn't have enough work done on it. It's still a fun game to play for a while until it becomes too difficult, but overall lends itself to being more of a game to play one or two matches every few days. On a scale of 0-100 I give Nexagon Deathmatch gets a sad 'speed limit' score of 55.