Well, Wells Welles… Martians have landed

By Peter Eley

The War of the Worlds

Rage

PC: $109.95

M

H. G. Wells, the British science fiction author, created quite a stir in 1898 when he published The War of the Worlds, a novel about the takeover of Earth by Martians.

And the book created an even bigger stir 40 years later when the actor Orson Welles treated the story as a newscast, neglecting to tell his listeners it wasn't real. Thousands fled New York in panic.

More recently, Jeff Wayne had a megahit in the 70s with an album featuring his music set against the late Richard Burton reading from the novel.

The computer version is unlikely to rise to these giddy heights. But it is a competent and slightly different strategy game, set against the haunting and compelling music from Wayne's album.

In Wells' book, the technologically advanced Martians are all-conquering and virtually wipe out mankind before succumbing to a virus.

That's a problem for the game developers - mankind was still relying on cavalry back in 1898. Death rays versus horses? My money is on the Martians.

So they've evened the odds up by giving us humans a few weapons that weren't around in those days, such as tanks and self-propelled artillery.

An effort has been made to include some aspects of the classic novel - Wells wrote of the Martian's red weed, which choked plant life on Earth, and this features in the game.

Despite the overly advanced weaponry, the game is given a period flavour with coal and iron mines, "ironclads" - an early name for steel battleships - and observation balloons.

You can play as a human or Martian - each has a separate CD - but there's no doubt that the invaders are much more fun.

They get stuff such as Black Dust, which chokes any living organism, a telepathic ability to send mere mortals insane and an awesome heat ray which microwaves anything it hits.

Like most strategy games, the real key to winning is getting the most resources, and The War of the Worlds is no different.

Martians need heavy elements, copper and, chillingly, human blood, while humans need coal, iron and oil.

The interface takes some getting used, and you have to manage battles on several fronts - more like Star Wars Rebellion than Age of Empires.

The graphics are excellent, with 3D mapping and nice lighting effects, which give the game a spooky atmosphere which old H. G. would have approved of.

Required: Pentium 166, 32Mb ram, 2Mb graphics card, but a Pentium 233 with 64Mb ram and a 4Mb graphics card is recommended.

* Send your comments e-mail peter_eley@herald.co.nz