Helium-3

I'm sure some people will like it, as the implementation is decent, but the organization is pretty poor. I felt catapulted in an unknown environment, with no clue at what the goal of the game even was, for others to feast over my dead body. The tutorial doesn't help much, and I still don't have a clue why all the enemies' vehicles seemed imune to all of my missiles...

The energy crisis of the 90s and new millennium has led to a global energy crash. Fossil fuels are being depleted at an alarming rate, and renewable energy sources have not been able to keep up with global demand. The world is on the brink of a complete shut-down, unless a new source of energy can be found.

Sadly, this is where jayisgames and I part ways. I don't expect to see promotion (implicit or otherwise) of environmentalist propaganda at websites I visit to discover casual games.

It's a real pity; I've bought a dozen or so games as a result of reading this website's weekend reviews. But no more.

don't kill the messenger, rose

the games really great, who gives a stuff about the message, play the game and enjoy it

and besides, that bit you quoted is talking about a period in the future - are you saying that the future is set in stone? it's a story get over it

only problem was having to register, but i did it and am quite enjoying it

Chyro - they are using a shield - if you only see 1 bot move on their turn, they probably put a shield on to save themselves

Rose:

This is not some sort of Propaganda.. it's a game, created for the enjoyment of others by the Discovery Channel. If this is propaganda, then so is every other game set in a near-dead future that came about due to some environmental reason (and there are lots).

I would have liked to have had at least 5 more seconds to set up my moves. The pacing makes it far too difficult to adapt to changes in the environment and to develop decent strategies. Playing against other people was just humiliating.

I really like mining/resources games, but the execution here is rather clumsy, and worst of all it failed to find any people for me to play the game with. Since there is no single player campaign to play as an alternative, there's not much of a game to play.
And er, "environmentalist propaganda"? It's only a game, set in a fictional scenario, like almost every other computer game that's ever been made. If everything has an agenda, what's yours?

Interesting idea, but after a handful of games, it seems that the winner is always the player whose corner of the map randomly has the richest helium deposits. Against that initial roll of the dice, strategy doesn't make a huge amount of difference.

I've got a few straight forward strategy:

BladeStorm: Either the shields of other players are invisible to me, and he was lucky enough to have more than one unit shielded on two consecutive turns. Or, he survived without shields. Either way some things were unexplained, be it the shield system or some other life-saving system.

Also, I felt cheated when I was fighting the player just before me, as he had 3 times more time than I did to place directives after seeing the previous moves.

Also, the game suddenly came to an abrupt end, which means that I should have spent my last couple of turns protecting my vehicles instead of losing some trying to fight back had I known.

Also, I didn't have a clue if what objective was.

List goes on. How many games must I play, getting wiped out, until I begin to guess the rules? Is it fun for me? Is it fun for my opponents to see me shoot myself in the foot? The article mentions AI practice games, but somehow I couldn't find them despite looking for it. That might have helped...

JIGuest

from what I've seen, shields are not invisible, but your opponent might have used a bonus crate and giving it an extra life. This is only a guess, however. I haven't seen such crate yet.

Also, what corner and when do you get to move is all just luck. You don't always start first or last.

Then, for the part which I must agree, the notices of games close to an end appear at about font size 8 in the bottom of the screen. I never read it unless I have time in this fast-paced game. Make it bigger or appear for a few seconds at somewhere noticable.

The objectives, however, were stated and repeated quite often: mine the most Helium-3, or kill all your enemies. This game is real-time-strategy and fast-paced, so it's better to read instructions carefully before playing. The practice and other panels are to the left, writen in a small font size, but they exsist.

Feel free to ask more questions, I'll try to answer them with my knowledge when I'm free.

Bots that haven't moved (Indicated by being greyed out) are immune to all weapons

Not to be a hater, but it's a review, not a graduate thesis. Writing that much discourages people from reading any of it.

This reminds me a lot of the movie Moon. Great sci-fi.

Could have been a cool game, but too many minor annoyances with control scheme, interface, etc.

Sheilds enavted by your enemy are invisible, bots that havent moved are immune, generally if you have an armed weapon, the other player will only move his bot 0,1 or 2 squares, and not mine or arm a weapon himself. If he does this, he has used his shield and is invulnerable until he next moves.

I agree on the length of game, took me lots of games to learn to check that little guage regularly.

When you mine, just make sure that you are in the middle of a grouping of blue squares, and not just sitting on the darkest square - there is only so much u can take off a square per turn so getting some form 9 squares beats a little more from the one.

Im level 4 - shame you can't challenge people

doesent work for me, when I click play game
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3265/30383979.jpg it just fades out -
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9715/71674684.jpg
any ideas?

I find this a very enjoyable game. Considering there are not very many quality science games out there, this is one of the best there is.

The scenario described of the Energy Crash is very likely to be occuring in the near future. And the solution provided also seems like a good answer.

The gameplay system is very good, and realistic. It makes you feel as if you are actually the CEO of a lunar mining company, watching as your company mines away at helium-3 stored beneath the grey, powdered surface for gigaannia on end.

The only real problem in the game is that practically nobody knows the game exists anymore. If more people knew about the game, then it would be a lot more fun to play.

Five out of five stars.

Some helpful tips here:

I got a 404 error when I tried to load the game from the link posted here, has Discovery Channel stopped hosting the game?

[It might be on its way out. I've found a version to host and updated the links in the review. However, it connects with the Discovery site, so it may be just a matter of time before they disable that, too. -Jay]