Review: Deathground

By: Kirk Hiner

Genre: Strategy

Format: CD

Developer: Freeverse Software

Publisher: Freeverse Software

Minimum Requirements: System 7.6, 20MB RAM, CD-ROM

Network Feature: No

3Dfx Support: No

Retail Price: $29.95

Availability: Out Now

My older brother Matt taught me some very important things in life; the relevant lessons that everyone should know, and that are much more special to learn when passed on by family. For instance, it was from Matt that I learned the comic value of lowering our younger brother Brett down the laundry chute on an extension chord. He also taught me how to stick cicada shells to my fingers so that we could terrify our younger sister Krista. But the greatest lesson I ever learned from Matt was this: never fight a two-front war.

Matt is a strategist, which is why he always won when we played Strat-O-Matic Football, Stratego or Risk. Ah, Risk...the greatest of all war strategy games. Not only did I learn about the drawbacks of fighting on two-fronts while playing that game, but I also learned that placing your entire army on Japan is never good military strategy.

So where did this get me, you ask? Play Deathground and it'll all become clear.

Deathground is the latest title from our irreverent friends at Freeverse Software, creators of titles such as Burning Monkey Solitaire, Sim Stapler and the immortal Jared. If you're familiar with any of their works, then you know what to expect from these guys, fun games peppered with clever one-liners. Deathground delivers on both counts.

In Deathground, Freeverse has taken the gameplay of Risk and placed it in the gangland warfare of 1930s New York City (although maps of the U.S. and the world can also be played). At the beginning, you and up to six other human or computer players are randomly deployed on different territories within your map. You're next given a few additional soldiers--or thugs, considering the theme--to strategically deploy, and then the carnage begins. You can challenge any enemy who's in a territory next to one that you occupy. The screen always shows how many thugs occupy each territory, so you're able to fight fairly lopsided battles. In Risk, you rolled dice to determine the winner. In Deathground, the computer determines the winner (the default setting gives the attacker a 49% chance of success). Therefore, it's always good to have more thugs than the player you're attacking. There's safety in numbers, after all.

Deathground gives you the option of fighting the battle with all of your thugs (leaving one behind should you win), half of your thugs, or only one of them. This is an important decision to make, as you don't want to leave your newly conquered territories unprotected. At the beginning of each turn, you're given more thugs to deploy. The more you already have, the more you get. You also receive extra thugs if you occupy entire sections, for instance, Staten Island on the New York map or North America on the world map.

The graphics in Deathground aren't quite as good as they could have been, certainly not up the standards set by other strategy games such Age of Empires and Starcraft. The New York map looks okay, but the world map especially is very sparse. However, the graphics weren't intended to sell this game. As with most Freeverse titles, the creators let the humor and the gameplay sell themselves. It seems that everyone has something important to say after being shot, and most are quite humorous. I only hope that when I get shot (and someday I will, I just know it), I can respond with a clever quip before dying.

Although playing the game is quite simple, winning it is a different matter. As Risk players well know, finding the balance between attacking and defending can be quite tricky, especially with so many territories to consider. Quite often, it's best to not attack at all, using your turn instead for fortifying your territories. Of course, luck factors into it as well, and Freeverse allows you to control the luck setting of both yourself and the computer players. You can also set their intelligence level, allowing you to easily win a few while learning the basic strategies of war.

Sorely lacking in a game of this sort is support for network play. Because the game allows up to seven players, it would only make sense for some of those players to be across a network. I mean, what would be more fun than capturing Madagascar from someone actually living in Madagascar? But no. If you want to take on six of your friends, you'll have to crowd them all around your monitor. At Macworld, I asked a Freeverse representative about network play, and he assured me that they were looking into adding it in a future version.

But with or without network capabilities, Deathground is a lot of fun. It's not as intense or involving as most of the real-time strategy games coming out these days, but it's a heck of a lot funnier (be sure to keep an eye open for Godzilla and other guest appearances). I can hardly wait to get my brothers over to my place to challenge them to a game...that is, provided Brett can finally get himself out of that laundry chute.

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February 10, 2012