Years ago there was a quasi strategy, dark humored satirical card game called Nuclear War. The game was one in which players could ‘nuke’ each other and in one fell swoop could wipe out say 3-4 million people, or even higher.

Then along came the PC revolution, and several years ago this card game was the basis of another PC title: "Nuclear War," which pit the world leaders of the day against one another in a spinoff of the original card game. (Instead of Ronald Reagan in the White House, we had Ronnie RayGun to give you an idea of the style of humor). I quite enjoyed the game, even given it’s ominous and horrific basis on nuclear warfare I found it to be fun and lighthearted. 

Now Psygnosis is poised to spring upon us a title very similar to these previous works, titled "Global Domination." I first previewed this at E3 and it looked interesting, now that I've had a chance to play around with a beta copy I'm able to talk more about the game. 

The first thing GD brought to mind at E3 was " Missile Command." It is very similar in that it is a pretty high speed game that will leave your hands sore after the workout they'll get playing this one. 

The basis of the story is that you the player are working for ULTRA, the Universal Tactical Response Agency in the year 2015. ULTRA basically hires themselves out to fight using the militaries of whatever countries can afford their fees, fighting against the WOE. The WOE, World Order Enterprise is a ruthless competitor who will go to any extremes to meet their ends. Starting with simple missions and working your way up through the ranks you eventually square off against WOE to decide the fate of the world. 

The bottom line in this game is to take over as many countries as possible, preferably all of the 56 countries represented in the game. To do this you will have an awesome array of weaponry at your disposal from missile silos, naval assets (surface and sub surface), satellites and air assets (bombers). There is so much nuclear material expended in this game it makes one wonder how anyone could go on after you control the world, but that's a small part of reality you don't need to worry yourself about on this one. Winning is your only concern and this game looks to be a reflexively challenging one!

Click to continue . . .

With some decent management skills and some very fast reflexes you can dominate the world, with slow reflexes… well, let's just say you better invest in a bomb shelter. Reminiscent of the old Missile Command game this one is non-stop action from start to finish, not your average strat game. Psygnosis is touting this one as an action-strategy title and it does have a combination of both elements with the emphasis placed firmly on action.

Gameplay starts with an E-brief, a voice over briefing explaining the objectives you must meet while you observe a 3D model of the Earth. As the brief continues each important area of the world directly involved in the upcoming action is hilighted so you can follow along easily. Once in the game you will feel like you’re back in the old heyday of gaming arcades pumping quarters in Atari's Missile Command, as missile trails head inbound on you and you use the mouse to intercept and destroy the bogies. 

Once you’ve determined the source of the attack you can instigate a retaliatory strike, much the same way as your defense by using your mouse. Fire away and watch as your missiles head into the targeted countries’ and enjoy those mushroom clouds! Don't watch too long or you will be toast yourself as the attacks are non-stop on you as well, so you’ll need to keep a careful eye on defense as well as offense. Add to this some neat FMV sequences to fill in the plotline and this one’s pretty fun, even for me a person who is very much not into click fest games like this one.

Playing this one I can't help but remember a t-shirt I used to have which showed a nuclear missile sub cruising on the surface of the sea with all missile tubes open and a huge mushroom cloud looming in the distance. The caption read “12 empty missile tubes and a mushroom cloud, now it’s Miller Time!” Sick, dark, twisted humor… I love it. 

From what I've seen of the game I think the main drawwill be the multiplayer functionality, which is a must in todays market. This game will require some thinking but no where near the likes of a game like TOAW or Tac-Ops, but a gamer with fast reflexes stands a great chance of arising victorious. From a pure strategy game standpoint this one will not hold all the high end strategy and management options the grognards look for in a sim, but I think Global Domination will be a refreshing game. I can already see it becoming a hit on those lunch-time LAN’s at work, as it’s some fast and furious action with little drain on the brain.

Look for this one to be available next month from Psygnosis, with a Playstation version due as well.