Chaos Overlords is a turn-based strategy game centred on the concept of futuristic gang warfare. It is a somewhat complex and difficult game, with a learning curve of upwards of an hour. It was released by New World Computing in 1995.
Chaos Overlords has a very basic goal: dominate the city that you live in and hold it from other rival mafia-style future punks. There are numerous routes to this victory, however, lending to the game’s complexity and replayability. The map is tile based.
Chaos Overlords is a turn-based strategy game centred on the concept of futuristic gang warfare. It is a somewhat complex and difficult game, with a learning curve of upwards of an hour. It was released by New World Computing in 1995.
Chaos Overlords has a very basic goal: dominate the city that you live in and hold it from other rival mafia-style future punks. There are numerous routes to this victory, however, lending to the game’s complexity and replayability. The map is tile based. The first way to win the game is by dominating the city, tile by tile, until your gang owns everything. You may also win by eliminating the leaders of the enemy factions.
In the conquer style of game, there are ten starting points
from which to choose, and ten corresponding goals. As you progress across sectors of the city, you will gain control of many different types of buildings that will be subject to your strong-armed influence. As you influence each building, your gang will reap the benefits of its specialty. Mostly, this results in more monetary gain, but you may also increase attributes such as tolerance from the civilians caught in the midst of your gang war.
As the leader of your gang, it us up to you to issue appropriate orders, bribe the right people and hire the right gangsters to help you. There are a total of fourteen different orders you can throw at your mercenaries and underlings to help them gain skills and acquire lands for the welfare of the gang. As with many strategy games, research is a factor even in this shooter. Research allows you to outfit your gang with, first and foremost, better weapons. But you can also give them hats, bats and even boom boxes to increase their bad reps around the city.
Chaos Overlords offers four levels of AI difficulty to tailor each game to individual needs. They range from the simplistic GOON, to HOMICIDAL MANIAC, which is virtually impossible to defeat. It can also be played against human opponents via a network, modem or the Internet. There are six scenarios that are similar to goal-based epic conquests and four time-based scenarios where final score is the factor determining the winner. (Score is a compilation of all amassed attributes).
In all, this is a great play. It was ahead of its time, the graphics are good, the premise is somewhat fresh, and the sound/music is okay. It offers enough variety to make it playable more than once, which is always a positive factor, and the plot is easy to follow. Chaos Overlords is definitely worth a second look or a fresh one if you missed it the first time around.
