Please login to submit a screenshot

"Not as Dark as I hoped, but more than enough Empire."

Introduction:

Dark Empire was released in 1987, made by Argus Press Software(Although, my game's title screen says Raw Deal Inc.), and is, as far as I can tell, a Real-Time-Strategy game. Like most other Commodore 64 games, Dark Empire is fairly unheard of, and the only reason I even played it was because the game's message board has no topicality and is used by several users.

Story: N/A

Honestly, I have no idea what the plot is; I got the game second-hand, so I'm not even sure there is a plot. Apparently you're a General/emperor(It is Dark Empire, after all), and your goal is to conquer the world. Obviously you have some rivals, but whether or not you're the evil emperor(Dark Empire) or they are is anyone's guess.

Graphics: 6/10

The graphics are mediocre at best. Even when you factor in the fact it's a C64 game from 1987, they're still just on par with other games. The ground is just a bunch of black dots, with no variation at all.

Units are small squares, coloured brownish-orange by default, with small white drawings of what type of unit it is and a the first letter of the unit's name in the bottom right-hand corner or above the unit's picture. Most ships look okay, but the regular soldiers look like spacemen; They seem to have weird spherical helmets, jet packs, and some sort of giant ray-gun. Whether or not this was intentional is up for debate, although since the soldiers need transport ships just to move across some water, I really doubt it was.

Water is just a blue area.

Towns under your control are a small square inside a slightly larger square. Towns not under anyones control are just squares. Towns under your opponents control are a square(WHOAMG bet you didn't see that coming!) with a few circle-like thingies/squiggly lines.

Note that the default colours for most things can be changed in the menu, but most things look even worse when they're a different colour.

Sounds: 2/10

The game has beeps and boops, and that's about it. You get a sound when you take a town, when you lose a town, when you kill a guy, when you get a guy killed, when a unit is made, etc, etc. There's almost no variation and you'll probably get a headache after an hour or two of it.

The good news is there's an option to turn the sound off! Yay!

Difficulty: 7/10

The game is, surprisingly, a pretty good challenge. You won't be screaming at the C64 every ten seconds, but you won't be conquering the whole world with a handful of soldiers, either. There are three "difficulty" levels, but the only noticeable difference is the speed at which things happen.

Play Time/Replayability: 9/10

The game is a lot of fun, and will definitely take at least a few hours the first time through. And like most old games, it never gets old. Although, the "Easiest" difficultly setting is only fun for about ten minutes, then you start wondering why the Heck it takes ten minutes for your soldiers to move five squares. Definitely only replay it on the "Fastest" setting.

Gamplay: 10/10

The gameplay is the best part of the game, fortunately. You start at a random point on the map with one Transport, one city, and one Army. You use towns to construct, new units, Transports can move Armies across water, and there are about five other ship types to build; most of them mainly meant to destroy enemy Transports.

Armies are going to be the brunt of your army, being basically the only attacking units. They're pretty slow moving and can only move across land, so you'll need Transports if you plan on conquering more than the continent you start on...

Transports can carry several Armies each. They're easily beaten by Destroyers and other ships, so you have to defend them pretty much constantly. They can move pretty quickly, so if you need Armies somewhere fast, you can sail them along the coast with these. There are more unit types, but none worthy of mention here.

Your goal is to conquer the whole world. There are multiple continents, most with multiple towns on them, some inhabited by the enemy. A few dozen towns in all exist for you to conquer. This game is a lot of fun, especially if you're playing against another person.

Final Recommendation:

If you get lucky enough to find a C64 and Dark Empire, definitely buy them both, even if it costs you your very soul


Reviewer's Score: 9/10 | Originally Posted: 04/10/06