Tank Universal
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New Zealand based indie developers Dialogue Design bring their first major title Tank Universal to the PC. Available for less than $10, this game is an absolute bargain.
Based in a Tron like world, the story begins with some chap named George being sent home from the doctors with a bottle of pills and a virtual reality headset. (Interesting idea)
Anyway, you put the head set on and next thing you know you’re being shuffled along, given a tank and told to carry out various training exercises. You are then grabbed by the local resistance and told that it’s all a lie and the training squad will be killed. You watch as all the innocent tank operators are annihilated.
Sent out to do battle with the evil empire, your know-how of tactics and tank operations are vital to your survival. The combat is the shining point of Tank Universal as this is not a simple shootem-up.
The aim of each scenario is pretty much identical. At the beginning you must collect an object known as a glyph and take it to your base. This allows for reinforcements to be summoned and sent into battle along side of you.
The aim of the game is to get to the enemy base and take their glyph from them, and then bowl out of there like your life depended on it taking the enemy glyph to your base therefore annihilating the enemy.
Doing this is not straightforward as you need to slowly make your way towards there base by destroying the enemy tanks which stand in your way, again, not a straight forward process as beating the enemy tanks does actually require a good working knowledge of how your tank works and its firing methods to stand a chance of hitting them As well as the enemy tanks you will find more glyphs scattered throughout the battle ground. By touching these devices they will change colour giving you the advantage of additional resources.
Naturally, the enemy always begins better equipped than you, so patience is a necessity when playing this game. As you progress and battles and tasks become more difficult, power ups become available to aid you such as smoke, mines, shields and so on.
As well as power ups, various different types of tanks and missions appear such as rocket propelling tanks and giant armoured tanks.
Tank Universal is not the best looking of games, but it’s certainly not ugly. Sound is rather standard with all the beeps in the right places but what truly shines about this game is the game play. There is always that just one more go feeling lingering after a failed mission and with 20 levels to play through, there’s plenty to keep you occupied at work when the boss is away.
Publisher: Meridian 4
Developers: Dialogue Design
Genre: Combat
URL: http://www.meridian4.com/
