DESCRIPTION

Earth is a dead world. The survivalists of the human race drifted for nearly a century, suspended in cryogenic sleep. Finally, as resources dwindled and no habitable planet was located, the computers revived a select few to make decisions on the possibilities of colonization of less than Earth-perfect worlds. Faced with life-or-death choices, the crew decided on a stark, hostile and forbidding world they dubbed as New Terra.

The colony, known originally as Outpost, was home to a couple of hundred colonists, all that remained of Earth's great civilizations. Eventually, belying the harsh conditions, the outpost became know as Eden. Matters grew worse as the humans split into two factions — a group that wanted to conquer New Terra and its environment via the expedient of terraforming and a second splinter group, Plymouth, interested only in adapting to the environment and conditions, leaving the planet intact.

Reconciliation between the groups, although tried on several occasions, failed. The satellite link between the two colonies was irrevocably extinguished. The Eden colonists went ahead with plans for terraforming while those at Plymouth prepared to defend their rights on New Terra. Neither group was prepared for the astonishing and cataclysmic geological upheaval about to tear their world apart.

Outpost 2: Divided Destiny is a real-time strategy, resource management game with 24 unique missions, each requiring specific strategies and tactics. You command either of the two factions with gameplay differing dependent upon which you choose. Combat is real-time, environmental conditions and dangers change based on the planet's change from day to night and survival is contingent upon how well you manage resources, construct useful buildings, conduct research, prepare defenses or create attack forces and handle morale.

More than 140 vehicles and buildings, 60,000 frames of animation and a wide array of natural disasters such as volcanoes, meteor showers and more await you in this survivalist adventure. Multi-player action for up to six players is supported via LAN or Internet and two through modem or serial connections. Scenario types of multi-player action include Last One Standing (king of the hill), Midas (fixed amount of time), Resource Race (predetermined amount of common and rare metals as a target), Space Race (first to construct a spaceship) and Land Rush (random deployment of bases with the last two surviving colonies finishing the game in Last One Standing mode).

Outpost 2 offers two main types of games: campaign and colony. The campaign game is a series of pre-designed missions that highlight all the disasters and problems inherent in running a colony and defending its style of existence. The colony game is a freestyle type of game in which you build a colony with no preset conditions and without the threat of the Blight found in the mission scenarios. Three levels of difficulty are available in either method along with the choice of playing either side.

A series of six tutorials is provided in the manual, covering more than 35 pages, although the majority of the manual is devoted to unit reference material. Experience the challenge of building a civilization literally from the ground up in Outpost 2: Divided Destiny. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide