January 2005 Archives

As you can imagine, I tore into it and was determined to enjoy it. I haven't "beaten" it yet, which I'd say is a good thing since I've only played it for 2 days, but I have some very definite feelings about the game. There are some things I definitely like about it, and some things I absolutely don't. It's more than I can cover here, so you'll have to read the more complete write-up when I get it posted.

If you want a very short encapsulation of my impressions, here you go... Evil Genius reminds me a lot of the "Dungeon Keeper" series of games, in that you build a lair and defend it against the "good guys" coming in from the outside world. It's a real-time, resource-gathering sort of game like Dungeon Keeper and Command & Conquer. There is a fair amount of depth to it, and quite a lot to learn before you are playing anything close to competently. There is a fair amount of help and tutorial information provided, but I find that it lacks enough depth to really help you understand what you're trying to do. The user interface makes some confusing choices between what buttons you need to click at what times, and the characters in the game alternate between "Sims talk" and English. Still, while I find parts of the game frustrating I also have found it enjoyable, too. I haven't played it long enough yet to rate it on a 1-10 scale, but my initial feeling is it's going to wind up in the 7-7.5 range.

I'll tell you some more about that cigar and my experience below in the review, but the short version is that the cigar's smoke has a nice scent in the air, the cigar produces a smooth white smoke, it burns very evenly, and leaves your mouth with a distinct peppery feeling - like you just had a bite of a medium-hot jalapeno pepper.