This is the computer game that was based on Steve Jackson's Car Wars tabletop RPG game. A must-play for any fan of the RPG. It starts with you picking your name, and spreading points among your three stats. Driving, Gunnery, and Mechanic. Once chosen you cannot change them, but there are ways of increasing them in the game. Max for each stat is 99. There is a fourth stat of Prestige, but you cannot start purchasing that. Driving is increased by making it from city to city successfully, or beat an arena competition.
This is the computer game that was based on Steve Jackson's Car Wars tabletop RPG game. A must-play for any fan of the RPG. It starts with you picking your name, and spreading points among your three stats. Driving, Gunnery, and Mechanic. Once chosen you cannot change them, but there are ways of increasing them in the game. Max for each stat is 99. There is a fourth stat of Prestige, but you cannot start purchasing that. Driving is increased by making it from city to city successfully, or beat an arena competition. Gunnery is increased by winning combats. Mechanic is increased rarely by salvaging wrecks, (Leaving your car is dangerous if you are near enemies! Trust me on this, I've had to walk
back to town when my car got blown up....) or by paying money in the garage for training.
Visiting each of the buildings in your starting city of a.d.202X New York will give you a good idea of what they can do. Spend any money however, and the day will end (!) so watch out. (Buying body armour is a good idea, that and recharging your car batteries, and maybe buying ammo... are the only exceptions to this quirk.) First off, as it's Saturday in New York, It's amateur night-as in autodueling. Head on over to the arena and accept the junk car (Killer Kart) they give you. Drive around the arena keeping a careful eye on your radar; beat all the cars to earn more money. (Hint! if you approach the cars from the top or bottom, they will begin firing before you can see them, damaging your car and even your gun! From the left or right, and you can turn the tables on them. If you are fast enough or use the terrain cleverly you can run away.)
Also available are missions from the local AADA, salary based on your prestige. Failure to complete a mission will have severe effects on your ability to complete the game, so watch the due dates! Remember that travel between cities costs at least one day, sometimes more. Repairs to your car, replacing or buying new weapons and/or ammo will also cost you time. Become prestigious enough, and you might be considered for some really big missions...
Rumors will lead you to new subplots and eventually the completion of the game. Passwords and destinations need to be written down, you'll need them later.
Gameplay is fairly easy. Poking around the keyboard will reveal the controls to you. The graphics are old but give a nice sensation of motion. Most of the action is either top-down view or menu driven. Controls are fixed, meaning that to turn right you have to press whatever arrow key is right of the direction you are going. Basically, just press the arrow corresponding to the way you want to go, and it should work most of the time. This can take some getting used to. The sfx gets somewhat repetitive after a while; the music clips are a nice reprieve. Midi-type sounds. The arenas are all the same-somewhat disappointing, but the cars are different builds and locations, depending on division of competition. Driving between cities typically have two ways of going, the long way and the short way. Figuring out which is which can become critical.
One of the most fun aspects of gameplay is that you can build your own custom car. Using a cut-down system from the RPG, choices are somewhat limited, but still fun to tweak for that uber-car in the arena or on the road. Be careful that you have selected what you really want when exiting the shop! More powerful weapons cost more, weigh more, and ammo costs more... plus, they leave less salvage. All cars are battery-powered, so watch the lasers.
All in all, a fun game! Even after all these years, finding a DOS copy of this game was the highlight of that day. I still pull it out and play it again every now and then. :D
