Dominant Species is an interesting game. This one of only two games in which you’re an alien and not human, not just that but the humans are invading your world. You play a Mind Lord, a physic being who use its telepathy to control armies of creatures from the world of Mur. The creatures are interesting like the concept but if you’re up against another Mind Lord it’s really hard to tell friend from foe. The creatures all look nice and are all 3D with makes up a little for the fact the terrain only really has a few trees scattered here and there.
But at least they are also 3D. The building system is well done but takes a little getting used to because every time you build another building or unit all your build options go up in price as does the yellow bar indicating your population cap. This is a fun enough game but does have a few issues to deal with, mostly to do with control and interface.
Often I have trouble clicking a unit or even more trouble clicking it if it’s at all obscured by anything. The camera isn’t very well implemented but can be adjusted to ease the troubles. I didn’t find any rally points function for buildings and there were no hot keys for unit production. While on the
subject of building things buildings count toward your pop cap as well which is unusual. While a pop cap isn’t a bad idea in itself forcing you to build a limited number of buildings was never my style because I like to turtle. The intro was rather neat while not as impressive as the stuff developers are turning out now it still had some charm. In my opinion the signal biggest issue this game has is its AI it is a real chore to keep telling you minions which way to go and not to constantly chase after enemy units. As for the opponent’s AI it was better but never really did send any large forces out but when it did send anything at me I was often busy dealing with my (mindless) minions and suffered unnecessary losses and of course the base defence structures can’t fire through your own buildings make the barricade a complete waste of time (and resources).
All in all it’s good game! I would recommend this game to some one who wants to play from the perspective of an alien and is willing to live with a little headache. If not for the control and interface problems this game could have been really good. I would give it 9 out of 10 for a cool concept.
