Reviewed: August 30, 2003
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Strategy First

Developer
Strategy First

Released: July 22, 2003
Genre: Real-Time Tactical
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen

7
7
7
7
7.4

System Requirements

The game is Nexagon Deathmatch and the story is admittedly simple, existing only to service the arena-style gameplay. The world is devoid of crime – criminals and violence have been eliminated from the Earth for centuries. Life is otherwise perfect, save for the fact that it has become a monotonous routine. Boredom and complacency have taken over the population. Humanity sits on the threshold of stagnation. Amazing how much we rely on crime to keep our lives exciting.

Rather than trying to better ourselves in a Roddenberrry-like society, the television network execs come up with a concept to spice up our mundane existence… Watch as combatants hit the mortal arena and fight for the ultimate prize.

Jump into the fast-paced action of Nexagon Deathmatch – where incarcerated criminals control fierce armies with the goal of destroying their opponents. Their prize: Freedom! Get sucked into the fully 3-D destructible environment where walls become weapons. Rip apart the enemy in wild multiplayer modes. Nexagon takes the intensity of squad-based combat, along with the fast thinking of a tactical strategy and puts it all in the same arena.

Sure, the premise is thin and even contradicts itself. In case you didn’t notice, criminals have been “eliminated from Earth for centuries” yet incarcerated criminals are the ones running the show in the arena. Perhaps we are importing them from other planets. It doesn’t really matter why you are playing. Nexagon is all about intense action and real-time tactical strategy in a unique set of arenas setup like a televised sporting event.

Nexagon Deathmatch Features:

• Nexagon is real time 3D tactics with a refreshing twist on action/strategy gaming.
• Strike out into a completely destructible environment, where every structure, weapon, building or otherwise, can be entirely obliterated.
• Fight battles online in one on one multiplayer match ups or connect as a spectator to watch the mayhem from front row center.
• Design and manage your own persistent, editable base of operations, build defensive structures, traps, weapons and lavish gardens to please the crowd and protect your investment.
• Purchase units that gain experience and undergo physical changes over time, becoming more powerful from match to match.
• Battle your way through 3 separate divisions of enemy contenders, increasing your network value to one day compete in the ultimate fight for freedom … the Nexagon.
• Gain extra credit by supporting your network sponsors through use of billboards and control of advertising locations.
• Earn sufficient credit to buy some heavy hitters who will send smaller enemy units crashing into buildings or flying right out of The Pit entirely.
• Take control of stationary weapons and send mortar fire raining down upon your rivals.

The career mode has you create your team starting with your Contender who then creates a Horde made up of several types of Thralls. Your team starts off with a modest amount of credits used to outfit the team and augment the arena prior to each match. You’ll even get your own ready-made Sanctum (home base) so you can jump right into the game.

During your career you can fight in the non-sanctioned skirmish matches to gain experience then take on the Network events. These “ticketed” events are part of the Network rated campaign and ultimately lead to the championship title match. Winning matches increases your standings and also earn you money to enhance your Sanctum and build up your Thralls, or recruit new ones.

There are several teams to choose from such as the Strunar, Tehkan, Olfrum and the Ghandros and each offers their own unique set of warriors and abilities. You then build your team by recruiting various Thralls at fees respective to their abilities. There are multiple unit types including the deceptively weak but deadly Brains, the Mole, a quick warrior, and a giant Golem that stomps around the level at a fraction of the speed of the rest of the team. The Drone is a mix somewhere between these two. Each unit has their own special skills that work independently and can also compliment each other to solve various tactical problems.

Now, it’s off to the fights. Pick your battle and you are dropped into the pre-mission setup screen where you place your units on a 2D grid around your Sanctum, or home base. Once the match begins the goal is to reach the other team’s sanctum and destroy the sphere in the center. Naturally, they will be trying to do the same so you have to mix a good offensive strategy with a respectable defense. It’s basically a high-tech and very violent version of Capture-the-Flag.

The two Sanctums are separated by a large battlefield that is full of traps and other unique architecture. This is where most of the action takes place and where the fun is to be had. You can smash statues and other decorative objects to earn cash or you can pose in front of sponsor’s video billboards to earn extra endorsement dollars. You can even set your own traps and do a little combat while you’re at it.

There are some nice subtle additions to the gameplay such as network ratings and crowd approval that are just as important as your win-loss record. You can boost your approval in several ways, one of the most popular is to decorate your sanctum with special “set pieces” then protect them during the battle while trying to deface as much of the enemy’s decor as possible.

Nexagon has a control scheme that loosely resembles Diablo or Dungeon Siege. The game is in true 3D so you can pan around the level and zoom in and out which tilts the camera down to eye level when you get close or gives you the ceiling cam up high. You can pick your units individually or group them by dragging the selection box over multiple fighters. Left and right clicking are contextually based on the item or destination you click on after picking the unit, or you can use a keyboard shortcut or pick from the menu along the bottom or a handy “Action Pie Menu” that pops-up near your mouse cursor.

Personally, I found the interface quite complicated at first, and it took me nearly an hour before I started to get comfortable with it. There are more than 40 keyboard commands and shortcuts used to play Nexagon and you will need to learn and use them all. I also had some problems navigating the camera and was constantly fighting for a good view. While you can pan around and zoom in and out using the mouse you are still forced to use the PGUP and PGDN keys to rotate the map, which is just a bit awkward.

In the end, there is some really deep gameplay and strategy here provided you are willing to invest the time and patience to learn the controls and tactics required to win and have fun while doing it. The tutorial is only of marginal help and you can probably expect a 1-2 hour learning curve before you are competitive.

Once in the game you can easily identify each of your Thralls by their unique visual design. The arenas are all quite impressive and feature plenty of unique architecture and clever design. You have limited freedom to create your own sanctum and install custom décor for increased crowd approval.

Visual effects are very nice and include animated textures, lighting, explosions, and other special effects that are generally combat related. Almost everything in the level is destructible to some degree so by the end of the match you can really have some heavily damaged arenas.

Nexagon supports high-resolutions and I had no trouble running the game at 1600x1200x32-bit. Obviously, the higher you run the game the more horsepower you need to feed it. The game can get quite complicated with plenty of action and animation and might slow down if you try to exceed the limits of your hardware.

Prior to the match you get some opening narration and instruction from the female announcer then during the match you get some over-the-top play-by-play commentary from a guy who sounds like he got fired from a game show and hired here.

There are plenty of sound effects like weapons and explosions but everything is often drowned out by the incessant cheers of the crowd that rise and fall with the level of action taking place down on the arena floor. All of these average components come together quite nicely to create an authentic replication of a futuristic televised sporting event.

There is also additional content you can download like the recently released Free Agent, basically a highly experienced and costly unit that you can purchase for your team. This is a great addition to the normal buying, selling, and trading of players much like any sports franchise mode.

While you are free to design your own Sanctums there is no actual level editor. Considering the building-block nature of the 20+ arenas included with the game it should have been easy to include a level editor so people could build their own custom arenas. It certainly would have gone a long way in extending the replay value.

There is a two-player component provided for either LAN or Internet and there is even an Online League website, but I didn’t see that much activity. I’m not sure if everyone is still trying to master the game in solo play or people are just casually playing outside of any organized events.

While I don’t feel comfortable offering a blanket recommendation for this game I would encourage anyone who is remotely interested to check out the demo that offers two arenas and two pre-made teams. If you enjoy the demo then chances are you will love the game.