Perry Rhodan - Operation Eastside

IBM PC (or compatible), min. Win95, 486 DX, 33 MHz, DirectX compatible SVGA graphics card (640 × 480), 16 MB RAM, 2x CD-ROM, Win95 compatible sound card, mouse, 60 MB free hard disk space

medium

1 CD-ROM

language

German

Current version

1.13d

Age rating

USK

Perry Rhodan - Operation Eastside is a global strategy game by Spellbound Entertainment from 1998. The scenario of the game is based on the content of the German science fiction novel series Perry Rhodan . The player chooses his faction from different races of the series, with which he tries to build a Milky Way empire and to defend it against the competitors.

Gameplay

The game principle corresponds to the genre of global strategy games , similar to Master of Orion . The player develops a colony on a planet, can use the resources gained in this way to build a space fleet and thus colonize other planets or conquer opposing colonies. The opponents pursue similar goals, so that at some point there will ultimately be conflicts over colonizable planets. Victory is possible either by colonizing a predetermined number of solar systems or by eliminating all opponents.

The player can choose between six races - Terrans (humans), Arkonides, Macaws, Akons, Topsider and Springers - which are borrowed from the booklet novels. Then there is the unplayable race of the blues. Each breed has certain advantages and disadvantages over others. The size of the star cluster in which the game is played can be determined before the game starts. This is shown as a three-dimensional star map. Stars have a spectral class whose surface temperature and the resulting conditions of the orbiting planets and moons are taken into account. Both planets and moons, except gas planets and celestial bodies without solid surfaces, can be colonized.

The economic development of the colonies is driven by the construction of buildings which are identical for all races. In addition to residential and supply buildings for the colonists, industrial facilities as well as space ports and shipyards are required. Each building can be built as often as required, provided that a suitable building site, the necessary resources and free colonists are available. The operation of the buildings also requires resources and manpower. The economic cycles are thus interlinked and also depend on the level of development of the building. In addition, the environmental conditions of the settlement planet influence economic efficiency. High gravity and, above all, temperatures that are too high or too low lead to significantly lower production depending on the degree of difficulty. Correspondingly, colonies that are too far or too close to the central star may not develop at all or only with buildings of the highest development level. Transporting resources and colonists from one colony to another is also possible.

Research also plays an important role. To do this, certain buildings must be constructed and operated. Four levels can be explored independently of one another in eight categories. In addition, there is research into a weapon technology against the blues as soon as the player has entered into combat with them. By reaching a new technology level, higher quality buildings or better spaceship components are available.

By varying four parameters, the player can create different types of spaceships. It is not possible to equip it with special systems, but each spaceship can optionally receive a landing unit for establishing a new colony. The design of the spaceships depends on the respective race, but in principle only six size classes can occur.

As a further economic element, the player can trade with the other playable races. In this way, resources and technological advances can be exchanged. Every trade leads to an improvement in the relationship. Further diplomatic interaction is only the conclusion or termination of alliances or defensive agreements as well as a declaration of war or a request for peace.

Battles are fought with space fleets of a maximum of 50 ships on a two-dimensional, hexagonal map on a turn-based basis. When attacking colonies, the celestial body in question takes the place of a spaceship and, if planetary weapons have been installed, can fire at the attacker.

The length of the game depends heavily on the level of difficulty selected. This is explained by the increasing administrative burden as both the number of colonies and the number of buildings in each colony increase. This duration can be shortened by an automatic management of the planets. A skilled player can, however, advance the development of a colony much more efficiently and quickly than the automatic administration.

development

The player does not need to have any previous knowledge of the series of magazines and does not gain any significant information advantage through such. Ultimately, the playable races were put together according to their desired properties in accordance with common patterns. The roles created in this way (aggressive breed, innovative breed, balanced breed, dealer breed) were then filled with suitable terms from the series of magazines. Technical details that are described in the series of booklets were used here as names for buildings or spaceship components regardless of their actual meaning. The same applies to names and titles.

Christopher Franke wrote the soundtrack . The game program contained a serious bug in its original version, whereby memory space was reserved for each round, but not released again. This made the computer slower and slower until it finally crashed. This was fixed by a patch .

reception

“You don't have to be a Perry Rhodan fan to like this game - but it helps a lot. […] The bottom line is that Operation Eastside is little more than a light version of the Microprose classic Master of Orion 2 . But as the saying goes: Better copied well than invented badly yourself. "

- Manfred Duy : PC player

“Operation Eastside is probably not a competitor for the genre king 'Masters of Orion 2', if only because the game deliberately relies on simpler and less sophisticated gameplay for the benefit of a broad target group. Only when it came to control, of all things, did the programmers sometimes succumb to the 'German disease' of making everything a little more complicated than necessary. But you can find your way into it [...] and will then be rewarded with new game elements. "

- Joe Nettelbeck : Power Play

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c PC player
↑ Yves Günther: Perry Rhodan: Operation Eastside: Last update published. In: Gameswelt. Retrieved September 10, 2019 (German).
↑ ^a ^b Power Play

[:01-1] PC player

[2] Yves Günther: Perry Rhodan: Operation Eastside: Last update published. In: Gameswelt. Retrieved September 10, 2019 (German).

[:02-3] Power Play