Review by: Chris Harding

Cyberspace -- a realm of gameplay that has remained relatively untapped. For most of us the inside of a computer doesn't sound like a fun, exciting, or even an interesting place to be. In fact we really don't give our computers much thought until we have a problem with them, then however, it's as if the world has come to an end. Over the years we've seen glimpses of life inside a computer with the 1982 movie "Tron" and the dangers of computer AI gone awry in "Wargames", or its effects on humans in "The Lawnmower Man." But perhaps the most significant look into the world of Cyberspace came from our own computer game industry, when Origin and Looking Glass teamed up to provide us with System Shock in 1993. Its sequel has only served to highlight the seemingly endless hazards and possibilities found there. Taking a cue from the critically acclaimed series, relative newcomer Nexus Information Systems & Marketing offers their take on a world controlled by computer AI systems in AI Wars: The Awakening. In AI Wars problems are rampant with AI; systems are evolving faster than humans can contain them -- they are becoming sentient and self-aware, they are controlling themselves and the NET.

Taking place in the 21st century AI Wars: The Awakening brings to life a world where every business, home, college and university, and military group is wired into the NET. You might be asking yourself, what's the big deal? Unlike today's Internet, the NET is one worldwide computer network incorporating all the information from previous networks. In essence, it is the world's electronic data storage and library. A network of this size, however, presents unique problems in navigation, data collection, and data usage. With that in mind, expert applications, or agents, have been created to collect and interpret information for their outside human masters. Technology advances in virtual reality have gone even further than controlling these agents via a keyboard. Scientists at MIT invented a direct neural mechanism that allows you to connect directly with your agent giving you greater control and flexibility. The first explorers of this cyberspace world were, and are called, cybernauts.

These days cybernauts have become known as avatars and it is this role you take upon yourself. AI Wars: The Awakening gives you three goals or quests to undertake as an avatar -- become immortal, achieve sentience, or control the NET. The remarkable thing about these goals is that you can undertake one, two, or all three at the same time but I'll talk about them a little later. Once you decide which goal or objectives you are going to pursue jack in to the NET's cyberspace and begin your quest. Regardless of whether you are attempting to control the NET, have your agent become sentient, or achieve immortality the basic tasks needed to achieve this are the same.

Becoming comfortable with the interface and gameplay is extremely important as this game involves a little more than simply shooting your opponents. As such I recommend playing the tutorial first. The tutorial walks you through data decryption, collection, and management step by step. It also teaches you how to masquerade while hacking into a system for its passwords. Another essential part of AI Wars, buying software and software upgrades and selling corporate secrets, is illustrated as well. This tutorial is a new addition to AI Wars: The Awakening, only becoming available in the version 1.05 patch; and was severely needed as the documentation that shipped with the title is horribly inadequate. The 20-page CD manual provides little in-game help and not much more information. In fact all of it and much more can be accessed on the company's website.

While playing, the most important task is to collect data blocks. They are the lifeline of the NET and in reality its currency. Sometimes you can just pick them up, while other times you will have to use decryption software to access them or even hack into corporations. Even then there is no guarantee that you can access the blocks because in your decryption attempt the data may be destroyed. Once you've gathered data blocks you can either sell them to a market bot or use them yourself. These bots are an integral part of the game because if you don't have the right equipment you can never be successful. Purchasing a level 6 Data Manager when yours is level 1 is a great coup. Just as data collection is a continuous task so are the purchases or sales you make using it. As I stated before, finding data blocks is the number one priority to advance in your quest or quests, second to that is finding a market bot and selling them, and thirdly if you don't sell them they can used to research new technology that also furthers your quest or quests.

Controlling the NET is perhaps the most difficult of the three goals to accomplish. In order to succeed you must access each of the key systems of the NET, enter the system's core, and place a back door for its continued use. Entering the system is easy but gaining entry to its private nodes is another story entirely. All private nodes require passwords, with each entry point having a separate password. These nodes are guarded by warden ICE and if your hacking/cracking ability is not up to par, you don't have the password, or aren't using masquerading software the warden will detect you, label you as an intruder, and trigger an alarm. With this alarm comes reinforcements in the form of black ICE.

Furthermore your identity is recorded as an intruder to that system and unless you reach the system's core and place a back door into it, you will forever be branded as such. A back door however will cancel the alarm and give you a continuous access point. Yet, even placing a back door is no guarantee of success -- system administrators have been known to find and remove them. With that in mind it is imperative that you continuously monitor all the systems you have visited. In addition, the state of the NET and the information found there is ever changing and expanding. Over the course of the game you will find new data blocks in systems you had previously visited. It is these types of changes that give AI Wars: The Awakening high replay value.

Immortality is achieved when you transfer your consciousness and memories into the NET. It isn't an easy task, you have to develop six different technologies and then use both an organic computer and a positronic computer to complete the transfer. The development of a technology requires that you research it thoroughly and make the required breakthroughs. Some of these breakthroughs can be purchased but the majority of them are found in secure research centers and again your hacking/cracking skills will be heavily used. The six technologies required to achieve immortality are Concept Analyzer, Personality Replicator, Deep Neural Interface, Memory Ingram Mapping Device, and Emotion Regulator.

The third game type in AI Wars: The Awakening is for your agent to achieve sentience: thinking and reacting of its own free will, becoming more than just a computer program. For this to be achieved breakthroughs have to be made and technologies have to be developed. For sentience to occur your agent will need to collect lots of data to learn and evolve. Unlike immortality you only need to develop four technologies instead of six. What makes the game types and goals so interesting is that in working to achieve immortality you have nearly achieved sentience for your agent along the way, as they share many of the same technology goals.

AI Wars: The Awakening also incorporates multiplayer over a LAN or via today's Internet giving players three different gameplay options. These game types are standard deathmatch, NET control, and monetary control; can be played in teams or as single players. As in the single player, you have the opportunity to buy software upgrades and sell corporate secrets. One of the neat things about team multiplayer is that if one team member reaches the end of a level, all team members are automatically transported to the next level.

Graphics: Graphically AI Wars: The Awakening lacks the crispness of current next-generation first person perspective titles. Everything from the polygon counts to the textures look as if they're a little dated. In many ways I felt like I was playing the original System Shock with 3D enhancements. Granted, the cyberspace of AI Wars doesn't remotely resemble that found in System Shock, but it does have many characteristics to those of Citadel Station -- interlocking gray walls and mechanical bugs crawling on the floor. A lot of the characters and enemies were just too plain, lacking the detail I have come to expect from today's releases.

Weapon effects weren't at all what I was expecting either, but shooting blocks of numbers at each other certainly wasn't it. In retrospect, it does sort of make sense since you're inside a computer, but the visual translation leaves a lot to be desired. Entering and traversing the data streams was an interesting experience, however and I kept thinking that I would be pulled or pushed to places unknown as soon as I entered. When I wasn't, the data stream didn't seem like it could possibly be real -- I was the only one in the stream and there was no recognizable data anywhere. There are some certifiably weird graphical styles at play here, some effective, some not.

Interface: The interface is simplistic and well designed, which is a decent accomplishment for a complex title such as this. The interface supports keyboard remapping, and its default layout is fairly well designed and therefore won't cause too much pain and suffering in trying to find a control scheme that works. The number of programmed hotkeys makes accomplishing routine tasks such as switching between software easy and painless. This is probably the only area in which the jewel case manual does its job by giving you easy to read quick reference pages, though I can't say much else for the documentation, it's abysmal. Overall, a lot of the standardized first person shooter interface rules have been applied, though I would have appreciated some of the more recent advancements to be included, such as leaning, but unfortunately none exist.

Gameplay: Gameplay is one of AI Wars most redeeming qualities, but it requires the player to overcome hurdles in order to enjoy it fully. On the positive side of the scale, the world is huge and the gameplay allows a lot of freeform exploration. However, this directly translates into the player having to spend a great deal of time trying to find specific places. Even after these locations are found, AI Wars has nothing in place to help you find them again, and unless you take up cartography you're in for a lot of searching. If you can get past that logistical challenge, AI Wars: The Awakening gives players a lot of content to uncover as well as new and unique ways to play the game. For example, when beginning anew you choose between three objectives or any combination thereof for winning. This was a welcome, if a little bit strange, way to begin the quest. Just about every title I have ever played has a specific paths to achieve victory, but even those offerings did not give players the option to take all the paths at the same time, or identify what criterion they would use for success. This new idea in gameplay goals and objectives breathes a little bit of new air into this ever expanding genre.

Sound FX: Sound FX can best be described as a series of blips and bleeps, similar to Pong. Even amidst an intense battle there wasn't much variation to them, and only minutes into play I adapted to minimize their inclusion based upon the headaches they spawned. Probably the best sound effects can be found in the tutorial dialogue, but they really aren't part of the gameplay and therefore don't amount to much.

Musical Score: The music is a series of computer generated drum beats, nothing more. Interspersed with them are the bleeps, blurbs, and hums of a computer booting up, installing or deleting software, or shutting down. I guess some people would choose to call this music, but I do not. There's a real lack of atmosphere created by the incessant chirping, which may have been an attempt to make things feel more like cyberspace. This was a bad choice, and has backfired by doing exactly what the designers didn't want -- removing the player from his existence in cyberspace and reminding him that this is only a game.

Intelligence & Difficulty: This is not an easy title to become familiar with, and it has a somewhat steep and lengthy learning curve. Nexus could have made it infinitely better had they just included a mapping function. Something, anything, to let players know where they've been, thus avoiding countless hours spent wandering aimlessly. The days of having to write down where a door will take you are dead and gone, especially based upon the size of the world. Not many of us have spare graph paper lying around. If you can get past the lost syndrome, you'll still have to contend with the seemingly omnipotent artificial intelligence system. Again, without a mapping system it was difficult to find market bots and buy software to masquerade myself, which left me vulnerable to the traps of Cyberspace. Without a masquerade, hacking into a system is virtually impossible. Like most of the game, the AI itself is strange, acting more like a computer than something actually intelligent. I'm not sure that was an intended effect, as things seem too robotic, which removes immersion and creates separation from the player and the experience.

Overall: AI Wars: The Awakening gives fans of action/sneaker/RPG hybrids an appetizer to nibble on while waiting for more anticipated offerings such as Deus Ex. It attempts to rekindle the magic of the original System Shock, but lacks the story, fear factor and overall style of that hall of fame title. It is an interesting game that offers a great deal in the way of replayability and is unique in most aspects of its gameplay. If you have the patience required to memorize the levels you will have a decent time, but if you are looking for a really intense, immersive experience, there are better ones to be found.