Jamie Pauls
I have played a fair number of games since I got my first PC back in the early 90s. Many titles have come and gone, mostly by different developers. Occasionally, however, one game developer produces a number of titles. Sometimes they are related, and other times they are not. One company that has produced a number of games for the blind is GMA Games. In this article, we will take a look at three games developed by David Greenwood, founder of GMA Games, that fit into a category I call "war games." Each game has a distinct appeal, but all three share common elements that have drawn me back time and again over the years.
Lone Wolf is a World War II adventure where you are in command of a WWII submarine. You must complete a series of missions with specific objectives. In addition, the game provides experienced players with the tools to create missions of their own, which they then can share with the gaming community. Mission objectives include destroying oil drums and, of course, killing the enemy to name just a couple examples.
In GMA Tank Commander, you drive a tank across beaches, into wooded areas, and through towns. As in Lone Wolf, you must complete missions that are assigned to you, such as destroying intelligence bases, neutralizing the enemy, and even disabling a speeding train. Don't forget to collect ammunition along the way.
Perhaps the most ambitious of the three war games offered by GMA Games is Time of Conflict. In this game, you control a number of different military units including infantry, war ships, destroyers, and submarines. You can discover new lands, manufacture units on your new property, and fight against an enemy that comes at you from the opposite side of the game board. Between the custom designed and computer-generated maps, the game play possibilities are virtually limitless.
Common Elements of Game Play
There are a number of things that set these three games apart from many other games that you may have played in the past. The action in all three games takes place independent of what you do. Enemies will sneak up on you and most likely attack if you do nothing but sit still for a few minutes. If you don't pause game play before you walk to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, chances are you will have lost the game or you will be in serious trouble by the time you return. Game play is suspended when you need to take a look at your screen to determine information such as where your enemy is in relation to yourself, and, in some cases, when you need to make decisions about what your next move should be or what weapons you will use to destroy the enemy. Don't worry, though. There are plenty of times when you must make split-second decisions that will make or break you when it comes to successfully completing a game mission.
The musical score in all of these games is top-notch. I have never found the music in these games to be intrusive in any way. Of course, you can adjust the volume of music and sounds to your liking, or get rid of the music altogether if that is your preference.
All sounds in the games are of top quality as well. You will find yourself immersed in the sounds of battle as you play. The only voice acting in these games is in the form of radio transmissions that you receive alerting you to trouble and spelling out your mission objectives. Game action is synchronized with the voice of your screen reader in a way that I have seldom experienced. Many vintage games by other developers are self-voicing, requiring you to turn off your screen reader of choice. Not so with the three games covered here.
Each game has an extensive amount of documentation accompanying it. I would like to see the user manuals available from the main menu of these games; that is not currently the case. However, text versions of the user manuals are not hard to find from within the folder where the game is installed. The help system in these games involves using the right and left arrow keys to expand and collapse a tree view of sorts. You expand topics with right arrow and tab to the relevant section of the user guide you wish to read. This didn't always work for me as well as I would have liked, but it is still a good way to read up on game play topics of interest.
Unique Aspects of Game Play
Lone Wolf is the oldest of the three GMA war games reviewed here. The game features a mix of edge-of-your-seat action with moments of almost hypnotic calm. After completing the tutorial mission where you can get the hang of targeting and destroying approaching enemy ships, you plot your course to accomplish your next mission. It takes time to arrive at your destination, and the sound of your ship gliding through the ocean is quite calming. Don't get too relaxed, though, because you may find yourself executing an emergency dive to evade enemy torpedoes and depth charges. The movement of your submarine in the water is quite realistic. Be prepared to deal with ocean currents and drift when you perform maneuvers such as turning your vessel or coming to a stop before colliding with an oil drum. You can speed up the game play clock to make time pass faster, but you increase the risk that an enemy or an obstacle will catch you unawares if you do this. Once you encounter an enemy in the game, the clock returns to normal time.
There is no time for quiet reflection when playing GMA Tank Commander. The enemy is all around you, and your tank is on the move. You must receive your orders, orient yourself to your surroundings, drive your tank across various types of terrain, and destroy the enemy or be killed yourself. Even though there aren't as many missions to complete in Tank Commander as there are in Lone Wolf, you will still find yourself spending many hours engrossed in this game. The music is fast-paced and driving, and the battle sounds are stellar. The radio in your tank not only gives you your mission objectives, but tells you when the enemy is approaching and when you are taking serious damage. This is the only game for the blind where I actually felt as though I was driving a vehicle. The sound of your tank colliding with a bridge is almost as electrifying as missiles being fired at you from a helicopter flying overhead.
While not giving you the adrenaline rush provided by the first two games discussed here, Time of Conflict involves the most planning. Do you wish to fight a battle based on a WWII scenario, a Star Wars plot, or a battle scene of your own making? Would you rather fight mostly on land, on the water, or a combination? Do you want to have an equal advantage as that of your enemy, or would you rather have a more lopsided battle? Will you manufacture infantry, engineers, tanks, ships, or bridges? How many transport vessels and how much equipment will you deploy in order to explore new lands? It takes time to build your defenses, and you never know when the enemy will show up, so don't expect a lot of fast-paced action with this game. Having said that, I have probably spent more hours playing Time of Conflict than Lone Wolf and GMA Tank Commander combined. I'm not the best strategist around, and I get defeated a lot, but I enjoy trying. As with the other games mentioned, sounds and music are of excellent quality and the action takes place in real time, although this game is more turn-based so you do have a bit more control over when things will happen. Time of Conflict is a "fog of war" game. This means that you don't immediately know everything about your surroundings. You gain knowledge as you explore.
The Bottom Line
I do not currently have a favorite pick of the three games reviewed in this article. I enjoy playing them all, and I move from one to the other frequently. If you step away from Time of Conflict for a while, you may find that you need to delete a saved game and start over simply because you don't recall the details of the current game configuration. Another option is to make some notes to yourself as you develop your strategy.
Lone Wolf costs $30. GMA Tank Commander and Time of Conflict cost $35 each. You can upgrade from version 1.0 of Time of Conflict to version 2.0 for $9.95.
You must have a free account with GMA Games to order games. You can also download a demo of the games so you can try them out before you decide to buy.
Although these games involve killing the enemy, I would not consider the depictions of violence to be graphic considering the nature of the subject matter.
Stay tuned for one more title from GMA Games in a future article. Happy gaming!
This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.
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