226: Storm Master

Number 226
(5.8 points)
Storm Master
1992: 72

Resource management is much more of a desktop computer genre than a console one, and Storm Master gives things a unique fantasy twist.

Basically, there are two islands, Eolia and Sharkaania, and they are at war. You must rule Eolia and guide the country to victory over the Sharkaanians. You are assisted in this by the Council of Seven (although there appears to be nine of them) who govern different aspects of your kingdom. You collect taxes, allocate resources to various means of production, build flying ships and so on. There are so-called 3D flying segments when your airships can go into battle, and graphically the game is very well presented.

I'm sorry, but I've given up on this game. As part of this project, I play every game and at least try to make some progress, but I draw the line here. The entry in the 1992 list says the game is "easily accessible", which couldn't be further from the truth. After reading the manual and the magazine review, I still can't make any sense of what exactly you have to do in the game. Everything has illogical made-up names, the menus consist of pretty pictures which rely on you clicking on certain parts of the screen, and there's almost no text explaining anything at all. The manual simply explains what all the buttons do, but no more: unlike Deuteros, a similar kind of game, there is no tutorial to guide you into the game and explain exactly how everything works. All I can see online is people saying how much they enjoyed the game, but personally it's been one of the most frustrating experiences of this list.

Recommended TOSEC disk(s):
Storm Master (1992)(Silmarils)[cr CSL]