by Robert Gidley

Created on: January 07, 2009   Last Updated: November 21, 2011

Space War Commander is a Real-Time Strategy game set in outer space, where you need to use your brain and not your reflexes to win. You even get a "Pause" button so you can stop everything while you try to figure out what to do next (or answer a phone call or get some work done).

You have a star base. The bad guys have a star base. Your goal is to blow up the star base belonging to the bad guys. Pretty simple, huh?

You accomplish your goal by building different types of ships-some of them are good for shooting other ships, some are good for trading, others are good for defending. Ships cost money, though, so you can't just build all your ships at once and win. And to make money, you need to control planets and asteroids.

The bad guy, of course, is in the same situation-he's building ships and trying to control planets and asteroids and doing his best to blow up your star base.

To further complicate matters, there's a time limit. It seems someone tripped the self-destruct switch on your base (although it's not explained why, exactly, you would put a large bomb on your own base and connect it to a timer, but then TV shows never explain this either). Anyway, time is running out and you have 20 minutes to conquer the galaxy (less if the bad guys shoot up your star base).

What all this boils down to is a fairly intense, and frequently frustrating, bout of gaming. You don't have to micro-manage as much as some other Real-Time Strategy games, but you also don't have as many options as those games give you.

And the time constraint means that you can't build slowly and concentrate on defense with some levels, there's just time to build a batch of ships and launch them all at once at the enemy.

The good news is that this will run on practically any PC (sorry, Mac fans, no galaxy-conquering for you). The graphics are basic and the game won't tax your computer.

If you like this sort of game, you probably already own better versions. Space War Commander is best suited for someone who wants to dabble in real-time strategy gaming without all the complications of the more intricate games.

This is not the game for you if you get frustrated easily (or even not-so-easily) or if you don't like having to repeat the same level multiple times.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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