Internet Archive: MPOGD Review of Earth: 2025 Circa February 1998

From:  http://web.archive.org/web/19980703081908/http://www.mpogd.com/strategy/earth2025/earth2025.html :


Rating:

3 of 5 stars, great depth, but with persistent cheating.

Full Description

Earth: 2025 is a turn-based strategy game designed to be played directly on the web. The game is played thru your browser, and requires no downloads of any kind. Thousands of players can interact and compete thru their countries. The lack of graphics makes the game more responsive and run faster. Games are very competitive and usually last a couple of months at a time. Best of all, you can play for free, the game is supported by advertising.

Outside Sources:
Solaria Games Logo
The Official Earth 2025 Website


Review

By Chris Krueger, Editor of the MPOG Directory

I've been playing Earth 2025 for 3 months now. In this time I have gotten a good feel for the game, and usually have a country in the top 150 (out of 1500). This review is current as of 2-22-98.

Graphics and Sound:

Not applicable. This is a web based strategy game and graphics aren't needed.

Gameplay Engine:

There are currently 3 types of play to choose from: bottom frames, side frames, and no frames. The frames versions are essentially the same, and are organized very efficiently with one click access to all aspects of your country. The no frames version is organized well also, the only diffrence is that you have to scroll to the bottom of each page in order to move to a diffrent page. The key to building a great country varies to your taste, you can do it thru military, espionage, or domesticly. The servers are fast and I only have problems logging on about twice a month.

People and the Online Society:

Your either liked, or your hated, that pretty much sums up the interaction with other players. I have sent messages to countries and either I was ignored, helped, or returned the next day to find out I was attacked. Many players are in alliances, and this is one of the strongest components of the game. Thru allinaces you can gain new friends, and enemies. Although, trade sanctions are imposed on you for attacking a much weaker country, there are essentially no barriers to protect weak countries from the strong ones. New players are under protection for 100 turns, and you can only lose 10% of your assets. The game is balanced so a starting player can catch up to an experienced player if they build efficiently enough.

Overall Opinion:

At first, I was not impressed with this game at all, it seemed boring, but the more I played it, the more I began to enjoy it. The game has alot of depth, and varies upon how you build your country. The only major downfall is persistent cheating in the larger games (A & B), thus if you want to play a game with a greater chance of not having cheaters to compete against, you must join a random game, which will reduce the chance of getting into a game with your friends to form an alliance. But, once you get past the cheating, this is a good game to entertain you for around half an hour a day.