Developer: Software Engineering, Inc

Publisher: Software Engineering, Inc

Release Date: 1995

Price: $29.95

Gravity Wells is 3X space colony game that has you fighting other factions for resources on a planet. The goal of the game is to claim all of the planet in the sector you are in for yourself but watch out there are three other factions that are doing the same thing! This game is very hard to control and at first glance you have no idea what you are doing. In fact the very first thing that you need to do is read the manual for the game which is pretty long. You will understand that all ships are controlled with the arrow keys and the down arrow is the fire button. Why? I honestly don’t know.

You have other factions that are out to destroy each other as well as you as everyone fights to colonize different planets. This sounds easy enough until you control the ship. As said before you control it with the arrow keys but watch out, you are going to go fast, and the framerates start to stutter and then there isn’t any slowdown. You have a radar in the upper left hand corner that shows you where all the different factions are as well as the planets. The graphics are colored wireframe which provide a good retro experience, but the problem lies with the control. The only way to describe it is if you have ever played asteroids for the arcade then you will know how it feels. The sounds are taken from Star Trek some are just generic SXF so there isn’t anything to be amazed here.

The game tries to be very in depth but there is something lacking when there isn’t any kind of diplomatic resolution. Its just divide and conquer and to extent, it works but most of the time you can just sit there and the enemy will destroy itself prompting you to go and conquer the rest. The left hand side there are tabs you can hit to see what resources can be produce but that its. Its bare minimum 3X but if you have the time to try this out and you need a quick retro fix, try it out. Maybe you will like it.

~ Retro Mark

Reviewed: 05/24/2020