If there's one genre on the PC that gets as much attention on the PC as first-person shooters, it's real-time strategy games. You can't walk into a Babbage's store or one of its affiliates without seeing at least one RTS. That's because almost every publisher out there has released a strategy game at one time or another. Now Microids has added another RTS to the list: Far Gate. Developed by Super-X Studios, Far Gate brought home the Audience Choice Award at the 2000 Independent Games Festival. Does it deliver? Being released on a platform that's already flooded with real-time strategy games, Far Gate is an apple that doesn't fall too far from the RTS tree.

Far Gate tells the story of aliens vs. humans. Humans are no longer content with living on Earth, a planet that is only a spec of dust when compared to the rest of the universe. So they decided to leave this place and build a colony on a new planet. 15 years later, something goes terribly wrong. Leaving Earth wasn't such a good idea after all, as they find that many Nue-Guyen alien lifeforms have infested the atmosphere. Going home isn't an option because, well, they no longer have one to go home to. Your only hope is an ex-black-market smuggler who goes by the name of Jacob Viscero. As Jacob, you'll command a small squadron of PDC units. Four ships and a probe are all you're given at first, so you will have to make do for now.

Voice-overs in video games are rarely spectacular, but how are we supposed to connect with the characters if their voices lack any emotion? Each character speaks in a stale, repetitive voice that fails to change even when the situation does. Granted, the characters say their lines without over-acting too much, an improvement over most of the games I've played this year. Still, they fail to bring any personality to the character they're portraying.

I found the gameplay mechanics to be both a joy and a royal pain. Generally, strategy games restrict you to a top-down or angled view, but Far Gate is different. In fact, its camera has absolutely no restrictions, which is both the best (and worst) feature in the game. You zoom in or out as far you want and angle the camera in virtually any direction, which is great at first, because it gives you the illusion that you have complete control over your surroundings. That is not the case, though. Because of the open-ended nature of the camera, I often found myself struggling to achieve the perfect view. The in-game tutorial says that you can right click on anything in space to re-center your camera. But doing that opens another problem. Instead of centering on the action, clicking the right mouse button will zoom in on the selected spacecraft, forcing you to waste time zooming out and resituate the camera before you can get back to controlling your fleet. In a heated battle, this would have been the end for me. Dying has never been a fun part of gaming, and dying because of a poor camera system and not a lack of skill is even worse.

The on-screen control panels are very impressive. Each of the four control panels -- Squad, Unit, Task and Comm -- are angled away from the screen until one of them is highlighted. Then the chosen panel will quickly angle forward, giving you access to all of its controls. To lock the control panels in place, simply click on the outer edge of the frame. Very cool.

Arranging an attack on the aliens is quick and easy; hold down Ctrl and scroll over the spacecraft(s) you want to use, then release the buttons and click on your target. The problem I have with this, however, is how long it takes for the spacecrafts to catch up with each other. There are times when a couple of aliens will be attacking from the left, while others are headed straight for you in hopes of putting an end to your mission. Obviously, the best offense is a good defense: get them before they get you. So I launch an attack on the aliens to the left, and have a few ships take down the rest. While I'm busy killing a few of the enemies, I notice that my other ships are beginning to get away from me. Now more aliens are attacking and some of my best fighters are what seems like light-years away. By the time they get back here, I'll likely be dead, and there's no way my other ships can get through this game alone.

I understand that space is an enormous place beyond human comprehension, but this IS a video game. The developers seemed to have chosen realism over fun, which doesn't make any sense. Gamers (including myself) get frustrated by old PSone that have insanely long load times. If we can't stand to wait 20 seconds for a game to load, how can you expect us to wait two minutes or more for our ships to end up where we want them?

The visuals are excellent. It's apparent from the start that a great deal of has gone into designing the beautiful universe of Far Gate. No matter how far you zoom out, or how close you zoom in, everything moves at a smooth, consistent pace. Everything is crisp and clear; fog, jaggies and pixelation are not used to cover up any graphical mistakes because there aren't any.

Even with as many problems as Far Gate has, you could do a whole lot worse. I haven't played too many $20 games that were actually worth my time, but this was. Don't let my complaints chase you away. I certainly don't want to get anyone's hopes up, so it is impossible for me to overlook the overwhelming problems in the game. Definitely not for casual gamers -- only hardcore RTS fans will be able to appreciate the good in Far Gate. Others will get frustrated and quit before they get past the first level.

Rating: Far Gate is rated "E" for Everyone (ages six and above). It contains a minimal amount of violence.

Install: Easy
You won’t have too much trouble installing Far Gate. If you want the highest sound and picture quality possible, make sure you have 800 MegaBytes to spare though.

Gameplay: 6.0
The most important aspect of a video game is how well it plays. Thankfully, that’s one of the game’s strongest points. It‘s not overly exciting, but I did enjoy the multiplayer battles (when I got to play online, that is), and some of the single-player missions are a blast.

Graphics: 8 
The animation is impressive, to say the least. Ships, carriers and other spacecrafts move with great fluidity. Best of all, you don’t need the most advanced graphics card to get the best out of Far Gate’s visual effects.

Sound: 4
One word: awful. Even if the voice acting wasn’t bad, I still couldn’t give the sound a higher score because the music is so bad. If you have earplugs, install them now.

Concept: 5
While not as bad as most, the story of a black-market-smuggler-turned-hero isn't very entertaining.

Multiplayer: 5
As fun as the multiplayer is, finding someone to play it over the SpyGame Network takes forever. Thousands of gamers can be found playing checkers online day and night, but at 6pm, no one was playing Far Gate.

Overall: 5.5
Being one of the first games developed by Super-X Studios, Far Gate is a fairly decent title. Unfortunately, there are too many other big-name games out there that’ll swallow Far Gate whole. It has a lot of potential though, and if some of the camera problems are addressed in the sequel (assuming there is one), the Far Gate series could prevail as one of the greats.