There are a wide range of civilization programs on the market and most deal with some period of mankind’s past. But this is a cyber world, and who says that historically based programs are the only way to go.

Simon & Schuster Interactive, Neo and JoWooD certainly don’t think so. Their program, Amazons and Aliens, visits fantasy races, exotic realms and interesting architecture. And while this program may not be the most challenging civ game on the shelf, it certainly is entertaining.

There are three races in this program – the  Amazons, a race of squat blue guys called the Pimmons and ant-like bugs known as the Sajkhi. The program presents quite a number of ways to play: you can enter single-player mode and choose between the introductory program (which provides a simple overview to the program), campaign, or never-ending game. The campaign is a series of missions which seem somewhat simple, while the never-ending game just goes on and on. You can view that as sort of a cyber city that you control

In the campaign, each race is challenged to accomplish a goal. Once completed, that particular mission ends and you begin anew with different goals. Opening missions can appear quite easy. For example: the Sajkhi are facing a dry spell and so must store up food and supplies. In order to do that they must build storage areas. For the Amazons, you must send scouts out, find a new area to settle and then build a second city. The Pimmons are a fun-loving people and just want a tavern for their new city.

Now in order to accomplish these tasks, you must research them. In order to be able to research them, you must build a research building, educate one of your transporters so that he, or she, may occupy the building (which means you must have a school for training) and you must have funds allocated for research. Your general workers are known as transporters. In order to have enough transporters, you have to have dwellings. Everything you build needs stone and wood, so you need to train stonecutters and lumberjacks.

By now you can probably see the cyclical nature of the program.

The program does vary in some control elements from many of the other programs on the market, but there is enough overlap to make it semi-intuitive. The manual, which is enclosed with the CD, is simple and fills in the gaps nicely.

The graphical quality of the program is also nice. The tiny characters present a different look, and the buildings are quite unique for this gaming genre. The terrain is fogged, you won’t see it until you explore the black areas surrounding your village. The program, which supports 3D cards, is nicely rendered. The textures are rich and vibrant. The water elements may be a little flat, but the rocks and grassy areas do have a nice look.

The audio is average for this type of program.

The game operates in a version of real time, which means you have to wait for training and research, and for buildings to be completed. But dwellings, if built not too far from the city hall so that the transporters can get building materials to the site quickly, only take a couple of minutes to go up.

If there is a failure to this program it is in the packaging. Featuring computerized models of the three races, the scantily clad Amazon is featured most prominent with a red banner proclaiming the program to be “Bizarre and Addictive.” In fact, you can’t see any more than tiny little characters moving across the monitor, and this program does have a uniqueness in terms of species and buildings, and is enjoyable. But looking at the package, adults may get the notion that this is a program that younger children should not see. There seems to be very little here that a 10-year old couldn’t see.

Amazons & Aliens is a civilization game that requires thought, and resource management. This product is like any other civ game in that you will encounter hostile races, and be forced to either build embassies or go to war with them. Nonetheless, this program is rated Teen for comic mischief and animated violence and supports multiplayer gaming over the Internet or a local area network (LAN).

Install: Easy. Though it may be an unexciting install, it does go quickly.

Gameplay: 8. This program moves along very nicely as you continue to grow and expand your population. The game board is shrouded and will only reveal itself as you explore.

Graphics: 8. Very nice graphical elements that are not typical of civ programs.

Sound: 7.5. The sounds are not the best in the genre, but it does provide solid ambient noises and audio prompts.

Difficulty: 6. This program has sacrificed the difficulty for the unusual inhabitants. Unfortunately it is rated for an older audience and won’t provide a great challenge for experienced players in the genre.

Concept: 7. This is another civ game, but give the publishers and developers bonus points for the unusual races.

Overall: 7.5. While this may not be the best civ game on the market, it does find a nice little niche. It is not overly challenging in terms of resource management, but the strangeness of this world’s inhabitants and their civilizations make this a nice little program.