Resource management is the key. That and tromping on your foes, wiping out their resistence and hearing the lamentations of ... Ok, perhaps that is going a tad far.

Thandor: The Invasion, from Innonics and JoWooD Productions is a real-time strategy game, built in the traditions of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Sierra Studios' Ground Control, and featuring a solid graphics package that is big on the details.

Smoke billows from the twin stacks on your headquarters as the machine pumps out a new xenite mine. You will need that in order to mine the golden ore floating on the planet surface. A tritium pump is necessary to recover the blue shining ore that will give you the power to run all the other factories necessary to produce the armament needed to survive against your foes.

The background of the game is this: 10 years prior to the dates of this game, the Golraths invaded and conquered vast areas of space. The remaining planets formed an alliance to fight back and were successful in ousting the Golrath invaders. But without an common foe, the alliance soon began to battle internally and the once-friendly forces fell into disarray. It is all-out warfare for the resources of the galaxy, with each side building, developing, playing the diplomatic game or battling for dominion in the world.

Your task is outlined quite well in the pre-mission statement, though some of the scenarios smack more of the 'king-of-the-hill' philosophy rather than civilization building. For example, in the first of the 19 single game scenarios (or three campaigns), you are pitted against three opponents. Your job is to build quickly, eliminate your enemies from the sparse terrain and claim all the resources available. Should you defeat a foe, you add all the mining they have done to your side.

There are some problems with this program. Thandor was developed by a German company. In the tutorial, which walks you through the various phases of the game, some of the references (and corresponding words) are in German. And there is breakdown in the instructions given. In the tutorial about the research phase of the game, you are instructed to click on the blue button next to the factory where you want the research to take place. What blue button? It never appeared. And when rebooting the scenario, the game jumped into another facet entirely, never fully allow that phase of the tutorial to take place. Computer error?  Not likely. This program only requires a 233 MMX Pentium computer, and the host computer was an MMX capable PIII 800. That sounds like, looks like and acts like a bug.

That aside, this program feature terrific graphics. The terrain detail is wonderful, and the combat action is first-rate. Smoke begins to billow from a structure on the verge of annihilation, the guns flare as their fire tracer rounds into the enemy, and the explosions come complete with falling debris.

The controls are relatively standard for this type of game. If you have played any of the aforementioned programs, or any other group unit space combat sim, you are prepared to tackle this title with little, if not no, learning curve.

The audio is point-of-view. If you have the camera locked on the factories, you will be treated to a barrage of sound. The further you move from the factories, the more distant the sound becomes.

Thandor: The Invasion is a solid product, with terrific graphics and sound, and sports challenging real-time strategy game play. It is rated Teen for animated violence, though that rating is overblown for the violence in this program. It does support multi-player action over a network interface with up to eight players capable of participating in the battle. While this program looks good and plays well, it is a little weak in the script. The missions are tried and true, but that again is a drawback - it's been done before, and with a little more background to promote the storyline. This is a good program - it just isn't a great program.

Install: Easy
This product only asks for 136 megs of hard drive space, allowing the game to hop onto your system with no muss or fuss.

Gameplay: 8
Cutscenes bridge the gap between scenarios, but once into a mission, the action moves long at a wonderful pace.

Graphics: 8.5
Lush and detailed, the graphical elements of this program are a wonderful bit of eye candy.

Sound: 8.5
Absolutely wonderful, with sound related to perspective. There are some trite/average features, but the overall quality is well rendered.

Difficulty: 8
The difficulty settings are linked to a slider bar which will enable the player to set his, or her, degree of challenge. Though even at the lower levels, this program still provides a solid gaming experience.

Concept: 5
The script for this program is shop-worn. Alliances falling apart has been done, and the scenarios are of the 'king-of-the-hill' variety.

Multiplayer: 7.5
Yes, you can indulge in the solo effort, but in RTS games, the real challenge comes in going up against other human foes. This game provides a nice way to do just that.

Overall: 7
While this is a good-looking and wonderful-sounding product, it still falls upon the plot to deliver something unique to the experience. This fails to do that. There is you, and there is the enemy. Make friends or make war - it is that simple. Thandor: The Invasion fails to offer anything innovative to the genre, and simply falls back to the texturing to make this a program worth looking at. While that is well and good, gamers today (and this is a hope) would like a little more than that.