Even before playing Outlive I had a good idea what I was getting into.  A quick glance at the box told me I was about to be playing a clone of one of my favorite games, namely Starcraft.  Immediately I braced myself for the disappointment I was sure I would face at the hands of yet another Starcraft clone (look up my review on Mission: Humanity if you want to see why).   

Installation was no problem.  I installed the full 600Mb version because I hate waiting for movies to load.  Rather quickly I was treated to a movie that illustrated the background of the world I would be immersed in for the next few hours.  

The back-story tells of the natural resource crisis of the 21st century.  Terrorist factions rise in hopes of controlling the limited resources and the World Council is formed by the economically dominant nations to "reestablish world order and ensure the survival of the human race". One of the councils major actions is the creation of the outlive program.  Outlive is a program to survey all planets within earths solar system for available resources.  Triton, a moon of Saturn is found to be the most viable option, but the atmosphere prevents the use of human workers.  Two factions within the council set out to solve this problem.  One turns to Bioengineering and the other to robotics.  This is where you start out.

Outlive has an easily learned interface and tutorial system which will allow anyone to become proficient quickly.  In addition the concepts involved, such as mining resources, and providing energy to buildings should be old hat to fans of the RTS (Real Time Strategy) genre.  Once you've got the basics down your ready to play any one of the three campaigns.  I suggest you start from the human and the go forward.  The campaigns are linear instead of simultaneous.  Thus by jumping ahead in campaigns you ruin the surprise plot twists and intriguing storyline of the game.

In addition the campaigns increase in difficulty level.  This coupled with the choice of difficulties (easy, normal, and hard) that you are presented with at the start of your game ensure that their will be a challenge and thus replayabily for even the most experienced player.

The graphics of the game are not state of the art but they're tolerable and there are certain gems.  I can't explain why...perhaps its because trees are so flammable but I loved the flamethrower animation.  The movies are a little basic but there not bad.  The graphics all in all are a little better than satisfactory, with some interesting perks here and there.

The sound is not for in general is not much better than the graphics.  However, you'll either be offended or amused by the human troop language and accents.  Taking a hint from Starcraft's unique breed of space redneck, Outlive's human troops are full of personality...especially the dominator.

A truly great feature of an otherwise only decent game comes through on the multiplayer option.  Supporting up to 16 player simultaneous play, Outlive takes Multiplayer RTS gaming to a whole new level.  Playable by direct connection, modem, LAN or even continuum's online servers, Multiplayer Outlive is easily accessible, and in today's gaming market it is multiplayer options that create long lasting sensations.  

Install: Easy
Installation went off without a problem.  Outlive offers 250MB or 600mb installations options.

Graphics: 6.5 
Decent if not outstanding graphics.  I really liked the some of the flame effects though.

Sound: 7
Again decent if not outstanding music, as well as lots of stylized dialogue make Outlive interesting.  You never know what that dirty dominator is going to say... 

Concept: 5.5 
A detailed and fairly well thought out back story save this game from a much lower rating.  This is a Starcraft clone plain and simple, but it's one of the best I've seen.

Overall: 7.5
I wish they could have come up with a new concept but Outlive is a solid, challenging and even entertaining game.  Just don't expect to many surprises when it comes to gameplay.