The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Expendables is one the worst games I have in my collection. The old saying "you can't judge a book by its cover" does not apply here. The cover art is bad and the game is even worse. The substance rating may say "I wasted my money" but I didn't buy this I received it as a gift.

The premise of the game is simple. Players take the roles of explorers in the far future who are paid huge sums of money to find new planets to be exploited by the monolithic company they work for. Unfortunately, not much thought seems to have gone into developing the planets and inhabitants of those planets to be explored. There is not even a simple bestiary of creatures one might find while exploring new planets.

The background information is provided in a bland two or three page section. Apparently, profit is the only motive needed by characters in this game to be expendable agents of their corporation. A lot of space in the book is given to all the stuff characters can buy if they survive several missions.

The major focus of the game is providing lists of equipment needed for exploration. Players can earn enough money to buy themselves a defense satellite or company spacecruiser. Why worry about hostile natives when you are packing a 100 ton siege laser? Obviously, the designers have missed the point here.

If you must have a planetary exploration game, choose Justifiers by Starchilde. Justifiers is not a whole lot better but it at least have anthropomorphic characters going for it.

The bottom line here is why. Why did this game even get published? Unless you want great lists of supplies, Expendables will probably just live up to its name.

Style: 1 (Unintelligible)
Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)

Expendables
Author: L. Lee Cerny et al. Category: game Company/Publisher: Stellar Games Line: N/A Page count: 86 Capsule Review by Todd Cross on 05/27/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Far_Future	Expendables is one the worst games I have in my collection. The old saying "you can't judge a book by its cover" does not apply here. The cover art is bad and the game is even worse. The substance rating may say "I wasted my money" but I didn't buy this I received it as a gift. The premise of the game is simple. Players take the roles of explorers in the far future who are paid huge sums of money to find new planets to be exploited by the monolithic company they work for. Unfortunately, not much thought seems to have gone into developing the planets and inhabitants of those planets to be explored. There is not even a simple bestiary of creatures one might find while exploring new planets. The background information is provided in a bland two or three page section. Apparently, profit is the only motive needed by characters in this game to be expendable agents of their corporation. A lot of space in the book is given to all the stuff characters can buy if they survive several missions. The major focus of the game is providing lists of equipment needed for exploration. Players can earn enough money to buy themselves a defense satellite or company spacecruiser. Why worry about hostile natives when you are packing a 100 ton siege laser? Obviously, the designers have missed the point here. If you must have a planetary exploration game, choose Justifiers by Starchilde. Justifiers is not a whole lot better but it at least have anthropomorphic characters going for it. The bottom line here is why. Why did this game even get published? Unless you want great lists of supplies, Expendables will probably just live up to its name. Style: 1 (Unintelligible) Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)