Cosmic Enforcers is set in 2025 when an evil alien alliance threatens Earth and megacorporations own many of the major cities around the globe. The players take the roles of cosmic enforcers working with the Galactic Alliance of good aliens to rid the galaxy of evil scum. If this all sounds familiar, Cosmic Enforcers throws in a twist; the heroes have superpowers.

Despite the cheesy sounding name, this game is the best blend of the superhero and science fiction genres on the market other than Trinity. In the game, players choose from one of five character classes. Psionics, mages, spies, cyberenhanced gadget masters and power armored warriors are the choices available for play. Each class offers deadly weapons or abilities to players. For example, a psionic character at a high level can "lobotomize" someone. So much for weak psionic characters!

I really like the combat system in the game because it only involves a roll by an attacker and one by a defender to resolve hits. Weapon damages are kept simple with the use of D6 and D10 rolling systems. Even skill checks involve simply adding a skill level to a D20 roll and determining success against a difficulty number. For example, to succeed at a medium level task a player must surpass a score of twenty, so if the player's skill level in a particular skill were a ten then the player would succeed at a medium level task with a roll of ten or more. Keeping the rolls simple really adds appeal to this game system.

A good selection of weapons and powers are available to characters as appropriate to their character class. Each character eventually has access to devastating firepower as a result of their skills or equipment.

A nice addition to the game is that the player can choose to be human or one of several alien races. Each races has a nice background section including opinions about other races. The social structure, homeworld and reactions to technology etc. of each race. are each given a good amount of detail.

The background section tells of the Earth force's struggle against an evil alien empire. Internal threats like a huge black market that exists in an underwater city beneath Lake Michigan in the US and a corporation that took over New York City provide even more complications and twists in the storyline. Of course, the Cosmic Enforcers base organization the Galactic Alliance is also included.

Perhaps the most valuable asset to this game is the NPC section. Over 45 pages is devoted to the superheroes and supervillians that a player may encounter in the game. This section gives a wonderful amount of information for gamemasters. Some superhero games give only the character generation rules and the powers, but Cosmic Enforcers gives a lot more!

On the negative side, this game may be hard to find as it's almost four years old. Also, the quality of art in the book is spotty. Some of it is great particularly the work of Vince Martin, some of the artwork is not very good at all.

THE BOTTOM LINE For lovers of scifi/superhero action, this might be a game to buy. For others, I recommend that you give it a try.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)