A Review of Deadlock: Planetary Conquest, Its Okay, but Not Good

Deadlock is a strange turn-based strategy game. It probably isn’t all that memorable to most people, but I have some fond memories of it. Had it not been for my friend Alex, I would never have played this game or looked into its history.

There are some really great things about the game. It is similar to other turn-based space strategy games from the 1990s. They aren’t all that different from each other. I like the game, but it feels very generic.

I’ll never forget playing this with Alex. It was one of three computer games that I remember playing with him. His family only had Apple computers, and everyone else I knew had PCs. Deadlock was one of the few games that I had that would work on both.

TLDR: Deadlock is a fun but rather generic strategy game.

History

This was one of the last games that Accolade released. It was an attempt to create a new franchise and allow the company to keep going. It was commercially successful, but as the 1990s were coming to a close, they were losing money.

Deadlock didn’t improve the company’s fortunes. It did get a sequel, but the company still went under. Many companies went out of business or were sold off in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The history of this game isn’t all that interesting. However, it does tie into something larger. Accolade has a fascinating history. They tried to get into the home console market by reverse engineering a Sega Genesis and did so successfully.

Unfortunately, they didn’t achieve the success that they had hoped for. Like many other software developers in the late 1990s, they were sold off. It is a real shame that this happened, but thankfully, we still have their games to enjoy.

Narrative

There is a lot of backstory for this game. Deadlock was released at a time when PC games had a huge manual filled with lore. Each race has an origin story, history, and reasons for joining the conflict.

The story revolves around a planet called Gallius IV. Seven races send a small number of colonists to the planet, and the first to build a random number of cities is the winner. The manual explains why each race wants this planet, but it seems like such a random thing that this world has become a point of conflict.

Unfortunately, the story is locked in the manual. It isn’t in the game, which is where you would want it to be now. This is only a problem in retrospect because you would have the story if you bought this game in 1996.

I remember bits and pieces of the game’s lore. The story in the game is nearly nonexistent. You get a little when you beat the game and in the cutscenes before the game, but nothing as you play. It is a little odd to see this now, but it isn’t all that important.

Gameplay

The gameplay reminds me of a dumbed-down version of Civilization. You can micromanage everything or ignore it as long as you’re gathering enough resources. I don’t mind the gameplay, but it is very dated. Turn-based strategy games were much better than this game was in the late 1990s.

There are seven playable races in the game. Each has strengths and weaknesses that help them feel unique. However, buildings will mostly look the same for each race. Here is a list of the playable races and the one neutral race:

• ChCh’t
• Cyth
• Human
• Maug
• Re’lu
• Tarth
• Uva Mosk
• Skirinee (Neutral Race that acts as a black market)

If you were expecting the battles to be good, then you’d be disappointed. You have no control of the battle aside from sending a lot of soldiers, tanks, and planes to the enemy. Everything is done automatically. It is one of the disappointing parts of the game.

You get to watch the battle play out but have no control over how it is done. Soldiers can be commanded what to attack, but that is it. Everything is also hidden in a series of menus, which thankfully get explained in the tutorial.

There are a lot of military units you can build. Here is a list of the units that I found:

• Laser Squad
• SAM Trooper
• Battle Trooper
• Laser Cannon
• Fusion Cannon
• Disruptor Cannon
• Holocaust Cannon
• Scatterpack Warhead
• Groundbreaker Warhead
• Supernova Warhead
• Sea Transport
• Shockwave Dreadnought
• Shockwave Carrier
• Turbo Wing Fighter
• Starflare Bomber

I think the developer screwed up the military units. Each territory can only have four infantry and two tanks stationed in it. If you attack a territory with more than four infantry and more than two tanks, once the battle is over, anything greater than four infantry and two tanks will disappear. It is incredibly frustrating.

The buildings can be upgraded, and you can control how much of a specific resource they produce. It is easy to control everything that goes on in the settlement. Depending on the win condition, you can lose track of what is happening in each settlement.

I went with a custom planet for this playthrough because I wanted to see the ending faster. I needed to build ten city centers. It took a while, but I was able to do so, and I lost track of what was going on in each city.

Overall, this was a fun game to go back to. It isn’t as good as the other turn-based strategy games like Civilization, X-Com, or Heroes of Might and Magic. The biggest issue with Deadlock is that it makes me want to play one of the other games from this time.

Visuals

This isn’t a visually impressive game. Even by late 1990s standards, there wasn’t too much to this game as far as graphics go. The cutscenes do look nice.

The battle scenes look pretty good. The explosions are nice, and you can see the battle damage on the buildings. The only downside is not being able to control the action. They look great, but they don’t last long.

The maps look pretty good. You can see the status of each settlement, easily move things around, and tell what resources you need to work on. The buildings look great. However, there isn’t much variety between the races. The houses are the only structures that change between them.

The cutscenes look very good. You get little taunt screens from the different races during the game, and the opening and closing cutscenes are good. They are early CGI, but they look pretty good for 1996.

I like how the game looks, even if it isn’t visually impressive. Even in 1996 and 1997, I don’t remember thinking this was a great-looking game. It isn’t terrible, but there is nothing that stands out.

Memories

I met Alex in elementary school, but we didn’t become friends until the sixth grade. In high school, we were in the same small friend group that met every Friday night to play video games. Around this time, we also started collecting retro games.

So, Deadlock. Alex got a demo of the game off of one of the many demo discs floating around at the time. There were so many of these out there, and it was one of the ways people found out about new games before the internet because it was widespread.

Afterward, we both tried to get the full game to see what we were missing out on. I don’t remember if he got it, but I know that I did. I played it quite a bit until something else came along, which is usually how things like this go.

If I hadn’t researched Accolade, I probably would’ve forgotten all about Deadlock. It just blends in with other games like Galactic Civilizations and Masters of Orion. However, it isn’t as deep as those games.

7.5/10. This is a dated game that has only gotten worse with age. It is fun, but other games from this period are much better. Deadlock has similarities with Imperialism, Civilization, and Master of Orion. Unfortunately, it isn’t as good as those games.

Conclusion

Deadlock is one of the many games I probably wouldn’t have revisited if I hadn’t played it with my friend Alex. Having those memories made me want to revisit this one. There isn’t really a reason to go back and play this one.

This isn’t a bad game. It just isn’t a good game, and nothing stands out from a crowded field. In a time when RTS games were taking off, Deadlock kept to a turn-based style. It does a decent job with it, but that is it.

When I go back to playing games like this, I try to see if they match my memory of the game. In this case, it does. It isn’t a particularly good game, but it is a fun game.