7th Legion Plays Action Card

MicroProse is throwing its hat into the crowded real-time strategy ring this fall with 7th Legion, a fast-paced game that places more of an emphasis on action and destruction than careful resource management. This isn't a studious buying and selling game. The noisy background track - a driving, buzzsaw guitar riff - prompts players to get down to the swift business of blowing things up.

The GameSpot staff was treated to an early look late last week.

7th Legion is set in an apocalyptic future Earth, a land only just beginning to heal from a raging world war brought on by centuries of overpopulation and consumerism. Hundreds of years previously, the privileged society of a used-up planet had been evacuated, leaving behind a world ravaged by overpopulation and disease. Those who survived split into seven Legions, each vying for military and political control. And the chosen ones are about to return.

The player controls the 7th Legion, the most powerful force, and builds various barracks, battle units, and hi-tech labs to churn out bigger and better fighting vehicles such as mechs and tanks. The gameplay gets underway immediately, as troops and vehicles move quickly across the map and into battle.

A system of battle cards is central to the game. The player receives a new battle card at regular intervals and can dole out destruction on the enemy by simply dragging and dropping it onto a unit. The Chaos card causes units to go berserk and attack each other; the Surveillance Jam card scrambles the target force's radar for two minutes; and the Summon Blizzard freezes units and turns them brittle. Other cards can be used to improve the player's own fortunes.

7th Legion supports up to six players with specialized multiplayer maps over modem, LAN, or Internet. It is scheduled for a fall release on Windows 95.