ShockWave Amiga

ShockWave is an action game with strategy elements. The player is in control over a big prison complex which is basically a middle-sized country. Unfortunately alien forces attack which have to be repelled, more exactly ten attack waves of increasing strength.

The game plays out in two phases: strategy and action. The strategy is played on a turn-based map on which the four parts of the colony are shown: the mountains with mines produces money, the sea with oil rigs produces fuel, the jungle with army units slows down the enemy and the desert with factories produces weapon upgrades. With the money earned in the mines, the player can build additional buildings in the colony zones which in turn become more effective in their production. After every turn the aliens proceed their invasion: the productivity of a sector is reduced according to how much percent is occupied by the enemy.

In each round, the player can personally start a counter-attack in one of the four zones. After choosing the weapons, a certain amount of alien ships have to be killed before the fuel (basically a time limit) runs out. It is important to watch the shield level which is lowered when getting hit by enemies or crashing into the environment: one death is an instant game over. Occasionally the player can also participate in secret missions in which a drone equipped with explosives has to be directed through an obstacle course (the goal is an enemy base). The action sequences are shown in third-person perspective (the camera is directly behind the ship) and are completely controlled with the mouse cursor which both controls where the gun targets and where the space ship steers. There also is a time of day (morning, afternoon, evening and night) which changes the graphics during the action sequences. The time of day shifts when ending a round.