A.I.M.2 Clan Wars

First, a warning - you CANNOT enter the Rock sector or tutorial in the GOG version due to a corrupted texture. GOG needs to fix this as the Steam version works without issue. OK complaints aside, what's the game like? Imagine Morrowind or Stalker but in hovercars (the game calls them Gliders) with a dash of faction management and an open world with mostly RNG quests which help you accrue resources as well as more complex story missions that offer a surprising amount of lore and text for you to delve into. Graphics are what they are, kind of nostalgic I think. There are several sectors you can visit which all have their own unique setting, vehicles and mechminds as well as other cool random things like anomalies, ruined structures and ventilation shafts which take you to the dreaded underground. Traversing the underground zones is painful. Look up a guide if you need to go to a specific location within that area. The Gliders are surprisingly complex in how you can outfit them and they all feel quite distinct with their own roles and capabilities. I personally love the Nightmare 2 for its ability to fly, or the Namtar/Black Namtar being one of the better endgame ships. You can upgrade internal parts of your ship too, get better shields, armour, thrusters and plenty more. Weapons are a tad hit or miss, I would recommend sticking to high damage hitscan weapons but you may find others work for you. The faction system is pretty complicated as well, you use mechminds (the brains that control the Gliders) to form node clusters and control buildings, once your clan rating is 100% for that sector you have taken control of it and can move on to conquer a new sector. As for combat, it's tough. There's potential for fun, but I mostly just abused quicksaves (F5) to avoid being killed as it broke the enemy AI. In summary, this is a janky game with a multitude of bugs and flaws but I'll be damned if I can't put it down. For the asking price I'm surprised how much fun I had.

The end goal amounts to world domination, but you can go about it as you please. The only real restriction is your wallet, which you can fill through trade, rewards or violence, and you'll find yourself emptying it regularly in order to upgrade your vehicle and survive beyond the tutorial. You get to decide the general attitude and equipment of your clan, but it isn't possible (or necessary) to micromanage it. The clan mechanics also apply between NPCs, so the political situation in the sectors can change significantly without warning. Having played the first title will allow you to understand the world more easily from the get-go, but it's not required. The information you receive throughout the game provides a good enough recap. As for how the story is presented to the player, you *will* be confused sometimes. This game suffers - albeit less so - from the same mistranslation issues as the first one. There's the occasional odd phrasing and inconsistent naming, but it's fully understandable as a whole. The visuals are about as good as can be expected of a game from 2007. Many things are largely the same as the first one. While it takes some help from your imagination to fill in the blanks, the environments are unique and well-crafted overall, and the experience can be memorable. Unfortunately, actually playing the game is a challenge in and of itself. It crashes and locks up about as often as stereotypically modded Skyrim, and unless you're playing in borderless mode you'll be forced to Ctrl+Alt+Del and sign out. Windows 10 isn't to blame, either; it won't run any better on XP. A nasty bug can cause your glider to accelerate, spin and bounce out of control until it smashes into the edge of the map. Rare, but infuriating. Save often. The handling is just painful. Even at minimum sensitivity, mouse movements will easily send you in a tailspin. Trying to hit a moving target is a wasted effort. Well worth its price all in all, but it could've been so much better.

Before I start the review I have a confession to make, I have a fondness for science-fiction. Escpecially when it tries something new or at least unique enough. Think of movies like Solaris, Stalker, Zardoz, Beyond the Black Rainbow and games like Anachranox, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Vangers, Omikron are good examples of this and the A.I.M. series of games also fall into this category. In this game you play as a mechmind (Artificial Intelligence Machine hence the name) with the shape of a football and the only NPC interaction is with other mechminds and mainframe computers, so there are no humans or aliens, which is already a bit weird. The means of getting around and get stuff done is by having your mechmind piloting a ship/hovercraft for roaming around the planet. Over time the mechminds have formed groups which battle each other over control of the various buildings which effectively controls territory, recources, production and economy. This means if you played games like Elite, Privateer or Hard Truck Apocalypse you know what you're in for. You get quests from the planets mainframe computer, combat enemies, trade, buy upgrades and new ships. Also you can collect mechminds you've slain in combat and convert them to help your cause and create a clan of your own. Coming back to NPC interaction is that without having any external guidance the mechminds have a rather limited view of the world and act a little like naïve children, which I found rather charming. Because this a mid 2000'ish eastern European game it is known for it's jankyness. While this is true, I only had to perform like 10 minute compatibility surgery on this game for it to work more or less flawlessly, though admittedly this is over 5 years ago and I don't remember exactly what I had to do, but in general look up the PCgamingWiki page and look on the game forums gog and steam for clues.

After Publishers screen it just hung for me. There is no support entries on GOG for this game either. Very odd. Asking for a refund. Buyer beware.