Posted on: July 11, 2017

TDNSR

Games: 43 Reviews: 1

Delicious eye candy.

Conquest: Frontier Wars is one of the best looking games - even by today's standards - and proves, that you don't need excessive foliage or HDR-rendering to create something that is visually stunning. While mantis ships and platforms are rather lackluster in their designs, which I attribute to the difficulty to implement truly organic looking contures into 2001's graphic capabilities, Celareons/solarians/whatchamacallem solve this problem by combining flowing curves with a wonderfully artificial chrome finish, which fits the game's visuals rather well. Texture tricks, like the taos-scout's glowing front, complete the picture. By far the most wonderful artstyle has to lie with the terran ships, where the low poly count integrates seamlessly into industrial design. Each ship is instantly recognizable - be it a humble missile cruiser, or the terrifying lancer. Gameplay wise, CFW deviates from the norms of infinite-resource and limited-resource RTS with having a hybrid system: Controlling planets (e.g. having a refinery or equivalent on said planet) slowly drains said planets regenerating resources (thus providing a higher gathering rate early on, that later becomes limited by how fast a planet can regenerate its resources), while nebulae and asteroid fields provide a finite source of resources, and most of them also serve as a kind of obstacles for fighting fleets. One gripe I have with this game, however, is its at times outrageous balancing. E. g.: The terran lancer cruiser is a glass cannon, which can and WILL one-shot unarmored and lightly armored ships, which make up the bulk of available ship types. Wormhole hopping is thus frightingly efficient. The celareon aurora... cruiser? is a very high-cost ship that is supposed to serve as a counter to lightly armored ships - unfortunately, its damage output is pathetic, and its weapon is too slow firing to be useful. Gladly, it can cloak other ships. I would still recommend this game for the soundtrack alone.

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Posted on: December 29, 2019

templerlord

Verified owner

Games: 79 Reviews: 1

Very unique and fun game from childhood

As the title says. Back when the days that Starcraft start to be came the one and only overlord of RTS games, many other games tried to follow its formula. Submarine Titans and Conquest Frontier Wars are two perfect examples for that. Both of them are very good games, offering unique playstyle and fun elements even though they are trying to learn from other game in larger frame. I do think that is a far more healthier way to let the industry grow, instead of being in two extreme pole like the recent past years, which copycats almost copy anything but a set of skin, while some other games trying to be so unique that it wasn't a game anymore. GOG is more or less like an archive now, I'm really happy that I can find those games deeply buried in my memories here. Plus: if you can't start the game in Win10/Win10, just use this very simple instruction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA6DPtpCl6o

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Edited on: September 22, 2025

Posted on: April 15, 2025

Khalito

Verified owner

Games: 40 Reviews: 2

Great game, tech issues on windows 11

Had to install some russian patch from a moddb link that a GoG Support article provides, just to be able to launch the game. Then every time I launch it, my monitors go bonkers and there is a chance that I gotta kill the process via task manager and relaunch the game. And every time I transition from menu to gameplay and viceversa, the monitor seizures occur and the chance repeats. A sad review because i really really loved this game when I was a kid and now my replaying experience is being affected by these tech issues :( really frustrating but I'm really enjoying the game!!

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Posted on: February 18, 2013

TrueWargamer

Verified owner

Games: 122 Reviews: 1

A true Gem, a diamond in the rough...

Ladies and gentlemen, this is one game that will forever be with you for all coming times. Originally going to be published by Microsoft, this game was fundamentally different from every single game in the RTS genre. It made multiple battles at once RIGHT. It made logistics RIGHT. If you want the complete review, go to the spacebattles forums and look up 'Retro Review' and this game. There is too much to go over here and the damn limit is limiting me... If you are a Sci-Fi fan, then go out there and BUY THIS GAME. Like Starcraft its hard to master but easy to learn.

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Posted on: August 29, 2013

TheeAceMan

Verified owner

Games: 1105 Reviews: 6

Great RTS game of its time

This game will seem basic by many of today's games but that is one of its charms. This game has fairly straightforward gameplay of get your resources (gases/metal) and keep them protected while expanding outward into the rest of the galaxy(s). And honestly, the simplicity of this game is still its charm after all these years. This is a classic RTS game with many features but not 'overwhelming' like many recent titles. Easy to learn but tough to master. It doesn't require a steep learning curve, but it does have enough to keep things interesting for many hours to come. Highly recommended for anyone that enjoys "conquering the universe" and beyond. A technical note, I remember this game mostly because I had an ATI Rage Pro video card and I had to use the old DirectDraw drivers because when ATI upgraded its drivers, it messed up the DirectDraw support which caused a 'black screen' bug if you used the newer drivers.

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