In this case, I can't say that I put Argentum away.

   When Argentum was released on May 6, it sounded to me as one of those boring intergalactic mission games that were merely a copy of Star Trek. I haven't had good experiences with Pocket PC games in the past because they just didn't catch my attention with graphics or sound, so I just stuck with some PC games.

   Then, I decided to do a review of Argentum. Not just for the hell of it, but I actually wanted to give the game a chance, and surprised I was. Ionside Interactive must have some topnotch programmers working behind the desk, because this sure isn't bad for a first title.

   The slogan of Argentum is, "This is War", which to me seems to be Ionside's call to other software companies looking to compete with them.

WHAT'S HOT

   What can I say about the graphics? The different army men have meticulous detail as far as my own two eyes tell me. Each man has his own shadow, which adds to the realism and distinction of the game.

   The landscape, which ranges from lava covered mountains to dirt trails to snow covered lands, is smooth and textured, although sometimes it may become strenuous on the eyes when trying to convey whether you are entering a dip or an elevation. This problem only occurs in the levels with darker terrain and if the gamma is low (see screen shots below to see what I mean). Another positive aspect of the terrain is that it is non-continuous, so you can always expect something new as you move along the map (by map I mean the area in which the level takes place).

   Among the most astonishing graphical aspects of this game are the explosions. They are exceedingly detailed with red and yellow highlights, instead of just a short yellow blast found on other action games for the Pocket PC. Simultaneously, the smoke is just as real as the explosions are, with towers of black and gray. Supposedly Argentum automatically turns off smoke and the number of explosions if resources are low on your Pocket PC to enhance performance, but unfortunately this didn't seem to of help when the game started skipping during some intense scenes, more on that later.

   The sounds were also very impressive. Via the options menu on the main screen, the user can turn on or off sounds and music. The music is appropriate - and kind of gets you into a "oh yeah…I'm bad" mood. The sounds, which include explosions, gunfire, movement, and even speech, are accurate and go along well with what is happening on the screen. Each different kind of army man has a different voice, and will say something basic when you command it to move or attack an enemy.

   The AI (Artificial Intelligence) in Argentum makes the game even more interactive and real. The enemies carry a mind of their own, and will destroy your men if you haven't premeditated the appropriate tactics.

   When sending your soldiers to a certain area on the map, Argentum chooses the best trajectory, even if it means going around several turns and moving around static structures.

   Lastly, I would like to recognize the different navigational modes in the game. You can navigate the map in three ways: The multi-directional pad on your Pocket PC, the tabs on each side and corner of the screen, or by taping the map in an area you would like to view.

SETUP

PROGRAM FEATURES

"Earth-based Galactic Exploration Alliance (GEA) are in delicate negotiations with the Ni'rikei over the substance Argentum, a space based 'living energy' that is the basis of the GEA economy. The Ni'rikei claim it is sentient. The GEA claims its ethicists have proven Argentum no more sentient than bacteria. GEA Ambassadors are sent to meet with the Ni'rikei on Septigia for one last attempt at peace..."

    Now let's go into the game....

    After the introduction (which you can turn off in the options menu, see the options section below for more on that), you are presented with this screen. As I will mention later, there are six different slots of saving space, so you will be presented with a screen with small squares when you select "Load Game".

Here is one of the tutorials I spoke of. It shows you how to perform simple actions.

Another shot of a tutorial in action...

    After you click past the above tutorials, you'll find yourself with the mission objectives. I personally look past this and await the action of the level, although I am sure many people would prefer to follow along in the plot. So as you can see, you, the player of Argentum, are named Steele. If you read the rest of the objectives, you probably have a question mark above your head. Not to worry though, I'll explain it all.

    After you hit "Deploy" on the previous screen, you will see this loading bar. This will happen each time you go to play or load a level, and takes a few seconds to complete.

    After the level is finished loading, you are presented with this interface. Since there are many different features and options, I went ahead and numbered each part, and will describe each in detail below.

1. The icon represents the amount of Argentum that you have left. Argentum is needed to build facilities (including power plants, training facilities, radar centers, etc.), and the only way to get Argentum is to mine it, which I'll explain soon.

2. The icon represents the amount of power that you have left. Power is made by generators (which also require Argentum), and without power, your satellites can't operate, and you cannot build any new facilities or train new soldiers.

3 and 4. The bar is for grouping your soldiers into squads or groups. When playing Argentum, you will be dealing with sometimes dozens of men, some are marine specialists, other are tanks, etc. To group your soldiers, highlight the men you want to be in one group (by clicking and dragging the stylus), and press 3, then one of the numbered groups, indicated by 4 above.

5. This is your map that you will use to navigate the level: . As you can see, there are a series of green dots. The larger ones indicate structures such as satellites and command centers, while the smaller ones show the position of any of your soldiers. If any of your structures are destroyed or your men are killed, these green dots turn red. This map will go out of signal if you a) lose power b) do not have a satellite or c) have an enemy destroyed satellite, which does happen.

The level can also be navigated with this map by clicking and dragging the yellow box, or by clicking anywhere on the map. As you move through the level, more of it gets "exposed", so the level will seem tiny at first, but as your men move along, it will uncover itself.

6. This area will display information about your soldiers, including their status (idle, moving, locked on enemy or attacking), amount of energy, speed, and building capacities. Again, more on all of this to follow.

7. is self explanatory. Click here to enter the in-game menu, which I will explain further in the "Options" section below.

8. Click to view your current objectives.

Now that we have established the functions of each item on the screen, let's start a mission!

    OK. This is how the game starts out. The four little grayish-white things that you see are called ITBA's, as you can see from the information box in the lower right portion of the screen. This box also displays, as mentioned above, the soldier's energy, status and speed, and because ITBA's are the only soldiers who can mine Argentum, also displayed is how much it has mined. ITBA's are also the only soldiers that can build structures. As you can see from the image, this ITBA can only build two structures, Barracks and Power Plants. Later in the game you'll be able to build several more structures. In order to view information about a specific structure, single tap on the structure's icon and you'll see something similar to the image on the above right. As you can see, the Barracks require 800 Argentum and will consume 50 power, so if you are short of either, the game will let you know with an error message.

    The only way you can create ITBA's is through the command center, which is the blue thing you see above. Single tapping on it will display information about the command center, seen above. To build an ITBA, double tap on the little picture of it, and your command center will begin to build it. The above right picture is illustrating two things. First, you see that when multiple ITBA's are being built (and this goes for training facilities that pump out soldiers), they are placed in the "Building" tray in the bottom right corner. The white bar under the first one shows the progress of the ITBA being built, which takes a few seconds. The second is that I have established a rally point by single tapping the command center, then double tapping a part of the terrain. A rally point is where the freshly produced ITBA's will congregate once they are created.

    There are a few things I would like to call attention to here. First, you notice a green bar above the barracks. This line can be found over ANY structure or soldier, including those of your enemies, and indicates how much energy is left in that particular item. Energy is lowered when the structure or soldier is attacked, so usually when you approach an enemy, the bar will drop until the item explodes. Secondly, you notice that we have no power. Why do we have no power? Well, take a look at the power indicator in the upper right corner. We need a power plant! Select one of your ITBA's and double tap on the power plant icon. And lastly, we have no signal on our map. Why do we have no signal? We need a radar! But wait, some simple scrolling around the map (using the directional pad, yellow square on map, or tapping the edge of the screen) reveals that we do indeed have a radar, it's just not working. So build that power plant, or even a few to be safe!

    There. We built a few power plants and have the radar back up and running. But what's this? We are out of Argentum? Where is the Argentum? Good question. The only way to find Argentum is to have someone explore the map. It actually took me a while to find out where the Argentum reserves were, (they are found in different locations on each level). To have your ITBA's move, tap and slide your stylus to select the ones you want to use. Then, double tap the area on the map where you want your soldier, or in this case, ITBA to go. As the ITBA moves along the terrain, more area will be uncovered.

    *Note that when you select an ITBA or soldier, you can have them do one of two things: 1. Move to the location on the level where you double tapped 2. Attack an enemy by tapping the enemy. This works great, especially when you have a whole fleet of soldiers ready to attack.

    Ah, here is the Argentum. To have your ITBA's mine the Argentum, select your ITBA, then double tap the pile of Argentum (above left). After that, just leave it alone (above right), and it will continually mine the Argentum, bringing it back to your command center automatically. It may be smart to have several ITBA's doing this so that you have an adequate supply of Argentum.

    Later in the game, you have more weapons available to you. What you're seeing right now are my preparations for a strike against the enemy, who is located somewhere in the north west. The selected item, the ground factory (on the left), is similar to the Barracks in that it "trains", or produces soldiers. The things found in the top of the above (left) screenshot are Laser Turrets, which are stationary fighters. I have placed several here, as well as around my command center (above right), to protect my base from enemy intrusions, which you will experience. As you can also see, I have three power plants here, as well as three in other places. *Notice the red triangle with the exclamation point in it, found on the bottom of the screen. Double tapping this will blow up that particular structure.

As you progress through the game, your weapon choices expand, and the terrain changes.

HELP SUPPORT

OPTIONS

    As you can see, you can adjust a few graphical aspects of the game, although I would leave all graphic effects on, since they add a lot to the game. You can also adjust gamma, in case you are playing in non-optimal lighting conditions, which is a unique feature of Argentum.

    The sound and music can be turned off. I prefer to play without the music, but that's just me.

    You can select for Argentum NOT to show the intro, which is a time saver, because the intro is a little lengthy. And if you don't feel like double tapping the map to command your units to move or attack, select "use single tap".

    Argentum really excels in its in-game option menu. When you save a game, you can save it in one of six slots (above right), each of which is accompanied by a mini screenshot. What a great feature!

    Another nice feature found in the in-game options menu is hibernate, which lets Argentum shut down, but reopen just where you left off, avoiding having to go the long way.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

BUGS AND WISHES

    Several times during my game play on my iPAQ 3650, I experience some freezes, some hesitations, and many choppy movements of the landscape when I scrolled around. What were the reasons for this? I'm not entirely sure, since I had my program memory high and no other applications open. Perhaps it was because I like to use many soldiers to take out the enemy. Even during some action scenes where my soldiers were fighting the enemy, the game became choppy, which makes me wonder, "Where is the 'automatic performance adjustment'?"

    I would like to see some more tutorials in Argentum. The four that you are presented with when you start mission one are not adequate, especially if you don't have time to experiment with the game and would just like to play the damn thing. Perhaps Ionside could enclose an html file explaining what each graphic represents, etc.

    Well, now that I have the major issues aside, let's tone it down a bit to a few little things that I think could be improved upon. First off, although the amount of people you can assign to a group is unlimited, you are only able to view the first fourteen in your information box, so if you have 20 soldiers in a group, forget about seeing the last six. (Perhaps a scrolling bar could remedy this)?

    If you assign a destination to a group of soldiers and something is impeding their passage (such as other soldiers or structures), you have to move them one by one and regroup them. The AI fails here… why not just go around the obstacle? Well, every soldier in that group is trying to move around the obstacle, so that's a problem.

    The terrain can also tend to be a bit confusing in some places, as I mentioned in an above section. Depending on the lighting conditions, you can't exactly tell if your entering a precipice (of which your soldiers cannot enter), or an elevation, but perhaps this is just my eyes playing tricks on me.

PURCHASING

PROS

• Very detailed and non-repetitious terrain

• AI is well-done (most of the time)
• Explosions and smoke look real
• Appropriate music
• Accurate sounds
• Smooth frame rates (most of the time)
• Multi-session game saving
• Hibernate option
• Gamma adjustments
• Futuristic looking menus
• Addictive game play, (always a good sign)

CONS

• Game can skip during high intensity scenes

• Sound and music quality could be better

• Loading could be a bit faster
• Lacks adequate tutorials

• Only 14 soldiers in a group can be viewed in the information box

OVERALL IMPRESSION

   I had a lot to say in the "Bugs and Wishes" section, which is because I am critical, as you know by now. I believe that this game is revolutionary in the AI it brings to the Pocket PC, as well as the smooth landscapes and motivating storyline that makes you want to keep fighting the Ni'rikei. Every game has room for improvement, especially if it is the first from a new company in this vast market of Pocket PC games. I'll be honest…if this is the first game that Ionside has ever produced, I CAN'T WAIT for what they have in store for us next.