Game by

Inventive Dingo

Gameplay: 7.5

Graphics: 6.5

Sound: 7

Appeal: 5.5

Final: 67%

Grade: D

A variety of hand-crafted maps offer their own special tactics for you to master.

Gameplay
The gameplay is a turn-based strategy featuring simultaneous gameplay among players with simple and easy to understand concepts. You start with one planet that produce X ships per turn. Move them to other planets to attack and conquer new planets that will produce even more ships and so on. You can attack neutral planets that only defend themselves, or planets of enemy factions (AI or other player) to weaken and destroy them. Ships can be sent to any planet on the map, but they will need a number of turns to arrive. This is a key element of the game’s strategy. Since you can attack anyone at any time, you might send surprise attacks that will arrive much later while you distract the opponent by attacking peripheral planets, for example. You can also upgrade planets and set rally points so all production of a given planet is automatically sent to another one, which is pretty handful once you expand your empire (specially on Large maps). The gameplay resembles Galcon but with turn-based logic instead of real-time. The mechanics are similar nevertheless and for Mayhem this isn’t that good. In Galcon the lack of complexity works fine due to a fast-paced action. Mayhem could make them work with additional layers of strategical mechanics and complexity besides basic production upgrades and rally points, but it doesn’t. Multi-selecting planets for a joint attack is also a problem. Generally, gameplay works, but could have more depth.

Graphics
Graphics of Mayhem aren’t fancy but do the job. This is not a big problem though since having fancy graphics clearly ain’t the game main proposition. The HUD is very well done though.

Sound
Same as for graphics but I found that the soundtrack is a good one. Sound isn’t great, but it doesn’t get in your way either.

Lasting Appeal
The gameplay is simple, but too simple to have a strong lasting appeal for a turn-based strategy. The game don’t go much far beyond planet upgrades and huge maps, and doesn’t feature a campaign mode. Of course you have a number of gameplay options to choose before starting a new map, which adds some gameplay variety (like being or not capable to see ships in transit to planets), but the game itself won’t add much more besides the Achievements system. The main problem, however, is the somewhat weak artificial intelligence. If you are like me and like to be capable to quick-play without investing time on gathering a multiplayer session (or waiting in the multiplayer room), a challenging AI is an important missing feature. Even so, the game does have lasting value due to the great number of adjustable game options and the multiplayer mode.