Gravity Well
(TODO: image hosting.) Alt text: A session of Gravity Well.
Name: Gravity Well 3.5
Developer: Software Engineering, Inc.
Platform: Microsoft Windows
Year: 1995
Gravity Well is a space shooter that blends action and strategy elements. It's pretty neat.
Four colour-coded teams are fenced into a small chunk of outer space, lightly sprinkled with stars and planets. Each team's goal is to drive the other belligerents out of the region. There are no alliances; everyone is out to get everyone else.
All teams begin with one planetary base and one fighter ship. The blue team is controlled by you, while red, purple and yellow are controlled by nine selectable CPU personalities, named Shrewd, Determined, Cowardly, and so on. You control your fighter directly; all other units are autonomous.
The fighters are tiny, versatile ships that function like the one in Asteroids. They can jet quickly across the arena, claim and defend planets, fight the enemy, and crash into things by mistake. Losing a fighter is typically only as grave as Wile E. Coyote falling off a cliff, as you will often be reincarnated in just a few seconds.
Losing colonies, however, can be devastating. Colonies produce the resources that are used to make nearly all other units, including your fighter. As you start with only one base with only one colony, your first task, usually, is to set up a second base as soon as possible. This is done by flying your fighter to an uninhabited planet, gently landing on its surface, and planting a small coloured flag. That flag prompts your bases to produce and emit freighters that are laden with building materials. If these seminal vessels arrive unharmed at the claimed planet, then congratulations: you have the start of a new base. You can then think about establishing bases elsewhere, though it will take a little while for your team to construct more freighters.
Space flight in Gravity Well takes a bit of effort to master. There is no autopilot, so you have to accelerate to the game's maximum velocity, coast for a bit, and then slow down by turning and thrusting in the opposite direction. While a fighter can travel across the arena in about 36 seconds, there are still vast, empty spaces between celestial bodies, and the imprecise nature of your navigational instruments means that it's almost impossible to make a perfect stop.
The other fighters are also claiming planets, and they are pretty shameless about planting as many flags as possible. They seem fixated, even, on uninhabited planets, and will try to claim them over and over rather than attack more valuable targets. In especially unlucky situations, you may find yourself fending off repeated assaults from all three CPU fighters.
Once you have a healthy set of bases (or you are getting desperate), it is time to go on the offensive. This is the hardest part of the game by far, as a full base is well defended against attackers, and the enemy's fighter is sure to be summoned home by your actions.
If you outmanoeuvre your flying ace peers, if you fry their colonies, if you atomize their freighters, if you annex, crush, and kill without remorse, and succeed unequivocally in driving them out, you will be awarded one (1) point.