Millennia: Altered Destinies

Last updated
Millennia: Altered Destinies
Millennia Altered Destinies boxart.jpg
Box art
Developer(s) Take-Two Interactive
Publisher(s) Take-Two Interactive
Platform(s) MS-DOS
ReleaseSeptember 1995 [1]
Genre(s) Strategy
Mode(s) Single-player

Millennia: Altered Destinies is a PC game created by Take 2 Interactive in 1995. It casts the player as a human freighter captain who finds himself transported to an alien ship. There, an alien calling himself a Hood gives the player a mission to save the Echelon galaxy which is about to be taken over by a malevolent race called the Microids. Apparently, the Milky Way is next should the player fail.

Contents

The only way to stop the Microids is to travel back 10,000 years in a specially-designed ship called XTM. It is equipped with everything the player will need to complete the mission. The player must then populate the Echelon galaxy with four indigenous races and ensure their development into powerful spacefaring civilizations.

The Hoods also state that this is not the first time they have tried to interfere with the timeline. To succeed, the player will have to fight off the previous attempts by the Hoods to alter the course of history.

Gameplay

The Microids are too powerful for the player to deal with directly. The only way is to pick four planets in the galaxy and colonise them with the four races the player is given. The player is given four "seeds" - morphs genetically engineered by the Hoods to guide the races and communicate with the player. Without a seed, the player cannot affect the target civilization. Each race (Reptoids, Slothoids, Entomons, and Piscines) get one seed. Their lifespan is at least 10,000 years old. The seeds will generally cooperate with the player, but are loyal to their respective races and aware that the player is not a god, so will not always. The player must guide the four races through various crises that would either destroy them or cause them to stagnate, so that they will eventually develop space travel and weapons able to defeat the Microids.

XTM is a completely self-sufficient craft equipped with an extensive historical database spanning 10,000 years which the player must use to "look ahead" on the consequences of temporal changes. The time periods are split up into centuries. Every time a "temporal storm" occurs (i.e. an event has been changed), the database is updated. XTM is not defenseless, it is equipped with a powerful energy cannon capable of fighting off entire fleets, and can be upgraded with technology provided by the four races once the player has shepherded them to a high enough technology level. While the player can lose in space combat, the ship's computer ANGUS will emergency jump to the safe haven of the planet Axis if XTM sustains too much damage, so the player will never be destroyed. ANGUS is also capable of translating the four races' languages into English and vice versa. Travelling through space and time and space combat require enormous amounts of energy, and the player must frequently refuel by sling shotting around gas giants.

Affecting History

There are 4 basic ways to alter history in Millennia:

One of the benefits of having a time machine is that if the player fails to change history, or makes it worse, he can usually return to the same time period and try again.

Goals

While these goals are not specified in the game, they are important stepping stones on the way to victory.

Victory

There are two requirements to achieve victory in Millennia.

Characters

Enemies

Reception

The game received a positive review from Computer Game Review . Ted Chapman of the magazine called it "a game you won't want to miss." [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyranid</span>

In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Tyranids are a race and a playable army in the tabletop miniatures wargame.

A sleeper ship is a hypothetical type of crewed spacecraft, or starship in which most or all of the crew spend the journey in some form of hibernation or suspended animation. The only known technology that allows long-term suspended animation of humans is the freezing of early-stage human embryos through embryo cryopreservation, which is behind the concept of embryo space colonization.

<i>Master of Orion</i> 1993 video game

Master of Orion is a turn-based, 4X science fiction strategy game in which the player leads one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy and conquest while developing technology, exploring and colonizing star systems.

The idea of self-replicating spacecraft has been applied—in theory—to several distinct "tasks". The particular variant of this idea, applied to the idea of space exploration, is known as a von Neumann probe, after the mathematician John von Neumann, who originally conceived of it. Other variants include the Berserker and an automated terraforming seeder ship.

<i>Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords</i> 2006 video game

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is a 4X turn-based strategy by Stardock for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to the 2003 game, Galactic Civilizations, and was released at retail and on Stardock's online subscription service, TotalGaming.net, on February 21, 2006. An expansion, Dark Avatar, was released in February 2007. A second expansion, Twilight of the Arnor, was released in April 2008.

<i>Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares</i> 1996 video game

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares is a 4X turn-based strategy game set in space, designed by Steve Barcia and Ken Burd, and developed by Simtex, who developed its predecessor Master of Orion and Master of Magic. The PC version was published by MicroProse in 1996, and the Macintosh version a year later by MacSoft, in partnership with MicroProse. The game has retained a large fan base, and is still played online.

The mythology of the Stargate franchise is the historical backstory of the Stargate premise, which centers around xeno-mythology as experienced by humans during episodic contact. In the fictional universe of the franchise, the people of Earth have encountered numerous extraterrestrial races on their travels through the Stargate.

The Commonwealth Saga is a series of science fiction novels by British science fiction writer Peter F. Hamilton. This saga consists of the novels Pandora's Star (2004) and Judas Unchained (2005). Hamilton has also written several books set in the same literary universe. Misspent Youth (2002) takes place 340 years before the events of Pandora's Star. The Void Trilogy, consisting of The Dreaming Void (2008), The Temporal Void (2009), and The Evolutionary Void (2010), takes place 1,200 years after the events of Judas Unchained; several of the main characters from Judas Unchained and Pandora's Star also appear in the Void trilogy.

<i>Imperium Galactica II: Alliances</i> 1999 video game

Imperium Galactica II: Alliances is a video game featuring aspects of real-time tactics, real-time strategy and 4X elements from the Hungarian-based studio Digital Reality in 1999. It is the sequel to Digital Reality's previous game, Imperium Galactica. In 2016, the game was ported to iOS. The North American release is the final game to be released under the GT Interactive brand name, released shortly before Infogrames folded the label into its own studio in May 2000. In the strategy game community, it's still considered one of the all-time best Space RTS games.

<i>Haegemonia: Legions of Iron</i> 2002 video game

Haegemonia: Legions of Iron, or Hegemonia: Legions of Iron, is a 3D real-time strategy game developed by Digital Reality for Microsoft Windows, and by Microïds for iOS.

<i>Space Empires IV</i> 2000 video game

Space Empires IV is a turn-based 4X strategy computer game developed by Malfador Machinations and published by Strategy First as part of the Space Empires series in which players control an alien race in an attempt at galactic conquest.

Death or Glory is a science fiction novel by Vladimir Vasilyev, first published in Russian in 1998, then translated into English in 2004 by Capricorn Publishing. The first part of Death or Glory may be read online.

<i>Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four</i>

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four is a four-issue comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics. It was published in May - August 2007, written by Jeff Parker and illustrated by Mike Wieringo shortly before his death.

<i>Lost Empire</i> 2007 video game

Lost Empire is a 4X turn-based strategy video game developed by Pollux Gamelabs and released in June 2007.

<i>X3: Terran Conflict</i> 2008 space trading and combat simulator

X3: Terran Conflict is a space trading and combat simulator by German developer Egosoft, part of their X series of games. Described as a stand-alone game, based on X3: Reunion, it boasts new plot lines, features and assets. It was first released in October 2008 for the European market and Steam.

<i>Endless Space 2</i> 2017 turn-based strategy, science fiction 4X game

Endless Space 2 is a turn-based strategy, science fiction 4X game developed by Amplitude Studios. It is the sequel to Endless Space, which was released in 2012. The game had been made available through Steam's early access program since October 2016. It was released on May 18, 2017.

A self-replicating machine is a type of autonomous robot that is capable of reproducing itself autonomously using raw materials found in the environment, thus exhibiting self-replication in a way analogous to that found in nature. Such machines are often featured in works of science fiction.

References

  1. "FORM 10-KSB". Take-Two Interactive. February 6, 1998. pp. 3–5. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  2. Snyder, Frank; Chapman, Ted; Kaiafas, Tasos (December 1995). "Waiting for Godot". Computer Game Review . Archived from the original on December 21, 1996.