In addition to its excellent graphics and sound, “Startopia” is simply a lot of fun. Each of the three levels is crucial in making sure the station runs smoothly and your residents stay happy. Your aliens also come up to the biodeck to swim around in water and to seek religious guidance from the Zedem Monks, another one of the alien races. Each environment supports a different type of plant, which in turn produces a crate of cargo. On the “biodeck,” you can support dozens of different environments on the same land mass. The Dahenese Sirens, for example, ensure that your residents receive plenty of love, and the Polvakian Gem Slugs will provide energy for your station if they are kept happy.
On the “entertainment deck,” you can build love nests, general stores, discos, hotels, bars, and giant telescopes. Where the game really shines is in the designs of these edifices, which are both impressive graphically and refreshingly original. While most of “Startopia”s” structures benefit the player economically, others are designed purely for entertainment. Each race also has distinct personalities that either add or detract from their productivity, depending on how skilled you are at controlling them. The Kasvagorians, for example, are the first to fight off enemy players when under attack, and the Groulien Salt Hogs work in your factories to produce exchangeable goods. There are nine different races of aliens, and each works on a different facet of your station. You have to build basic structures that provide lodging, sanitation, food, and entertainment for your various worker aliens. Station domination is a complex goal, and it requires the player to micromanage all aspects of the game at once. The campaigns generally allow you to build skills as you progress, and are narrated by a self-indulgent, haughty Englishman who sounds like actor Michael Caine with a pole up his rear. The latter mode, called “sandbox,” requires you to beat out your opponents for control of the entire station. You can either play in a campaign mode, in which each successive mission requires you to complete a more difficult task, or against computer or human players over the internet. In “Startopia,” the player is put in control of a tri-level portion of a space station.
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