Laser Squad goes live
X-Com creators' latest effort open for subscriptions
Since the apparent cancellation of their ambitious turn-based strategy game Dreamland Chronicles (which unexpectedly re-appeared several months later at Russian developer Altar Interactive), X-Com designers Nick and Julian Gollop and their team have been working on a new game called Laser Squad Nemesis. Getting back to their roots, it's an isometric turn-based tactical action game in which, as the title suggests, you control a squad of troops (who may or may not be armed with laser guns) in a variety of different missions against other players. Unusually the whole thing is played out turn by turn via e-mail. Equally unusually it's free to download from the LSN website and the subscription fee is just $15 for six months of online play. Laser Squad Nemesis might not be the most technically advanced game out there, but if it has some of that old X-Com magic it should be worth a look. The good news is that at just 7.3Mb it's easy to download even over a modem. The bad news is that there doesn't appear to be a free trial period, so if you fancy a look you'll just have to take the plunge. Related Feature - Altar interview