Space HoRSE Review

It's the most boring of gaming clichés to wish that some company would just redo some old classic game with updated graphics, but that doesn't stop gamers from saying it all the time. This is often followed by the observation that in the old days of gaming, "it was all about the gameplay." Unfortunately, they usually can't test these hypotheses on the spot, so after a round of vigorous nods and an uncomfortable pause, these gamers move on to other topics of conversation. With the release of Gilligames' budget-priced title Space HoRSE, this old gaming cliché can finally be tested scientifically.

The game grid is just like the one in M.U.L.E., only with better graphics.

Space HoRSE is, for all intents and purposes, M.U.L.E., the classic game released first for the Atari in 1983, and long admired but rarely imitated since. There are a few changes, but in the end the only reason this game isn't named "M.U.L.E. 2002" is a legal one. By remaking M.U.L.E. almost two decades after the original's release, Space HoRSE exposes the nineteen-year-old gameplay to harsh scrutiny unimpeded by nostalgia. It's probably evidence of a deserved-yet-unawarded Nobel Prize for original programmers Dan Bunten, Bill Bunten, Alan Watson, and Jim Rushing that the gameplay holds up as well as it does.

As in M.U.L.E, Space HoRSE takes place on a 9x5 rectangular playing grid representing an uninhabited planet which you and three others (either AI or human opponents) are to colonize. You do so by claiming individual plots from the 44 available (the center is occupied by the warehouse) and developing either food, power, titanium, or zirconium production on your land plots through the use of robots. The mechanics are incredibly simple: each player claims a plot of land, runs around setting up resource-gathering stations called HoRSEs (which are essentially the same as M.U.L.E.s from the original Atari game), gets credit for various commodities produced, and then trades these on the open market. This happens each turn for twelve turns, at which point the wealthiest player (in terms of land, money, and commodities) wins.

Titanium is used to make HoRSES, and a shortage in the early game will make developing your land more expensive.

Space HoRSE handles all of these mechanics just fine, although it could do a better job showing what the other players have done during their turns. (You can click through your opponents' turns at your leisure, but their new HoRSEs appear quickly and can be difficult to notice.) The graphics are decent, but only just so, and the sound is acceptable in the spirit of a time when getting multi-voice music out of a computer speaker was notable in itself. The real appeal of M.U.L.E. (besides any fond memories you may have of playing the game years ago) and also of Space HoRSE is the market activity that arises from the production phase. If you don't produce enough food, you won't have enough time to run around the map to install HoRSEs and assay for zirconium. If you don't produce enough energy, your production during the next turn will be reduced. These shortfalls can be remedied during the trading phase, but that subjects you to the vagaries of the market, which is where the fun is.

But the solo game doesn't provide much of a challenge. The unpredictability of the original M.U.L.E. lay in the ability of players to collude and shut another player out of a needed resource like energy or food, and the competing desire to make money at this player's expense while shutting the other players out of the deal. It's basic market economics, and it makes for incredibly tense gameplay with four humans battling against each other. However, Space HoRSE's AI opponents aren't even a close approximation of this, and exhibit behavior that is anything but cutthroat. They often sell commodities even when there is little benefit in doing so, and generally don't put up much of a fight. The enjoyment of the original M.U.L.E., more than almost any other computer game, was almost entirely dependent on how well your opponents played. Unfortunately, the AI in Space HoRSE is lacking.