Genewars is an unsual real-time strategy game. You control a group of scientists who need to colonize a planet with flora and fauna in order to impress a species known as the Ethereals. Engineers build structures for mining, energy transmitting, energy generation, animal generation, and the like. There are four types of specialists, including botanists who plant and harvest alien plants, and genetecists who study the DNA of local creatures so that they can be manufactured and cross-bred. Rangers are shepherds who determine if the creatures you breed are interested in eating, fighting, or breeding. Any creatures you manufacture are loyal to you and can be commanded to do work or fight. Native creatures, and creatures manufactured by opposing scientists, will attack your team, kill you creatures and destroy your buildings. Like any RTS, the goal becomes to build infrastructure, raise an army, defend your own structures and destroy the structures of opposing scientists. The twist in Genewars is that you can't manufacture a species until you've studied an example of it, which requires a geneticist to stun and scan members of that species. Scanning also kills the animals, so it's necessary to scan multiple individuals of the species. Everything on the planet is trying to kill you and destroy your stuff, so you have to develop faster than the other science teams. Buildings and creatures are created out of a resource called "goop", which is basically any organic matter. Goop is found in the ground, but eventually it gets mined out. Botanists can plant seeds to grow new sources of food for the animals and restore goop to the soil, and goop can also be recycled from dead enemy creatures. The Ethereals visit to ensure your team is behaving ethically, and they frown upon destruction. Structures can eventually be upgraded, and upgraded Gene Pods can be used to create hybrid species. Some species are built for labor, others for combat, and they can be hybridized to create something in the middle. The full version contains CD Audio music tracks. There are 24 levels in this game, with only one very difficult level playable in the shareware version.
Added by DOSGuy
Screenshots
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Downloads
| Genewars Shareware Demo (23,615,959 bytes) | 1996-09-26 | DOS | Play online  |
Availability
Electronic Arts no longer sells this game.