Review summary of the :
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Pros:
Cons:
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Full Review:
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There is no build time, you simply buy a new unit or building and it appears. There is also no way to rebuild a construction yard if it is destroyed, or to expand beyond a small radius around your starting place. The simpler building management, however, leaves the player to focus on the more intense combat. You have to keep moving in Strategic Assault - let down your guard in one area of the map and you could find yourself with a dozen enemy tanks inside your base. There is also no "Fog of War", so you (and the enemy) can see the entire map and all units on it.
 | Combat can get intense at times, especially with multiple unit types fighting (Forest Fire tile set shown)
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The game's AI is good, but not stellar. The computer player is well balanced, providing a challenging opponent that is difficult to defeat but still beatable. The individual unit AI, however, is rather dumb. For example, if two opposing units find themselves on opposite sides of an obstacle or building, they will dutifully shoot at each other and hit the obstacle instead forever unless ordered otherwise. There is also no way to give orders to units other than "move" and "attack". Common RTS commands such as hold position and queuing of commands are not available.
The game runs very smoothly on the Zaurus' ARM processor, and includes appropriate sound effects and a repetitive but energetic background theme. Both can only be heard via the headphone jack, of course, since the Zaurus has only a piezo speaker. There is no way to change the volume from within the game. Fortunately, switching back to the home screen to fix the volume pauses the game, and if you quit, the game will automatically save your current level, and you can go back and replay any level
 | The first mission in the game acts as a simple but effective tutorial
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The game ships with 15 missions, which grow progressively more challenging. The first mission acts as a tutorial with in-game instructions on how to get started. There is also a Forest Fire expansion pack that adds 15 more levels using a forest tile set instead of the default desert tile set.
Of course, the most important factor when judging a game is how much time you waste playing it. During our initial testing, we played the battery down from a fresh charge to extremely low before we knew it, then plugged in the AC adapter so that we could finish the mission. We would like to see some improvements in the AI and more control over units, but Strategic Assault still manages to be exceedingly addictive.
A demo version that only includes the first three levels is available from the Eon Games website, or the ZaurusZone Feed under the package name "strategic-assault". Registration through the Eon Games web site costs $19.99 USD. The Forest Fire expansion pack is available from the same sources and costs $5.99 USD.
- What's positive: Addictive game play, smooth graphics, nice sound effects
- What's negative: Simplistic AI, not enough control over units
Overall: 
Price and availability
The will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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