Interplanetary has some very interesting mechanics, which present you with some genuinely difficult strategic choices. The only problem I have with it is that the strategy helps me accomplish a goal I would never choose for myself.
Why am I targeting interplanetary weapons of mass destruction at my celestial neighbors? What do I hope to gain? It all seems so senseless and wasteful.
I'll have to try not to focus on that, though. I just need to accept the situation as it is presented to me. Sometime before the start of the game, before the planets even have the infrastructure to fight each other, they decided to go to war, and whether I agree with the war or not, it is my task to see that my planet survives.
It is a narrower sort of strategy than I usually prefer, but I've played narrower. Certainly, it has never occurred to me to question the backstory of Chess (though now I'm thinking I probably should). I guess it's a situation where the more abstract the game, the less I try to root it in a particular setting. X-Com benefited from a lot of world-building and plot, but something like Go is almost a pure geometric challenge. Interplanetary, with its named cities and complex worlds seems like it should be more like the former, but in practice plays like it's trying to be the latter.
I'm hoping I'll get used to it. It feels a little depressing to be blowing up millions of virtual people for no reason, but I suppose it could be worse. The game could have a story that forced me to do it for a bad reason.
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