Overall Score: ***
Graphics: ***1/2
Sound/Music: ***
Playability: ****
Replayability: ***
Beta Burn: **** (higher the number, the less you'll have to test)
Fun: ***1/2
Multi-player: None
NT Compatible: No
Flight Hours Logged: 12 hours not counting potty trips

It's a lot like: Wing Commander sans cut scenes

It's not a lot like: Chewing gum while using your lymph nodes as incisors

Premise: In the vein of simplicity, plot takes a back seat to non-stop action. Wave after wave of enemy spacecraft are thrust into battle against you in the CyberDome, a huge digital net wherein frenzied, highly explosive combat occurs.

What's to Like:

• Supports every possible graphic feature and 3D option imaginable.
• Unique complement of weapon types.
• Doesn't cloud its vision with lofty, complicated objectives or designs.
• Seems quite satisfied in its role as a fun, five minute pick-me-up shooter with nothing to prove but its addictive nature.
• Inexpensive time waster

The Bite Factor:

• Limited environments to explore and exploit.
• No GeoWorks support.

Comments:

There's a place in this world for what I call "stupid little games." These games don't come attached to a multi-million dollar price tag (unless you count the cost of exterminating all the fowl denizens hungrily vying for control of the Cheetos waylaid behind the workstations during development). They offer nothing in the manner of depth, story line, character development, and have nothing to fear from being bestowed lavish honors and awards from every web "wanna-be-a-real-magazine-person-with-my-own-coconut-monkey-and-lack-of-opposite-species-affections" on the planet. In other words, perfect games.

CyberDome, a relative unknown in the gaming market thanks to some distribution woes and a shockingly worthy cloaking device, provides exactly the kind of escapism gamers need once in a while. Sure, you played Might and Magic VI for years, even named your first child "Might" and your follow-up child "be done soon". Unreal swept you away into its corridors and kept you imprisoned in its clutches while those same said children discovered that daddy had spent their college fund on Beer Nuts, inflatable nose rings, and network cables.

In any event, CyberDome curbs the appetite for quick, destructive entertainment to contrast those grueling endeavors. Weapon types vary from the standard bow firing projectiles to homing missiles and special "destroy everything" bombs. The unique feature of CyberDome is that destroyed enemies leave behind special power-ups that must be picked up before the last enemy has been eradicated; otherwise, players are whisked to the next level leaving behind some needed goodies. Though a tiny feature, it lends unique strategy to leaving behind one last enemy, dodging his fire while picking up the loot left behind from his comrades in smoke, then blasting "the Lone In Danger" into oblivion (or at least backwards through the rear of your monitor, through the Plexiglas sculpture of Sandra Bullock in slacks, landing finally into the office next door where Secretary Crabtree WitherSphinxter and her famous singing Petrie dish collection resides).

The sheer wealth of options for visual effects dwarfs many of the mass production budget titles in the industry. Tons of options for all the available 3D cards (and standard 2D cards) can be toggled on and off as one balances frame rates with visual pizzazz.

Since combat happens furiously and relentlessly, the inclusion of an auto-targeting feature brings welcome relief when faced with overwhelming odds. Adding to the already heightened tension is a pulse-pounding techno-beat soundtrack guaranteed to make overwork the already depleted adrenal glands.

With a budget conscious price tag and an addictive quality that puts big time titles to shame, CyberDome earns its way into the perennial hard drive collection. Fun, Simple, and as addictive as gaming gets without having to resort to channel locks.

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