I had almost given up on the Shadow Empire when the mutants attacked. Our borders were stagnant and I was beginning to feel that nothing more interesting would ever happen. Then an expeditionary brigade came into contact with a large unknown army on a depopulated frontier. And two more. Suddenly, tens of thousands of man-eating mutants charged out of the northern wilderness. [It is these unexpected moments that make the sprawling sci-fi wargame Shadow Empire so interesting. An extremely ambitious game, Shadow Empire takes place on a planet far in the future, long after the collapse of the star-spanning Republic. Relegated to apocalyptic settlements for hundreds of years, the people are now beginning to do more than just look after themselves.

The ultimate goal of the player, the absolute ruler of a nation, is to reclaim old technology, reinvent industrial-scale warfare, and become the most powerful ruler on the planet. The technology in the game begins with improvised rifles, makeshift tanks, and apocalyptic raiders. Eventually, mass-produced mechs, powered armor, plasma guns, and tanks with miniaturized fusion power plants will appear. There are complex, detail-oriented simulations of politics, governance, and economics that complement the primary focus on technology and warfare. The planets you fight on are diverse and complex, with human and geological histories. The planets range from airless moons to lush jungles inhabited by deadly alien behemoths.

While these complex systems are superficially impressive, one of the problems with Shadow Empire is that we generally only see the surface. The interface struggles to show how the systems interact or even what they do. These enigmatic systems are the source of frustration in playing "Shadow Empire," but also the source of its fun and charm.

If you couldn't tell from the hexes and clunky UI, this is a wargamer's wargame; the 3D character models look like square-jawed action figures from the 1990s. Some might find this charmingly dated or retro, but I didn't. Like most games in this genre, the user interface and controls are frustratingly inconsistent and dense. Unless you are a strategy game veteran, you may need to peruse the manual for a few dozen hours before you feel comfortable.

Shadow Empire is obsessed with war. The way to win is to conquer enough of the world's land and population to become the clear champion. While there are a few other major powers that are willing to enter into peaceful alliances or long-term pacts, the majority of major powers must be overcome by all-out war. During the interwar period and the Cold War, diplomatic tools are inevitably in short supply.

At least war is good. It is fun to discover new types of units, customize them using researched techniques, and have them fight in independent or complex coalition formations. I have grown very fond of siege divisions that combine artillery and infantry. I use them to hold ground and establish a front line. At the same time, I mobilized small brigades of mechanized infantry and tank units to take advantage of the often scarce fuel. While the infantry held the line, the armored units would destroy enemy supply depots.

The most fun part is that research and resources are partially randomized, so you have to improvise. In one game I quickly figured out how to build heavy tanks, in another I concentrated on large formations of truck-mounted infantry and support weapons. There is always a way to win with the resources at hand. Of course, more chaos will ensue as you and your enemies discover untouched stashes of fusion-powered heavy tanks and powered armor.

Internal politics and governance are also comfortably complex. States have political factions, which work differently depending on whether they are democracies, republics, or dictatorships. There are also trade unions, corporations, and religious cults. Individual characters belonging to these factions are given a place in the developing government when new bureaus and departments are established (interior affairs, military staff, economic development, etc.). They have goals, likes and dislikes. If they anger the top generals enough, they may get half of the army illegally. Unlike games where civil strife exists but rarely happens in real life or is boringly abstract, I have consistently experienced civil war in two of my three campaigns, where internal divisions paralyzed the country.

Shadow Empire gets a lot done with its deep detail and will be remembered alongside other great and complex wargames for that reason. However, unlike classics such as War in the West and World in Flames, many details are not well documented or surfaced to the player. There are layers that are far obscured from the player's experience, which can be frustrating or almost invisible.

For example, the civil economy. Your country district has private businesses and private citizens, who save money and use it to set up new businesses. To support this, you can provide business subsidies from taxes, and your own significant taxes come primarily from this internal revenue. Precise information about what that money would do or how the private economy would function is simply not available.

Planetary creation is another good example. We set rough parameters when we create a new world, but ultimately we get the characteristics from a random number generator. If you want to create an arid, semi-desert world with complex multicellular life forms, you would have to re-randomize the world's life generation many times.

Shadow Empire allows for extensive customization when designing new tank and infantry formations, but why are players denied access to these other systems? They exist in a black box. Whether the civilian economy and alien life generators are interesting and complex, or simply smoke and mirrors designed to create the illusion of complexity, I do not know.

Shadow Empire simply does not tell you what you want to know or do. A detailed plate tectonics system sounds exciting, but if you can't see it or interact with it, it doesn't mean much. Time spent managing supply routes in detail seems like a waste. How will civilian indicators of danger, fear, and anxiety be measured? How precisely will they increase? We don't know.

While enjoying the final results of the Shadow Empire simulation, I was consistently reminded of an anecdote about the famously detailed game Dwarf Fortress. It is a perfect illustration of my baffled frustration with the fine details of Shadow Empire. In Dwarf Fortress, there are elaborate algorithms and systems for determining weather. Different types of clouds form, move, and cast shadows over the world: cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and thin clouds. Various types of clouds form, move, and cast shadows over the world, including cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and altocumulus. The creator spent dozens of hours programming this system.

Of course, the player never cares or knows: their perspective is firmly downward. They can never look up.