The first missions will have you playing with up to four members with which you will learn progressively the game basics. Once you reach level five, you will have to choose your crew members among a selection of specialists of different races. Each race is characterized, other than by the obvious physical appearance, by two factors that are maximum ability and strength, and also by a characteristic, negative or positive, according the race. Genewars' graphics are highly representative of Bullfrog's talents, featuring fine detailed SVGA graphics within a now classic 3D isometric perspective. Deformations will be mostly caused by your actions such as engineers building foundations and botanists starting their growing program or harvesting seeds.
Creatures can also interact with the environment, notably by eating plants or cutting down trees.
There are many features that contribute to make the landscape realistic such as textures, transparency of water near the shores, circles on the water's surface when specialists are walking in the water, dust when creatures drag plants, etc. As usual, Bullfrog's artists did their best to make it look as good as possible. Along the 24 different planets on which you will need to restore the ecology, you will encounter various biotopes ranging from semi-arid to tropical environments. In each, you will have to compose with the appropriate flora and fauna to ensure your population the most effective growth. As they also have a specific terrain type where they grow best on, make sure your choices are coherent if you don't want to see them decay quickly.