Reminds me of him reviewing Star Control II, which he also seemed to overly criticise, he did however make a legitimate point that the game mechanic of Kohr-Ah only slowly annihilating the galaxy meant that you may have actually already reached a point where winning becomes impossible, but you may not realise it until quite a long time later.
Although I generally remember 90s games being somewhat brutally unforgiving, the lesson they would teach most thoroughly is to save often.
But that's part of the strength of the game! The game world is "alive." Yeah you can fail to win, because you're explicitly told that there is a struggle for control of the galaxy going on!
I don't like how some of these reviewers feel like failure = bad. It's sheer laziness or frustration.
Although I generally remember 90s games being somewhat brutally unforgiving, the lesson they would teach most thoroughly is to save often.