Basement Group Blog

!!!EARTH 2160!!!
*This is the first game review that I am putting on the blog so bear with me...*

 

 

 

     If it means anything to anybody nowadays, this game has received many awards from game reviewers averaging 90% to 100%. I consider them to be bullshits but I like that the average is so high for this game due to the fact that it is amazing; which I will explain below obviously.

 

 

     For a little history, this game was released around the year 2005-2006, so we were basically in grade school when this came out, or of higher grades based on the reader of course...

 

     The game itself is comprised of 4 different campaigns, UCS (Robotic AI units), ED (All female military), LC (Which is the dominant faction), and the Morphidian Aliens. Each faction has its' own story line but the only two that go side-by-side at first are the ED and LC factions, which are both the antagonists even though you play them. After completing both, you will be able to start the UCS campaign which will lead you to the Alien campaign. Each faction has missions that can last up to 30min-2hours if you want to get into the fine-fine details of micro-management of research and resource collecting before you even begin to get to the mission goal.

 

GAMEPLAY

     Graphics - For a game so old, I consider the graphics to be very high and better even than some of the games today. Shadows are really great from the flying units and ground troops as well as the buildings and trees. The game as well, while you play it, you begin to see that if you are on a planet you will go through day and night times. At night time, you will see the major differences with visual contact as well as each unit having their own lights. Blooming effects from shots fired from cannons and rifles brighten up where they hit the ground and definitely add the feeling of night fighting.

     Unit detail is also exceptionally well as you zoom in, you can see that they do not get blurry and you can see individual cracks in the armor and the individual weapons that you can install, as well as the armor.

     With the upgrades that you get from the research tree, you can tell how the shots are different by how their visuals change from plasma cannons, cannon shots, and rockets.

     Cons - Also going back to the fact that this is an old game, the coding when you max out your units and attack the enemy base, will lag considerably but not effect your gameplay too much, but it is a con that can be easily fixed.

     They worked hard on the visuals of the water and shadows as well as the sun reflection off of the units and water, but the ground itself is semi-poorly made. Certain effects like volcanic areas and deserts really don't compare and come up to the level of the units and buildings.

 

 

     Controls - As a RTS game, and for being so old, it allows you to rotate the camera damn near 360 degrees underneath the friggin' map, but it doesn't go that far... You can zoom in, out, rotate around the map, and position the camera however you want. You can hotkey and group your units. This game also has a PIN view which allows you to select a unit or space on the map and you select the button and a mini screen comes down and lets you watch real time in that area and follow the specific unit. For each unit you can have the ability to have special abilities, once researched and installed on the unit if you want to. There are special units, heroes and mercenaries that give you different buffs and excel at combat, but only the heroes allow you to change their armor and weapons depending on the situation, enemies armor, and weapons as well as having repair tools, mines, bombs, and med packs in the inventory. (Repair tools are only used for UCS units)

    

    

     Units - The units, by far, go beyond what most games do in the present. You have the typical scouting/light unit, then the medium/medium heavy, then the heavy unit. You also have the ability to create fliers and special weapons systems. For instance, the ED have the ability to create a launcher for rockets which can hit anything in the map, UCS have the capability to teleport heavy bombs in the enemy base and have the warm fuzzy feeling of huge explosions destroying everything near it by just teleporting it. While the LC have two variants of heavy fliers which basically shoot a huge ass fucking death raping beam that says 'I rape you, no lube. Accept it.' And watch it destroy about a quarter of your base or the enemies if you are playing campaign. It's basically a UFO.

     The ED specialize in tank based vehicles - They have heavy rockets, cannons, and heavy energy beams.

     The LC specialize in hover vehicles and fliers - Their weapons consist of sniper weaponry, electricity, and accelerated cannons.

     The UCS specialize in walker units - Plasma cannons, X-ray weapons, and a weapon that I like to call Death Beam of Ultimate Death Destruction to Death DIE DIE DIE! (I like the UCS if you didn't notice)

    The Aliens are completely different then the other factions. They use transformation/evolution which are comparable to tanks and troops but their real strength comes from their defenses, which are a BITCH to destroy if you don't have artillery, and their air units... THEIR GODAMN AIR UNITS. (Image to the left, to the left, to the left) Anyways, their air units have lasers, rockets, and anti-missile defenses (Only 1 unit has the anti-missile defense). If you mass up with these bitches, you will obliterate anything and everything on the map. Maybe baby jebus too if you find him if he was in the game. They are also the biggest and the most time/resource consuming units to build as well, which helps in offsetting their destructive power.

    

     Resources -

    Resources within the game come down to three things - Water, Metal, and Crystal. Each faction uses different resources and, by God, if you run out on the map, you are royally fucked. It's happened to me a few times where I spent too much on base building and research and I had nothing left to build units.

LC uses Crystal and Water.

ED uses Metal and Water.

UCS uses Crystal and Metal.

Aliens use Water and a shit ton of time. (They even mention it in game)

 

     Research -

     The research tree is vast and is your basic improvements to your weapons, engines, armor, different units, and special items for your units to help fight against them. It is essential that you upgrade everything as you progress through campaign. So if you don't have a certain unit which you didn't research, they will kill your entire family and laugh as you burn.

 

     Bases -

     The bases in the factions are completely different and makes it a completely different experience for each player.

     The UCS specialize in these drones that fly around and gather up the metal and crystals. A builder drone flies as; which if you want to build something, you click what and where you want to build and qeue more buildings to build and the drone will automatically go around and 'plant' the building, which will then build itself, along with the other buildings and defenses. They utilize a main hub turret which you put on four defense slots, which are heavy weapons defense (Anti Armor), barracks for your androids, or an anti air turret. Their walls consist of tank trap looking barricades. What sets this army apart is that they can teleport damn near across the ENTIRE game map. The main module which you put the factories and research facilities, are limited to four. For example, there are three slots of heavy factory, with the long distance teleportation mod? Okay, build 9 (Which is A LOT for this game) at once (due to research advancement) and teleport them all in the middle of the enemies base, if in range.

     The ED uses a main hub which you build tubes out of, which provide power and basically controls everything. If that is destroyed first, you cannot control your base. They have defensive walls that make it look like a fortress and you build defenses on top of them as well as towers inside your base.

     LC likes to build a platform which makes you build up with 5 or 6 addons. They utilize electric fenses as walls that can have a turret on them or not, either the sniper, electric, or anti air turret. They also utilize a platform on their base towers that can have turrets as well.

     The aliens only utilize a defensive structure which you upgrade to attack infantry, air units, armor, or heavy armor, as well as missiles. They have no base structures whatsoever, which the defensive structures make up for, but have individual units that evolve, the main one that you NEVER EVER NEVER EVER EVER NEVERRRR want to run out of is the main unit Mantia Lady (Ground) or the Replicatori (Air). If you are going to play the game, you will know why once you get there.

 

    Combat - Easy and complex.

    Rockets, plasma, electricity, and arcing weapons that damage all units, you can only imagine where to start? Hell, I don't and I just wing it. There are three sets of armor - Classic (Anti rocket and solid base projectiles), Reflection - (Energy Based Weapons), and Chemical (Anti bio weapons). There are also four sets of weapons, Energy, projectile, x-ray, and chemical weapons (Bio weapons for Aliens)

    The special weapons are x-ray, mind, and EMP. The X-ray basically kills the driver of the vehicle and you can send infantry or a driver to take it over. Mind is technically the driver but the drivers mind is taken over and you control that vehicle. EMP destroys the electric funtions of the vehicle which render it useless.

     The units themselves have up to four bars which determine how you destroy or take over the vehicle (Mainly LC and ED, UCS only has three, and Aliens one or two) 1. Shields 2. Energy 3. Driver's Health 4. Health of Vehicle.

     The units as well have an ammo count if they have rockets or anything projectile, which can be replenished from a base addon of the ED or a flying unit from the UCS. Chemical, electric, and plasma weapons all recharge overtime.

     The units will also receive bonuses on what kind of engine they have - Normal engines give bonuses to speed and shields -but only little, Speed Engines - Only give a major buff to speed, and Powerful Engines - Only give major buff to shield and energy recharge of the weapons

     Then there are the artillery pieces, which are the backbone to destroy anything within the base or its defenses.

 

    Campaign/Storyline -

     The storyline is pretty basic but interesting as well. There are instances where you will see major rivalry between the two main factions, where you will go back to the campaign maps with a different faction and destroy what you built and more.

     The overall storyline is to get to the new planet that a probe comes out of space from and they call the planet 'Eden'.

      The final ending is up to you to figure out because I don't want to spoil it.

 

     A.I. -

     The A.I. doesn't sit idly when in campaign or skirmish. It analyzes what units you have and what weapons and armor you use on them and us that to its' advantage to overpower and destroy your forces. It gets to be a hassle as it changes its units right away because it's a friggin' computer program so you have to be on your toes to make sure that your units are attacking the correct ones or overpowering with numbers.

     It has the basic three levels of Easy, Medium, Hard campaigns so if you want a true challenge, you can most definitely find it in this game.

By the way, did I mention the 'sposions were purrty?

< - - - -Some Night Fighting< ---Don't need to explain this one...

  
The godamn saucer of destruction - - - - - - - - - - - >
                                                       

 

 

 

 An ingame picture of an ED base with a Water Resource - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >








Chain lighting up the ass ---v


 CONS-

      If you want to specifically control a unit, it does get to be a hassle once they are up close in battle as it will select your unit or the enemy, but it just depends on the angle but the hassle will slow down your reaction time and units will die or lose too much health.

      If you want to really micro manage, you can turn off Fire at will, Have infantry keep standing up or stay down, or do it automatically (laying down gives them a defensive bonus obviously), but if you do fire at will, if an enemy appears, they will chase that bitch down till they run back to their base and defenses which will mow you down. (Happened to me quite a few times with my hero unit and lost the mission)

 

      At the start of every campaign from the first two (LC and ED campaigns) your heros will restart with absolutely nothing. They lose all experience, items, armor, and weapons that you have them collected over the course of their campaign. So you have to start from scratch, but me personally, just leave them at the base and let the army do everything since the produces wanted to fuck you, me, and the family dog over.

 

     If your hero dies, the mission fails. Thank god it auto saves every 5 minutes. I once played one level for damn near 2 hours and lost the hero in the end because of Fire at Will. (In one mission you have four to take care of, no upgrades or anything.)

 

     Once you start amassing troops, the physics and troops tend to conflict each other, they can pass through one another so they try to seek other routes, so they basically walk in circles while the path in front is clear so you have to reclick the move order to reset the path which tends to get annoying after a while.

 

     Infantry and heros tend to run slow after getting up from the crawl position; it's a glitch but there's a patch that fixes it and most of everything in the game as well.

 

    

 Personally, I'd give this game a 9/10 for a review but since they have patches that fix most of these issues and than some, I give it 10/10 and I highly recommend it for the RTS fanatic. Most definitely not for a normal gamer. You have to enjoy the micro-management and strategic values of this game to have a higher enjoyment of it. I know that Mike would enjoy this game as much as I do but I just want to give this game credit where credit is due.

 

 

 

Kiledouken -