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Tuesday 15 January, 2008
GAMEPLAY
Okay, this fight I definitely improved. This game, I've learned, is a lot about expansion and multitasking. This is a really cool advantage to having a second monitor, because I could be monitoring and building in 2 areas at once without thinking about moving around. It's fun to notice how some units become favorites of mine as I watch the carnage they inflict and how I can really choose any of a billion play styles based on combinations of units, such as a bunch of airborn fighter/bombers escorting a large group of artillery tanks for simultaneous defensive and offensive play. The possibilities are endless.
The way I can queue actions up so that building new extensions to my base without much thought is really quite impressive. I really feel as though I'm a commander of this army, able to customize nearly any aspect of my horde to my whims. I don't give much thought to the character interactions, which mostly occur in pre-mission briefings and occaisional advice ingame. It's not neccessarily important to the gameplay for me, since blowing things to high hell is good enough for me. I appreciate the effort in order to appeal to wider audiences (being people who aren't me), though.
DESIGN
I mentioned some innovative aspects before, but let me reiterate how awesome the ability to use two screens is. The strategic advantages it gives would be an amazing addition to other games of the genre. Being able to zoom in far enough to see the trees swaying and my units being built from the ground up is and then far enough out to see the entire map is amazing for keeping an eye on different areas, not to mention the cool visual effects it employs.
It was pretty challenging to adapt myself to different strategies depending on the situation I faced. The learning curve of the game is a little steep but once you know the basics, it's not hard to figure out what you have to do; The challenge lies in doing it before you're blown to smithereens. The computer has many levels of artificial intelligence modes, however, so even the slowest learners have a chance to learn how to defend themselves and attack effectively. The multiple levels of difficulty make the game especially dynamic and I'd think appealing to any person who likes even a good game of chess.
The game doesn't offer much of an incentive to give it another go after being killed, since such an event is usually pretty depressing because it seems to happen pretty quickly, at least to me. Once I got better at controlling my army, though, the sweet smell of victory was glorious and well worth the work. Just working towards that goal is a rewarding experience in itself, since you pick up on little subtle enhancements to your army's productivity on the way that aren't apparent at first.
I really think this game sets a model for what other games in the genre should try to emulate, because the ways in which it allows the player to interact with his environment and strategize are staggeringly many.
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