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- RTS Done Right!
| RTS Done Right!; A review of the RTS, Earth 2150 | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 4 2009, 10:37 PM (428 Views) | |
| Lotus | Nov 4 2009, 10:37 PM Post #1 |
Poison
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 RTS DONE RIGHT! A review of the hidden gem, Earth 2150 by Lotus. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking the same thing everyone else does: What the heck is Earth 2150? Well, simply put, it's a Real-time Strategy game made in Germany for the PC back in late 1999. It was one of the first full 3D RTS' made and it revolutionized the genre in my opinion. It was one of the few games where everything could be controlled. Resources, attacks, defense, building, unit construction you could even tell your individual units what to do in certain situations. It truly was a strategists dream. Sadly, however, it went largely unnoticed in the West due to both poor advertisement as well as being made in Germany. This sucks, for lack of a better word because mostly everyone on this side of the earth missed a truly great game. So, I thought that I'd inform whoever is interested in just how good this game is.  Story: 10/10 The story is a continuation of Earth 2140, it's predecessor. At the end of a war that involved almost the entire world, the collective European countries, known in these games as the Eurasian Dynasty, launched a massive nuclear strike on the remnants of the United States, now named the United Civilized States, who's main place of operation was the North Pole. This disrupted the orbit of the planet earth and it began to spiral into the sun. In order to escape the now doomed planet, the Eurasian Dynasty (ED) and United Civilized States (UCS) began competing for mineral resources scattered about the planet. A third organization, The Lunar Corporation (LC), who resided on the moon also had to evacuate earth, so they had to fight for minerals as well. With all three teams competing for the same minerals, a new war broke out, one much bloodier and desperate than before. When you first start the game you are given a choice of three teams to choose from. One of the most interesting things I've seen in an RTS is that each team has a short promotional video to watch if you want. It's propaganda for each of the three teams, and they're actually very well done. Once you've chosen a team, you can either choose to jump right into the campaign, or to play through a tutorial which shows you everything you need to know in order to play. Each of the three teams has their own separate story to play through where they struggle to gather the necessary amount of resources to leave the planet and colonize Mars. Each team has well over 40 missions to complete as well as secret missions that grant access to rare technology.  Graphics: 10/10 This game was released in the later half of 1999 and it was in full 3D. The graphics are simply astounding, and even after playing more modern RTS', this game is still beautiful to look at. Everything is 3D from each unit and building to every tree and rock. You can zoom the camera in and out, spin it around a full 360 degress and even pan the camera up and down to get a landscape or a birds eye view. The explosion and ammunition animation as gorgeous as well as the energy weapons and nuclear explosions. I should also mention all of the pre-rendered videos in the game. Throughout the campaign as you progress, you are treated to news bulletins that inform you of how things are going such as progress updates on how your evacuation project is going as well as newly discovered technologies and large enemy attacks. They're extremely entertaining and help to add to the immersion.  Sound: 10/10 The music for the game is quite good. Each team has it's own soundtrack that plays at different times. For example, they each have several tracks that play while engaged in combat, several tracks for night time and daytime separately and tracks for when nothing is really going on. Their are a lot of different tunes and you can even replace them with your own music as well, if you get bored of the normal stuff. As far as the sound effects go, bullets sound like bullets, energy weapons sound like what they should sound like and explosions sound like explosions. Just like they should. It's also interesting to hear what each unit says when you select them as each unit type has several different quotes.  Gameplay: 10/10 Gameplay is where this game shines! The gameplay is based entirely on strategy and resource management. The amount of things you can do to attack your enemy is ridiculous. For example, two of the three teams have units that can hold a wide variety of civilian gadgets. One of these gadgets is a repair device that you can use to make the unit repair other units and buildings. This repair device can do a lot besides this as well such as capture disabled units and even paint your own units different colors. This is where some clever strategy can come into play. Say you're fighting an enemy that relies on the AI to choose who is friend and who is foe. You can exploit this by painting a few of your units the color of the enemy team. You can then take the units and attack the enemy without worry of the AI attacking you because it just sees a friendly color. The opposing player would have to manually tell their units to attack. Things like that leave a lot of options for different strategies. You'll never play the same game twice! Each of the three teams has their own gimmick to supplying power to their buildings as well as making units and mining resources. Having three distinctly different teams helps to increase the replay value as well as help you uncover new strategies. Now, you might be getting used to fighting your enemies by now and can fight your way through just about any skirmish. Now, how about trying the sky? All three teams have their own assortment of air-based units. Some may be better at fighting in the air than others though. After you've mastered the sky, you can take your fight underground. That's right, you can dig tunnels an transport units covertly for sneak attacks. If you hit the "Tab" key at anytime, you'll jump down to your tunnel system. You can use your builders to dig tunnels to help you travel in secrecy. What other RTS game offers that? With this much variety, this game is sure to keep the RTS junkie entertained for a very long time.  Replayability: 10/10 It's an RTS game, so replayability is a given. However, none can even compare to the level of replayability that this game has. With three distinctly different factions and all these different means of attacking, defending, mining and exploration, you'll never get bored. When you're done with the campaigns and have played some matches online, then you can grab hold of the map editor, and WHAT a map editor this is. You can do just about anything in the map editor that you'd think you could. Make mountains, lakes, mineral deposits, forests, deserts, lava, anything. You actually mold the land into what you want. It truly is a one-of-a-kind map editor and it comes with the game. You can make just about any size map you want from very tiny to massive to the point that it might be overwhelming as well as any weather conditions. Conclusion: 10/10 If you've ever played an RTS and you enjoyed it, you'll definitely enjoy this as well. It really is a shame it remained so obscure and never really had a chance to shine because this game deserves it. It's easily the best RTS out there and probably will be for a long time. It's about ten years old now, and no one has even come close to making something like this yet. TOTAL SCORE: 10/10 |
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| SakuWRYYYYY | Nov 4 2009, 11:40 PM Post #2 |
You monster.
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I must get this game...it looks really awesome, looking up some gameplay videos now.
Edited by SakuWRYYYYY, Nov 4 2009, 11:42 PM.
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The neighbor is doing business in my yard. He's selling boats, IN MY YARD. ~Acolyte
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| CopShadowGuy | Nov 5 2009, 11:35 AM Post #3 |
The Night
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I'll read and comment on this just because everyone's reviews should get comments (looks at my own lonely review). Thanks for bringing another obscure title to our attention! We need more reviews of games like this. Sounds like a deep game. Too bad I'm bad at strategy games. I can do the strategy part well, but I don't like managing resources. |
| GET AGAINST THE TREE!!! | |
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| Lotus | Nov 5 2009, 12:10 PM Post #4 |
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Poison
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There's a game mode called "Uncle Sam" where it just keeps giving you money. You can set the amount of money as well as the time intervals in which it gives it to you. |
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| Aphrodite | Nov 5 2009, 05:18 PM Post #5 |
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Delicious
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Well, I didn't see this coming, but great review! It doesn't do the game justice though, it's just so great! I don't even care for strategy games! |
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| FireNeko | Nov 5 2009, 05:45 PM Post #6 |
Official Fluttershy of CotS
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Wow. This looks like one hell of a game. I'm not exactly big on RTS games, but it seems worth taking a look at the least. |
 
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| Lotus | Nov 5 2009, 06:12 PM Post #7 |
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Poison
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Yes, what I described doesn't really do it justice. I would have been writing all night if I wanted to even scratch the surface. |
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| Waterfox | Nov 5 2009, 09:56 PM Post #8 |
Lunboks.
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Good review. Sounds like something I could get into if I wasn't busy wanking off to Uncharted and eagerly jizzing for GT5. Also, Added to Site Extras. |
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| Lotus | Nov 5 2009, 10:19 PM Post #9 |
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Poison
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Thank you muchly! |
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| Marriv | Nov 6 2009, 01:42 AM Post #10 |
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Restless Mind
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This seems very fun, but I assume finding it will be harder now. But I shall try, both my lazy friend and I enjoy these game very much. I now have another goal! |
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Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine all the people, Living for today -John Lennon, Imagine | |
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| Kamigy | Nov 7 2009, 02:35 PM Post #11 |
The local depression
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This looks like a great game and i want to buy it....Damn you modern warfare 2 for taking all my money! 
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  "You have to laugh to keep from crying." | |
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| Lotus | Nov 7 2009, 05:44 PM Post #12 |
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Poison
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It's highly unlikely that you'd be able to find this game in stores unless you shopped online. You can download it if you're lucky and get a good torrent. There were two stand-alone expansion packs released for the game: The Moon Project and Lost Souls. If you want the game reviewed here, you want Earth 2150: Escape from the Blue Planet. |
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| Deleted User | Nov 7 2009, 06:54 PM Post #13 |
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Deleted User
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Game looks really cool. I may buy it, after NSMB Wii. |
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