Having never played any other games in the earth series and only dipping my foot in the proverbial pool of online multiplayer (around 5 matches at most) I feel I can offer a unique perspective on the game. Overall I feel this game was rushed. Earth 2160 has four brilliantly designed factions: the more traditional uraisan dynasty (E.D) with their tanks and jeeps; the all female lunar corperation (L.C) with hover and laser technology ; the mech using USC*; and the morphing,cloning and transforming aliens.
the campaigns (one for each faction) all form one progressine storyline and as far as I can see had good intent behind them but are let down by: 1.the story; for instance in one mission you have to save a group of prisoners from L.C captivity, however they serve no practical purpose and would only hinder your mission. 2.clunky game mechanics; this is when a goal or a object in the game just plain out dosent work i.e having kill all aliens as an objective when the said aliens are in a remote corner of the map unreachable by ground troops (the majority of units in this game are ground based) or when you reserch a new unit only to find out after half an hour of searching the internet because you cant figure out how to use the damn thing that it is pointless in your current situation.
To conlude Earth 2160 is a great game that was let down by a rushed job. If you can overlook the issues that the game has/mod them or you are a sci-fi rts nut (like me! :P) or if you are just a fan of the series and actualy know the paper thin storyline I'm sure you will have a brilliant time with it.
"Wharhurst out"
*dont know what UCS stands for, sorry! :)