Posted June 24, 2009
Rather than give one of my usual long, in-depth reviews, I'm just going to state why I took two stars off this game's score.
First, the game loses one star for lack of depth. The missions are all more or less the same: build up your forces, and then blow up everything except whatever buildings your mission brief says you must capture. The story is never given any more explanation than you find in the manual, and overall there just doesn't seem to be much of a motivation to press on from one mission to the next.
Second, the game loses another star for pacing issues. Most RTS games include either an active pause feature or some kind of speed-dial to change the rate at which the action happens. Earth 2140 has neither, which means that whenever a fight starts, you're basically at the mercy of the computer's AI because everything moves too quickly for you to really control your soldiers, especially when you're fighting small airborne units.
Resemblance to Command and Conquer aside, this is can be a difficult game to play, and the rewards the game gives you for winning do not seem equal to the effort you put into winning.
First, the game loses one star for lack of depth. The missions are all more or less the same: build up your forces, and then blow up everything except whatever buildings your mission brief says you must capture. The story is never given any more explanation than you find in the manual, and overall there just doesn't seem to be much of a motivation to press on from one mission to the next.
Second, the game loses another star for pacing issues. Most RTS games include either an active pause feature or some kind of speed-dial to change the rate at which the action happens. Earth 2140 has neither, which means that whenever a fight starts, you're basically at the mercy of the computer's AI because everything moves too quickly for you to really control your soldiers, especially when you're fighting small airborne units.
Resemblance to Command and Conquer aside, this is can be a difficult game to play, and the rewards the game gives you for winning do not seem equal to the effort you put into winning.
