Posted August 29, 2010
TA was and will always remain THE RTS game. Preceding Start Craft it really is the game that defined modern RTS as a genre, no game before or after it did manage to be so much fun in so many ways and at so many levels.
You can basically play this game 4 ways:
1 - strategically - using strategic weapon: Long range artillery, heavy bombers heavy navy etc. Building fortified areas and defending them and advancing by strategically taking map areas.
2 - tactical - Using cheaper medium range medium armor weaponry and moving after a predefined pattern through the landscape
3 - rush & ambush - Using the base fighters, light airplanes/navy etc and building up eventually continuous production of units to send to the battlefield.
OR
4 - Commander - This is at times the most fun to play really... You build sufficient ore/energy producers and then you just go and wipe everything from the face of the planet. The commander is an incredibly powerful weapon - when you use it right - and you should always keep this last option open.
Playing will provide through the missions a chance for each and every of the mentioned game styles making it at times hard to chose one. But the flexibility offered by the myriad of units you got at your disposal makes it an easy pick after all. The ai is also quite smart for the time this game was released (97!!) I frequently had to deal with the fact that the enemy will outflank me ... will attack my unprotected resources... will at times sneak attack - which is odd considering the fact that most of the maps have one half covered by you and the other by your opponent...
Oh, did I mention your dependence on resources? Well... both you and your opponent need resources for 2 things building AND operation of buildings. This means that if you run low on energy/metal or you have been sabotaged you're pretty much doomed, the commander generates some energy but not nearly enough to power a base he can't even power his own weapon continuously so watch out! Plus the big guns need huge amounts of energy & metal (making it ridiculously hard if not impossible to maintain continuous fire).
I always said that TA actually is a player playing against me which of course makes the game much more entertaining.
To me TA represented in 97 what Dune2 was in 92 - a huge step forward both technologically and from a fun-factor point of view.
For me the game scored a home run! And will allways be a part of my list of "THE games": 5/5. The "drawback" with the sorry is a stupid one this IS a game at the very core of it not a story, not a sim, it is a game and it's doing what it's supposed to do: BEING FUN... and a heck-a-lot of it!
You can basically play this game 4 ways:
1 - strategically - using strategic weapon: Long range artillery, heavy bombers heavy navy etc. Building fortified areas and defending them and advancing by strategically taking map areas.
2 - tactical - Using cheaper medium range medium armor weaponry and moving after a predefined pattern through the landscape
3 - rush & ambush - Using the base fighters, light airplanes/navy etc and building up eventually continuous production of units to send to the battlefield.
OR
4 - Commander - This is at times the most fun to play really... You build sufficient ore/energy producers and then you just go and wipe everything from the face of the planet. The commander is an incredibly powerful weapon - when you use it right - and you should always keep this last option open.
Playing will provide through the missions a chance for each and every of the mentioned game styles making it at times hard to chose one. But the flexibility offered by the myriad of units you got at your disposal makes it an easy pick after all. The ai is also quite smart for the time this game was released (97!!) I frequently had to deal with the fact that the enemy will outflank me ... will attack my unprotected resources... will at times sneak attack - which is odd considering the fact that most of the maps have one half covered by you and the other by your opponent...
Oh, did I mention your dependence on resources? Well... both you and your opponent need resources for 2 things building AND operation of buildings. This means that if you run low on energy/metal or you have been sabotaged you're pretty much doomed, the commander generates some energy but not nearly enough to power a base he can't even power his own weapon continuously so watch out! Plus the big guns need huge amounts of energy & metal (making it ridiculously hard if not impossible to maintain continuous fire).
I always said that TA actually is a player playing against me which of course makes the game much more entertaining.
To me TA represented in 97 what Dune2 was in 92 - a huge step forward both technologically and from a fun-factor point of view.
For me the game scored a home run! And will allways be a part of my list of "THE games": 5/5. The "drawback" with the sorry is a stupid one this IS a game at the very core of it not a story, not a sim, it is a game and it's doing what it's supposed to do: BEING FUN... and a heck-a-lot of it!