RTS

StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty

While starting to think what to write about this game, I had many thoughts in my find about how this game is perfect in every single way and that i love it. But as a reviewers point of view i had to calm down and think about it in a mutual manner and really think about this games flaws. Starcraft 2 is a sequel to Starcraft Brood War set after 4 years after the events of Brood War and continues as it left of as Karrigan the Queen of Blades the over-mind of the Zerg bring fear to everyone in the galaxy. The Protoss have gone into hiding after their home world had been decimated by the Zerg and the Terran (humans) in the district is now under the solum command of emperor Minks, while Jim Raynor is made to look like an outlaw, even though he helped Minks in obtaining his command.

Starcraft 2 is a Blizzard is a planned as a three part expansion pack that concentrates on one of the main race story lines, the first one being Wings of Liberty fir the Terran race other none as the humans, release on 27th July 2010 after many months of beta testing (which i had played a lot). The basic story told in this first part expansion is to bring down the Terran dictatorship of imperial Minks and stop the swarm of the Zerg. Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty is played out similarly to Starcraft Brood war, where it a top face control over units that your create bases and armies to destroy the enemy at that current point. The basic mechanics of playing Starcraft in general is to Macro, which is to continuously keep production of bases and armies, and Micro, which is the control of the units which you are to control to perform tasks. For each Race there is three tech paths that the player may take to conquer the enemy.

The Games has heavily been improves in all fronts, the graphical engine of how units move and operates. The game play has drastically improved as well, with new ways to play the game being developing everyday even after close to 2 years since it has been released. Blizzard Entertainment has created a marvelous game that has also formed a cult following in the form of esports. Since the game is layered with unlimited paths of strategies, the diversification in gameplay in unfathomable similarly to its predecessor Brood war, that still to this day are continuing developing new ways to play even 12 years after its release in 1998. In the past 2 years the competitive scene has gone internationally from its domestication in Korea, developing Starcraft 2 Leagues where players compete for fame and money. Communities on such sites as TeamLiquid and starcraft sub reddits and even Australian Star Society in university. This game has brought many gamers together from around the world in competing internationally in the GSLs or MLGs or on a personal level and discuss there passion of the game with each other while all enjoying it.

StarCraft 2 Competitive tournament at MLG (Major League Gaming) Grand Final Providence

Personal rating:

Graphics: 9/10

StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty has stunning graphics that allows the player to even zoom up into individual units in a middle of a battle. This game even supports a very good 3D surround experiences that is no novelty. The large 4v4 battles of Maxed armies are spectacular to just watch let alone play.

Sound: 9/10

The sound and music throughout the whole game in the campaign, multiplayer and even menu/title scenes are a set of reconstructed SC1 themes orchestrated perfectively to creates specific moods at a given time.

Gameplay: 10/10

The gameplay is perfect, some people might argue but this game even at 2 years old is still just in its infancy and players, pro or not have a long way to go to fully understand the game. And with the help of the developed always in the look out to fixed and game changing players its is always different from month to month.

Overall: 10/10

Personally just from personal passion from this game i would rate this game even higher then ten, the dynamic gameplay combined with the graphical and sound ingenuity just all in all had created not just a game but a community that love the game.

A passionate community that lives and breaths Starcraft.

Total Annihilation

Total Annihilation was one of the first ever RTS games that I'd played when i was young. Total Annihilation was developed by Cavedog Entertainment and released on the 30th September 1997 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Total Annihilation is a top view RTS that is based in galactic and futurists times where all organic life has pasted away and only two Robot fractions fighting over resources of "Metal" for millions of years. The game's campaign story is told mostly out with small battles and a couple of slides of before them, but apart from these small amounts of text, the online, skirmish and campaign is all the same. Which is to build up a force of robots and to annihilate the other fraction, the types of armies are divided into navy, vehicles, mechs and air-force. Resources which are collected is "Metal" and "Energy". A player starts of with a set of resources and/or forces and a Commander. The Commander is the primary unit used to make building to collect resources and 

creating other building units and armies.

Once a player has made them selfs a force the battles begin to the last robot standing. This is where the fun really begins, units being queued and rally into a battlefield that raged on for long amounts of time for the fight over "Metal" scraps so that the player can make more units. Ultimately the end goal is to destroy the other fractions or players with the most advanced units technology path, which will demolish and player with nuclear launches, long range devastating cannons and massive amounts of high tech units. Many hours can be played into these battles, which might result in a player to turtle up ( build up their ultimate force) and have a final large attack to finish the enemies.

Personal rating:
Graphics: 7/10
For its times Total Annihilation had sophisticated graphics for a 15 year old game compared to where we are now, but nonetheless removes from the enjoyment of destroying armies with your own superior one.
Sound: 6/10
Sound in this game not one of its strong point while experiencing the game, the sounds are just rehashed explosions and gun fire repeated over and over again. This resulted me to mute the sound while playing. The sound and music was only in good use in the campaign will in the cinematic scenes.
Gameplay / Overall: 8/10
Any RTS lover will lose themselves in this game for the sheer enjoyment of creating a large base and army and annihilating the other forces. All the main mechanics of a true RTS is in this game and will make any new comer or veteran to fall for this game.

A great community that is very active http://www.tauniverse.com/

Total War Shogun 2

As a RTS (Real Time Strategy) enthuses that i am, coming to review this game had some small doubts about this game being similar to Age of Empires. As i have never played the Total War series, I was pleasantly surprised when I started Playing. Total Was Shogun 2 is a RST turn based game developed by "The Creative Assembly" and is set in 16th century Japan, after the Omin War. The game involves the player to build towns and amries to dominate surrounding fractions unitl the whole country is seized. Each battle can be played out on the battlefield with the player controlling the methods of attack to lead to victory, which can be seen up close and personal.

The first night I played this game, it captivated me until 5am in the morning withour me noticing. The strategic though that is needed to move and weave through the battlefield is challenging because with one wrong move your fraction can be crippled when it is your turn again, from any direction. For this reason it caused some players (including me) to use Ctrl + S / Ctrl + L. This game has a lot of replay value in single and multiplayer, in the campaign a player can make many different battle and diplomate routes. And in multiplayer it is even more challenging, as other players are always wanting to attact your armies and take your land.

Personal Rating:

Graphical representation: 9/10

This game requires a relatively powerfull computer to run this game at its best, forexampl the game pre loads a mininum of 1 gig of it into the ram before each battle.

Sounds: 8/10

There is always a different Japanese orchestra like sound track before, during and after a battle, which really sets the mood of 16th century Japan.

Gameplay: 9/10

There is so many possibilities with this game, as it is up to the player to micro and macro throughout the entires game, while thinking about when to form and remove diplomatic alliances.

Overall: 9/10

This game captivated my inner RTS spirit, similarly to the nostalgia of playing one of my first RTS games Age of Empires, but on a whole different level. With its gameplay and excellent graphics and sound of the modern era of games.

Start playing now! http://store.steampowered.com/app/201270/

DWARF FORTRESS

Dwarf Fortress is an extremely complex ASCII drawn simulation game with both real-time strategy and roleplaying modes to play; the roleplaying mode is known as Adventure Mode, and the real-time strategy mode is known as Fortress Mode. Dwarf Fortress is completely free to play and download, and is still in development, relying on player donations to continue. After 4 years of development, the game's first alpha release was on 8th August 2006, and has been in continual development since.

Before you can start playing, you must create a world using the game's extensive world generator. The world generator creates the physical map as well as political and social history, non-playable characters of varying importance including enemies and allies, as well as religions, 'forgotten beasts' and other various creatures.

In Adventure Mode, you take control of a single character, creating them before you enter the world. You can choose their race, skills, starting city and personality traits before entering the world and beginning to explore it. While playing, many different options are available to you dependent on your location and skills, for example if in a merchants house or stall you can buy and sell items, if your attacking enemies from afar you can pick up small wildlife and throw them (see this topic) or while running from enemies you can swim into oceans or rivers.

In Fortress Mode however, you take control of several Dwarves as a god-like figure, similar to traditional real-time strategy games, and give them instructions to carry out within a certain physical area. You can create deeply dug caverns for your dwarves to live in, carve an inspiring or intimidating castle into a mountainside, or even create a massive above ground fortress. Whatever you choose, your dwarves are at your disposal...to a certain degree. Every dwarf has a personality, their own unique appearance, different relationships, family, clothing, armour and weaponry. You can choose to turn them into soldiers, farmers, fisherdwarves, masons, carpenters, engineers, the list goes on. Meanwhile, as you train and improve your fortress, the enemy builds up its own armies in preparation to attack. Some fortresses only have small thieves and raiders coming to 'visit', while others have invading armies on their doorstep almost constantly (makes diplomacy quite difficult), and some don't ever have visitors because they might be on an island with no other civilization, enemy or otherwise.

Personally, I love this game. From it's game mechanics (see the bit about throwing wildlife) to it's quite interesting fanbase of players, this game is unique in the way it is played, appreciated and adored. While some can't stand it's ASCII graphics, and others can't quite grasp how to get their first farm started, once you get into really playing the game, it's fan-made motto starts to make a lot of sense: 

Losing is Fun.

And you'll be doing a lot of losing.

Personal Ratings:

Graphics: 7/10 

Some of the ASCII is a little un-intuitive. Personally I use a graphics tile-replacement set.
Sound: 5/10 
Written and created by Toady One, the accompanying sound files are a little lacking. I recommend using Soundsense, a third-party sound engine specifically designed to enhance the game.
Gamplay: 8/10
Once you get past the learning curve, and it does take a while, this game is amazing to play. However, the UI is still very much lacking and part of the reason the learning curve is so difficult. Keybindings across different sections of the UI are not the same/similar, so unless your familiar with the setup, it will take a while before you can build that wall to stop the enemy is less than 30 seconds...
Overall: 8/10
For what it's worth, this game is great. Just don't take everything the fanbased community has to say to heart and you'll be fine. (Hint: Avoid the elephants!)


Go here to find out more about this game and download it for yourself!