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| Ground Control II: Operation Exodus |
| date: Jun, 28 2004 | screenshot | |
| short description: There's no doubt that the original Ground Control was one of the first games to define the real-time tactical combat genre, and one of the better ones as well. For those who that don't remember the original Ground Control, it was one of the first games that used a fully 3D engine and it brought in a gameplay mechanic that didn't rely on gathering resources, building structures or researching but was rather a tactical action style game. This is why when the original Ground Control was released way back in the year 2000 it was a breath of fresh air in an over-crowded genre, though it never reached the popularity level of the Command & Conquer series. The story is set 300 years after the first game and while it stays true to the universe and has several tie-ins, Ground Control II has a completely different story. In the single-player campaign, you'll take on the role of Captain Jacob Angelus, a new NSA (The Northern Star Alliance) commander who's trying to defend his home planet, Morningstar Prime, from imperial forces. As the battle rages on, a new army, the Viron Nomads (a nomadic alien race), enters the scene to lend their organic weaponry to the empire. The formula of Ground Control II is still the same as its predecessor. As mentioned above, you don't need to build a base, don't have to make units, don't have to scour for minerals, build drones to harvest them, and worry about balancing your building and research. How will you get units? Instead of creating units, you must capture landing zones and order reinforcements to be delivered through a dropship. The dropships, which can be upgraded, modified and equipped during a mission, can also be used on the battlefield as an additional, powerful unit, but at great risk since they can be damaged and even shot down. If your dropship gets destroyed during a mission you'll have a big problem as you won't be able to request new units. Ground Control II features three main factions (NSA, Terrans and Virons), although only two can be controlled - the NSA (Northern Star Alliance) and the big ugly Virons. Each side plays quite differently, and requires different tactics to win. The NSA relies on cruder but somewhat conventional technology. They have a wide selection of different infantry types and specialized vehicles, heavy tanks and fast copters. You'll also be able to call in air strikes, mobile radar scanners, and smoke screens to hide your deployment from the enemy. The Virons, the game's alien race, are analogous to the basic NSA units, but have a key special ability - they can merge smaller units to form more powerful ones. For instance, two infantry units can merge and form one killer infantry unit. You can also split the two units at any time, which is a welcome ability. Also, being organic allows the Viron units to regenerate their health on the battlefield. Besides, each unit (both NSA and Virons) has a secondary mode, ranging from the ability to fire faster with less accuracy, to using powerful missile that can shred tanks, or even doubling your range but becoming immobilized, so you have to make sure you have a balanced, combined arms force. The story is split into two single-player campaigns (over 24 missions in total), which lets you play from the perspective of the NSA and the Vorlons, a new alien race. The single player missions are challenging, well varied and can be played alone or cooperatively with others online - a feature that has been long requested by many in the RTS gaming community. There's also Skirmish mode which lets players improve their skills against different AI opponents on up to 10 multiplayer maps, while the multiplayer mode (through MassGate service or LAN) supports up to 8 human players on the same maps. In addition, Ground Control II also allows create matches where new players can drop in at any time to fill available slots, rather than wait for a game to begin. There's only 10 MP maps, but the developer also provided a level editor out of the box so new maps should be popping up any time now. If I really had to say something negative about Ground Control II, it would be a couple of minor annoyances. Like the camera having a tendency to drop down if you scroll over a "hole" in the landscape. They should release a fix/option with the camera so that it doesn't drop down whenever you go over a lower part of the terrain. Also, I've found some minor AI glitches that caused some of the units were unresponsive at times. Overall, Ground Control II looks to be a worthy successor to the original Ground Control. Well, there are a few glitches present, but nothing too significant. If you like action-packed real-time strategy play, then this is game that you need to pick up. Related links: homepage / MP demo + patch System Requirements Minimum: Intel Pentium III 800MHz or AMD Athlon processor equivalent, 128MB RAM, DirectX 9 compatible videocard with 32MB RAM, 1.5GB free HDD space, 56k modem for online play Recommended: Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz or AMD Athlon processor equivalent, 256MB RAM, DirectX 9 compatible videocard with 128MB RAM, 1.5GB free HDD sapce, broadband for online play | ||
| additional description: | ||
| licence: Freeware | ||
| downloads: 39 | ||
| members rating: |