Sweet heavens unreachable, this game was designed by chimps!
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WARNING: This is a review for campaign, not for skirmish nor multiplayer modes.
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When I first launched the game I was pretty pleased with the graphics. Taking into consideration that I'm am at the doorstep of year 2012 - that may tell something. The graphics are indeed good. Except, what is with that weird music?
Anyway, I proceeded launching the game by going to the campaign menu, selecting medium difficulty and choosing my race - the European Dynasty, I think. And bam! Crappy controls that made me feel I'm some kind of ape trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing! And If you are a game developer that is not a good way to make your player feel. Seriously! First click to select units, first click to give orders, second click to deselect and rotate. The camera is inverted. The tutorial is toilet paper also. It is in small font above your eyesight telling you to click something, and you yourself have to find what it is and where it is. Man, there is dust blowing into my eyes and you telling to read a small font. It is not smooth, let me tell you. It is very, very edgy.
And speaking about dust blowing into my eyes, blinding me with horrible pacing, the sound of that dust is obviously self-made in an apartment block by computer nerds. It's horrible. It is very low quality and it is repetitive. It is God damn annoying. I won't even talk about the music, because I just switched it of. It just didn't fit the environment. As you see, it is a very bad start for a video-game.
I've read that some people were complaining about the voice acting. Personally, it didn't bothered me. I was content with it. Probably because I was distracted by other flaws. But who knows? Maybe I have no taste.
Proceeding. Obviously there is a major information flow problem with this game, also known as pacing. There is no order of player receiving the information. It should be in small chunks, very clear, and logical. Instead, it is spread around just like that pile of scrap-metal which you have to collect to build your base with. I think that is a good metaphor.
Let me tell you something about building that base. It's fun. I like it. I mean, It's kinda cool that you have to build a core and to it you connect other substructures. You can extend that building by building special "connectors" and to them you continue building those substructures. The base can be very dynamic, almost organic like, fitting that particular environment. And that is a plus of this along with the graphics. I like the idea of this system. Good job! Really!
But all the fun stops right there!
Imagine this. Your are spawning ants. Simple ants. Those ants have the ability to shoot human legs at each other. And we all know what a human leg can do to a small ant. It can stomp and crush it! I know, it is bizarre that puny ants can crush each other with the force of human legs walking on them. But nonetheless, it is happening right in this game! By "ants" I mean mechanized infantry, for example, getting wiped out very quickly and that they can wipe out others very fast also. So in essence, what is the gameplay of this "game"?
I thought this type of genre is called Real Time Strategy, or RTS for short. But where is the strategy? I ask you.
There is basically none.
The word strategy means developing a plan to achieve a certain goal. The goal of the game is stomping other "ants" with your human-ant-crushing abilities by being an ant yourself. Sounds weird. In order to lose the game you have to destroy your base by doing it yourself, or letting those "ants" do it for you. But here is the catch: the bases, which can be looked upon as an "ant home", is made of a titanium steel. And some of those "ant homes" have the ability of shooting heavy army boots at your ants. So you can imagine: your "ants" being wiped out very quickly, it takes time and recourses to spawn them again, and it is very hard to destroy titanium blocks of steel with your skinny legs of your own. On top of that, those bases are filled with ants with a human-ant-crushing abilities and stationary guns with army-boot-crushing abilities.
And here is a good opportunity to develop a strategy!
So we have a problem! Our troops are being slaughtered! Our troops are very weak against the enemy defence. And I, the player, is being bored waiting for those units to respawn again and again, and watching them die all the time again and again. We need to develop a strategy! Our goal is reduce the mortality rate of our troops and increase their firepower. How can we do this? The main cause of our troop death is having no defence, and having no firepower, being stuck in a very tight path corridor that gives no place for quick retreat or other actions, other than sitting there and watching how our troops are being destroyed and how much of a slow progress they are doing. It's very fun... NOT.
How can we do this? You can't! You can however, theoretically, manoeuvre your troops back and forth, back and forth, waiting for them making a very slow progress at damaging the enemy base and being pissed yourself at the fact, that the enemy can build their base back again and again. Oh joy! Atleast the graphics look decent! So we can glance at the poorly made map of outsdanding pixel shader quality! Lets just hope that the enemy won't send their infantry to wipe out your pawns. Harsh nature of dust blowing into my face, I think I'm going to have an orgasm!
So you see, the game is just a 3D rendering engine in reality. You have very limited choices of planing actions, and you are not rewarded for your efforts - the two things that makes a soul for a game! For every hard effort you are punished by watching you effort disappear into nowhere. And there is a need making an ubber high effort of completing your objectives with a reward at the end probably not worth the effort. On top of that, there is a disaster of pacing, as I mentioned above, which can be looked at as an order of receiving information, and using it consequently in the future. Spice it up with horrible sound, amateur voice acting and writing, and inadequate music, and you have a poorly made "game". What is the purpose of playing then? Obviously I have an urge to close the application out of frustration and boredom. I feel more interactive at jaywalking the street. Atleast there you have to develop a strategy of not dying. And it is certainly more fun!
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A little point of clarification..
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How did this game came into my attention in the first place? When I was a kid
owning PS1 I had this game called Warzone 2100. What I really liked about that game is the fact, that you can create your own unique units and steal technology from your enemy. It gave somewhat lots of, atleast that is what I though back in those days with my puny head, strategy, and also some personalized feel to it. I felt nostalgic and wanted to remember that game. And I just came across this game hearing that it gives you the ability doing that particular thing.
Also, I spent somewhat 3 hours, maybe less, playing this excuse for a game (I'm talking about Earth2160).
And I haven't tried a skirmish or multiplayer, and not planning to do so. I'm uninstalling it instead.
And that is it. It is not game, it is an experiment and experience gainer for new game developers, obviously.