Ground Control II steps up to meet its' predecessor, loaded for bear & daring the player to think outside the box.

User Rating: 9.3 | Ground Control II: Operation Exodus PC
"Ground Control" was, & still is, a great action/strategy game, not quite fitting into the RTS realm as it spurns resource gathering ( a staple, yet quite often distracting element of the traditional RTS). "Dune" & "Emperor: Battle For Dune" invented the RTS and made it easier with only one resource to garner. "Imperial Glory" gave a more realistic flavour to this by having the player researching & building structures that produced resources. The "Age of Empire" series made it more of a chore, that unless you love economics, distracted a great deal from what the RTS is all about - blasting your opponent into the middle of last week.
"GC", as I said, changed that & challenged reviewers to pidgeon-hole it, which they couldn't, hence the term Action/Strategy. "GC II" has introduced a form of resource gathering by having the player captuer and hold landing zones and resource zones, only then being able to request more troops or upgrades. "GC II" has more in common with "Dawn of War" than reviewers realize. Sierra has taken on THQ, & to a large degree, produced a more adullt gaming experience than "DOW". I'm not bashing "DOW". I own it and its' Expansion "Winter Assault" and cherish them both. "GC II" provides a more abstract approach to missions however. Thinking about building a big assault force to crush the enemy? Think again. The enemy AI is ruthless and unforgiving of newbies to the RTS game. And just when you think you have the enemy worked out, they throw in an alien race that is only too happy to hand your tactics back to you, along with your head, in your combat helmet. Until they change sides, or a faction of them do.
I compare "GCII" to "DOW" because they have more in common than any other "rts" on the market. "Age of Empires III" adds graphical upgrades, and nothing else. Brian Reynolds was quoted as saying his developers are jaded with the "AoE" series and want to move on. Well, it shows. So this series doesn't come into the arena. Neither does "Civ IV", which really is a Strategy game, not a true RTS fair. "Battle for Middle Earth" was excellent (still is). Fantastic presentation, and campaigns that kept you playing just that bit longer after 3 am. The immersion, helped enormously by the music, voice acting, and translation from the movies, kept us coming back for more. "BFME II", however, is a huge step backward. It should have been an Expansion Pack at best. It broke what wasn't broken, and missed an opportunity to really explode the Middle Earth universe. In "BFME II" the wind doesn't blow, it sucks (just as the game does).
So "GC II" and "DoW" sit facing each other. The latter is a great Sci-Fi obliteration romp with some strategy thrown in (nothing to burn your brain out over though), while "GC II", as I said presents a more mature, thinking man's strategy game.

GRAPHICS: Excellent. The particle effects are dazzling, especially when that artillery lets fly. The water refelcts everything, including the beautifully rendered star-filled sky. Best water graphics in a RTS yet. Download the patch (1.008 I think) as it adds coastal/beach wave effects amongst other thiings.

SOUND: Love that heavy pounding of boots as troops charge forward, changing to a 'clanging' echo as they cross metal bridges. Weapon effects are serviceable, though nothing outstanding. The voice acting is better than usual (and better than "Dow:WA"). It also follows on from the original story lines of "GC" and its' expansion pack "Dark Conspiracy". Something that "Winter Assault" failed to do with "DoW"".

OVERALL: It is now available on Budget re-release. You NEED to get it if you are into this genre. Just don't think tank-rush tactics or you will be handed your skull in your helmet.

COMPARISONS: Why compare with "DoW". In skirmish/multiplayer mode it becomes exceedingly obvious. Control stategic locations and upgrade as soon as you can (only in the quiter moments of "GCII", though).

COMMENTS: Sierra has been a dependable company for years. When they had their DYNAMIX group who specialized in sims/games ("Aces of the Pacific", "Aces Over Europe", "Aces of the Deep") they ruled the gamemarket, sharing only with MICROPROSE for quality. Unfortunately, sims appeal to a relatively small category (I remember one FPS ffan coommmenting: "Flight sims? What's so great about a game about skies, and sometimes land?"). So Dynamix folded and Microprose was bought out by ATARI (the hand of death to serious games).
Buy it, enjoy it, and look forward, as I do to the next installment. I would love to see a marriage between this and the "Homeworld" series. That would give "Star Wars Empire at War" a good run for its' money. ("EAW" doesn't know what it wants to be anyway. Its' more like "CIV IV" with some RTS battles tagged on. But, it is Star Wars so who cares).