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Strategy & War


Ground Control
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 best

By Bill McClendon
(6/15/2000)

The Good: Excellent unit modeling and physics; involving single-player campaign; useful tutorial; balanced, tactical multiplayer. 
The Bad: Occasional pathfinding problems; some scenarios are frustrating. 
The Bottom Line: Easily the best, most accessible 3D real-time strategy game to date. 
Multiplayer: Excellent 
Single Player: Excellent 
ESRB: T (Teen)

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The real-time strategy genre has been around a long time, in gaming years, but the 3D aspect of it is still fairly new. Games such as Homeworld, Force Commander, and the upcoming Dark Reign 2 have taken real-time strategy into the third dimension with varying degrees of success. Massive Entertainment's entry into the fledgling 3D RTS genre is firmly grounded in the look and feel of science-fiction action movies, and it delivers on every level that matters. And best of all, it's just damned fun to play--all action, without the tedium of the usual resource-management clickfest.

Welcome to Krig-7B
In Ground Control's near-future plot, a war has decimated the human population on Earth, causing humankind to seek new homes in the stars. The main organizations are those of the various corporations and a quasi-religious group called the Order of the New Dawn. Combat is prohibited on Earth itself, but this restriction doesn't carry over to the worlds being colonized--and in the brawl over the limited resources these planets contain, the fighting is particularly brutal.


 
Screen Shots
Click the captions for more game shots!

-Dropship liftoff
-Truck escort
-Valley warfare
-Bye-bye, planes
-Infantry assault

The game concerns itself with one organization--the Crayven Corporation--and the Order itself. The game's story develops over the course of 30 single-player levels. For the first half of the game, you command units for the Crayven Corporation in its efforts to prevent the Order from claiming Krig-7B. In an interesting twist, however, you take command of the Order forces for the second half of the game, as the story continues to unfold. It's refreshing to be able to play both sides in a conflict without having two (or more) entirely separate story lines, and Massive has elegantly implemented this plot development style.

Conventional...and Unconventional
In addition to their theological differences, the two sides in the conflict take different approaches to combat. The Crayven Corporation favors more conventional vehicles--such as tracked war machines, mobile artillery, and guided-missile launchers--and its weaponry includes projectiles, both bullets and explosives. The Order, however, has access to more advanced research than the corporations, and its unit selection reflects this: its units are based on hovercraft platforms, and its weapons are energy-based.

Each and every unit in the game has been modeled in painstaking detail, right down to the visors on the individual infantry units. Since the game is fully 3D with a player-positionable camera, it's possible to zoom the view right up the tailpipe of your Command APC. The models and textures have been done so well that you'll find yourself examining your units up close whenever you have a chance, even when you're supposed to be watching the overall combat situation. From the yellow and black stripes on the guardrails of the Crayven APC to the detailing on the Order's beam platform, Ground Control really brings the units under your command to life.


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Ground Control




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