I was thinking about how it was very much a product of its time in terms of narrative: peak oil,European federation (they did predict brexit in a roundabout way) and some hilarious shit like beaching a cargo ship filled with tanks in a very silly amphibious assault. I think the tutorial level was literally invading The Hague.

The voice system was really cool, you could play the game entirely by voice and really felt like you were a commander.

It had all of the typical Clancy brain worms, but moving to a big picture of small battlefields it really allowed tacticool vibes to shine without getting bogged down too much. At the end of the day, yelling at your artillery to stop firing because you forgot where to before calling in the orbital drop infantry is way more immersive than just pressing buttons (in my opinion at least).

Interested in hearing your thoughts on RTS as a genre or Clancy games and their :brainworms:

  • Yurt_Owl
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    Yeah I played it, I don't remember much other than finding the voice controls a little embarrassing to use cos my parents took the piss out of me when i used it and there were nukes. Always like Clancy games for gameplay, couldn't tell you a single storyline in any of them though.

    My thoughts on RTS are fuck starcraft for killing RTS. Before sc2 there were fun unbalanced RTS made just to be fun and have unique mechanics, post sc2 all RTS were built from the ground up to be eSports with very little difference from sc2 itself. Halo wars 2 broke that mould a bit by actually being enjoyable

    • GinAndJuche
      hexagon
      ·
      11 months ago

      Playing in a soundproof room immediately adds like 2 out of 10 to the game.

      Sicko yes, finally somebody who understands the damage blizzard did to the genre by making it APM Korean style game.

    • blakeus12 [he/him]
      ·
      11 months ago

      if you want a fun rts, planetary annihilation is pretty fun.

    • GinAndJuche
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      Necro posting because I remembered something relevant:

      Check out Beyond all Reason, it’s a freeware RTS made by fans of supreme commander. It’s balanced by making nothing balanced

      • Yurt_Owl
        ·
        11 months ago

        I've heard of it and been meaning to check it out. Supreme commander is my favourite RTS. Watching artillery fly in both directions is oddly soothing

  • lorty@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    11 months ago

    I played it as a kid. I thought the voice controls were the coolest thing ever and it mostly worked (as far as I can remember).

    That said, did this game have a story beyond the setup? I remember winning the war as the european union but there was basically no narrative before the "You win" cinematic. Maybe I just forgot.

    • GinAndJuche
      hexagon
      ·
      11 months ago

      There were 3 endings and at least 6 unique campaign events.