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- Ground Control
Ground Control
- November 24, 2000 14:47 PM PST
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Real-time strategy games have entered the world of 3D and the race is on to see who will become the newly crowned king of the genre. Sierra just might have a contender on its hands with Ground Control, a 3D RTS with an emphasis on action. And no, you can't be Major Tom.
Real-time strategy games have entered the world of 3D and the race is on to see who will become the newly crowned king of the genre. Sierra just might have a contender on its hands with Ground Control, a 3D RTS with an emphasis on action.The story, involving a feud between 2 rival companies (the technological Craven Corporation and the fanatical religious organization, the Order of the New Dawn) as they battle for domination of an undeveloped planet, may be the oldest story in the book, but Ground Control has enough new ideas to make it worth reading again.
The first thing you may notice about Ground Control that sets it apart from other games in the genre is the absence of resources to harvest-something that should please gamers who want to get right into the action. No longer will you have to scour for minerals, build drones to harvest them, and worry about balancing your building and research.
Each mission starts with a number of dropships (up to 3 depending on the size of the mission), each of which can be loaded with 4 squads, which include infantry, air support, tanks, and artillery, as well as your command APC. You can choose specifically which squads you want to use on the mission or you can let the computer decide using the Autoload function. Your squads are then dropped on the planet's surface and the battle begins.
Orders can be dished out by selecting individual squads on the map or by dragging a box around multiple squads. Additionally, icons representing each squad appear on the screen and can be selected so instructions can be issued to anybody no matter where they are on the map. Commands are given out to each squad, so rather than having to issue orders to dozens of individual units, you will only be controlling about 5 to 13 squads at any given time.
You can set the formations of your squads, as well as order them to hold their fire, shoot at will, or attack only if fired upon. Line of sight will come into play, as will the level of terrain- you will only be able to see enemies in your field of view and those above you will receive a bonus for accuracy.
The 3D world is easy to navigate with the arrow keys scrolling the map and the mouse rotating the direction of your vision. Also, gamers with a mouse wheel will be able to use it to raise or lower their viewpoint (non-mouse wheelers can still use the keyboard to control this function.)
The vehicles, from the Aliens-style military look of the Crayven tanks and artillery to the sleeker, more technologically advanced hover vehicles of the Order, sport smooth animations and nice details, like flying shell casings and visible damage. And the explosions are a sight to behold; you will stare in awe the first time you see artillery arcing through the sky and pulverizing your opponent. Likewise, the sounds, from the blaring gunfire to the radio confirmations of your orders, are first-rate and never overbearing.
So if you like RTS games, but really prefer the heat of combat to the sometimes tedious act of micro-management, Ground Control looks like it might be just the thing to satisfy your thirst for warfare when it invades store shelves in June.
