Warzone 2100

The end must be near. This is an innovative real-time strategy game.

Grab the smelling salts and brace yourself: Warzone 2100 is a real-time strategy game that actually brings something new and interesting to the table. After a parade of faceless RTS dimwits, we finally have a prom queen here--at least for multiplayer games. I'm still recovering.

In Warzone 2100, you'll search for and wage war over "pre-collapse" technology. It seems that, once again, the world has been destroyed, and now the broken remnants of humanity have come together to, um, continue fighting.

While the story is a clich?, the gameplay offers some exceptional elements. Not only do individual units carry over from scenario to scenario, but you keep the same base over an entire campaign. This is a welcome feature in RTS games where you build the same base over and over (and over) again each mission. Some missions will involve a dropship taking some of your units to new areas, so your main base isn't always the focus of every mission.

Not only do individual units carry over from scenario to scenario, but you keep the same base over an entire campaign. This is a welcome feature in RTS games where you build the same base over and over (and over) again each mission. Some missions will involve a dropship taking some of your units to new areas, so your main base isn't always the focus of every mission. Warzone 2100 really emphasizes the combat sides of real-time strategy. You'll build well-fortified bases and defend them with a rich selection of units. You design and can create dozens of different units. Take a basic chassis and slap different wheels and weapons on it, and presto! You have a new war machine. The same goes for cyborgs, airplanes, and fixed base defenses like rocket towers. (The downside of all this is that your choices start to get confusing and the resulting units you design all look similar.)

It also offers an unprecedented level of control over your units and options. You can stack commands, set damage tolerance levels for units that really work and allow them to retreat to be repaired, set the default firing range for units (they miss a lot), and fiddle with a whole host of other options. Every interface command can be remapped. Great stuff.

However, the campaigns takes a while to grow in difficulty, and never really become engaging. As a result, the single-player experience is mediocre.

Multiplayer options pick up the slack--LAN, modem, TCP/IP, and Mplayer support--and this mode is exciting. The units really heave a lot of fire at one another and can take a pounding. You can even start games with advanced bases already built so you don't have to build from the ground up--a great option.

Finally, the graphics are superior. The game features a 3D environment with a camera you can whip around to get the best view. You'll rumble smoothly through valleys and then over rolling hills to engage in battles punctuated with colorful explosions and weapon effects.

In short, Warzone 2100 is one of the better RTS games to come along in some time. It stumbles a bit in the bland single-player campaigns, but, overall, it's a magnificent war machine that excels in multiplayer. Once you get over the initial shock at an original RTS game, you won't need those smelling salts

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