The real-time strategy game has always had something of a love affair with the PC and as such finding a real gem amongst the rough terrain of your average game is a hard job. Thankfully, Earth 2160 comes across as a quality product from the moment you start and whilst it’s deep and full of options it retains that core fun factor that makes a good game, great.

It’s the third game in the series following on from 2140, and 2150 ( see what they did there…) and whilst it sticks rather firmly to a standard template for games of this ilk it does it well enough to deserve your attention. As each mission begins you find yourself in a certain part of the map with a few units and a splash of money. You then need to establish a base and construct units whilst also gathering resources and researching new technologies. Eventually you’re going to have to have go and take out the enemy before they take out you, do this, then repeat throughout the rest of the campaign.

Don’t expect to have to spend ages before you get access to the best buildings and units however as 2160 ditches the softly, softly approach and bombards you with available buildings from the off. In addition to this you can play as one of four races each with their own differing technologies. In total there are supposedly over 10,000 different units that you can construct which we think you’ll agree is more than enough.

It’s quite straightforward to reach this stage as well – build a Production Centre and you can start building the basic units from the off. However, things really get interesting when you introduce a research lab to the fold and suddenly the tech tree opens up allowing you to create an all manner or weird and wonderful units.

However, this brings with it a slight problem as by nature you’re going to be spending a large portion of your time deciding just which armour to put onto your new super-duper tank. As such you’ll be neglecting the game proper and unless you keep a steady eye on proceedings you could soon find yourself over-whelmed by enemy forces.

Ultimately though this just means you’re going to need to be more on the ball than you would be in other similar games. As there are so many options available to the player then you can play the game utilising any strategy you see fit and the game won’t stop you from doing this. Yes, there is resource management but it works well and the sheer scope of available units is rather breathtaking meaning you can play the game a million times and still be left discovering new things.

Let us warn you now though that it’s probably best to play through the campaign first rather than wading into the multiplayer or skirmish modes. The sheer depth and breadth of the game will simply over-whelm you otherwise whereas at least the campaign manages to ease you in gently and gives you time to learn the ropes beforehand.

The plot of the main campaign does follow on from the previous game, unfortunately it’s rather clichéd and whilst it does the job it’s a standard beat the bad guys, save the world scenario. However, this time around there’s a fourth playable race who are a rather strange bunch of aliens that rely on their resources to morph into new units rather than simply building the biggest base first.

It’s certainly a decent attempt and while the cut-scenes are done well the voice-overs on the whole are rather poor. In this day and age there’s simply no excuse for poor voice-overs and it really does detract from a story which whilst lacking in originality would certainly have kept the campaign ticking over.

Thankfully the game itself is rather good. The four races on offer each provide differing challenges and in addition to this there are three resources, metal, crystal and water available, of which each race only needs two. Immediately this offers strategic options as depending on the race you’ve chosen and the race of your opponents certain areas of the map will be heavily contested if you’re both after the same resource whilst others will be more sedate and easier to harvest if the resource is unique to you.

As well as this the different races have different methods for harvesting the appropriate resources so for example the Aliens make use of huge outposts to mine their resources whilst the USC use a more tried and trusted ( a la Command + Conquer ) method of harvesters.

The game also looks superb with each race feeling and looking distinct leaving you with no doubt as to who’s who. Thankfully even on lower spec machines the game compensates and the game world you’ll find yourself playing across is beautiful and transitions excellently. Gone are the blocky textures of time gone past and even when zooming in the game manages to keep its sense of style.

Thankfully as you’re no longer playing on Mars alone the landscapes are varied and interesting and a far cry from the bland worlds found in 2150. The explosions have power to them and look realistic whilst each unit is lovingly rendered with detailed animations. All in all it’s clearly a game that’s had a lot of time spent making it look good – and it pays off.

Gameplay wise every single innovation from the past few years has been jammed into the game. Units can gain experience so it pays to try and look after you’re more experienced units as not only will they be able to cause more damage and take more punishment, but they can also carry experience on over missions making the objective of keeping these units safe even more important - especially when an experience unit can cause double the damage of a raw recruit.

In addition to this there are also special characters, which the game puts more of an emphasis on who have special abilities and stronger stats. They also tend to provide the focus for the campaigns and you have to ensure that these units stay alive otherwise it’ll be game over. Thankfully, you get full control over these characters meaning you can move and order them to attack just as you would with any other unit.

As such everything adds up to conclude with a game that is infinitely better than it’s predecessors. It’s managed to retain a sense of style and fun whilst also offering plenty of options and opportunities for the hardcore players out there. The balance which is key to games of this type is pretty much spot on and there’s a definite pull to the game.

It’s not perfect though and the feature that allows you to have a first-person viewpoint from your units is a bit useless and whilst the intelligence of your opponents is passable it does become rather too easy to guess the tactics they’ll employ after you’ve played the game for a decent period.

Ultimately your opinion of the game will all come down to the type of gamer you are as many will argue that there are simply too many options available to the player and unless you’re prepared to spend a lot of time and effort on the game you’ll find it quite hard to get into. As long as this doesn’t deter you however you’ll find a game that is both rich and deep but also exhilarating and one of the finest examples of its genre currently around. If this is your sort of thing then you’d be a fool to miss this one.

85%

The best Earth game yet...

Earth 2160 Review

85%