Posted on: February 3, 2015
MischiefMaker
Verified ownerGames: 819 Reviews: 66
Fantastic singleplayer strategy mayhem, just beware of bugs!
This is the most singleplayer-oriented of the Massive Assault titles with a whopping five modes of SP, in addition to the tutorials. Also, the two sides in this one have unique units. The basic game is a "world war" that takes place on a continent divided into several countries of 20-40 hexes each. A third of the countries are neutral, a third are held by the Free Nations Union, and a third are held by the Phantom League. However, only one of your held countries is visible to the enemy at the start of the game, all the rest of them are "secret allies" that appear to be neutral. A country can only produce (finite) resources if there are no enemies on any of its hexes, so the ideal strategy is usually a line of cheap units backed up by heavy artillery. The game's signature "move" is flanking one of these formations by revealing a secret ally on an unguarded border and producing a strikeforce to pour in next round and cut off their supplies. Of course, what if that secret ally you just used was itself bordered by a secret ally of the enemy? The tactical combat itself is entirely dice-free. Units do a certain amount of damage at a certain range and have a certain amount of hit points. A 1-HP enemy is just as damaging as a full-health one. Terrain brings no defensive bonuses, only movement penalties and impassible barriers. You can't move through a hex containing the wreckage of a destroyed unit until 1 round after it dies, so cheapo units will hold the line while you wait for reinforcements to come from overseas. The music is a series of crazily bombastic military marches along the lines of the Total Annihilation games. I like the graphics, but the textures, especially for the terrain, are very muddy. The voice acting in the campaign is beyond bad and enters the realm of David Lynch surreal. Ahh... but I did mention bugs. Keep the autosave on because this game is prone to crash-to-desktop, especially on the orbital station thunder map. Recommended!
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