Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri

Pros: good text lore, some of the gameplay and the FMV sequences. Cons: most of gameplay, broken sound & video playback and old school sadistic mission design. This is one of those old games where you are punished by not doing every single second exactly as the developers planned, against much superior enemy numbers and controls that need to be experienced to understand how much they handicap the player. For example, touching a bush will BUMP YOU BACKWARDS and you need to have WALKING MOMENTUM for the jetpack to take you anywhere besides directly up. Together the controls crippling you and the difficulty ramping up steeply already at Mission 3, the game lacks modern polish of any kind. Even the DosBox is choking with the game, turning sounds into screechy noise while it loads, no matter how many or how little cycles give it. The graphics fidelity also becomes a problem as you enemies are tiny blocks of random pixels at max range, though if you come closer, they will ravage you in few seconds. You have to endure bad controls, choking DosBox and pointlessly difficult missions. Oh yeah, this game has escort missions. With time limits. Against tons of mechs that outgun you with ease. I just described Mission 4. You need to decide if you really want to painstakingly trial-and-error through 30+ missions. You have been warned.

THIS. THIS is the real-time, First-Person, action mech-game I always wanted, but never found, and could you expect less from Looking Glass? Based on the legendary System-Shock engine (first previewed in 1994 with System-Shock), Terra Nova has you take control of a new recruit for a secret rebel organisation as you slip nicely into your brand new super-high tech mech suit as you find yourself on a series of what are practically action-sandbox maps (think Gun-Metal but in first person and made in 1996), allowing you to basically pick how you go about each mission. At the beginning of the game, all you have is basic weaponry and armour, as well as a drone to either scout out areas by way of keyboard control or waypoint control. Terra Nova also allows you to drop an auto-turret at will which will help you with defence especially early on, however later you amass an arsenal of complex arm-mounted weaponry and new mech-suits allowing energy and HP upgrades as well as longer jump-jet flight time and advanced movement. The game is superlative for it's time and really paved the way for FPS games in general in the future. Looking Glass were so far ahead of the times in terms of gameplay elements and especially graphics. Unlike the engines predecessor, System-Shock, the game is fully 3D, at all time, and allows a freedom of movement that was only just becoming the 'norm' in FPP games (soon to be revolutionised with the iminent release of Quake). Mechwarrior 2 is an incredible game in my opinion, but it's 'hands-off' movement controls and lacklustre (even by 1995 standards) graphics and unsatisfying shooting mechanics really make THIS the penultimate mech game. It's an absolute pleasure to play, even today, just like every Looking Glass game from the era and is by far my favourite FPP/Simulator game ever made. A true forgotten classic, even more so than System Shock, but the absolute best of it's genre. Incredible game. 5/5 (A+)

A great game with great gameplay. It has aged surprisingly well considering that the graphics are not quite what we are used to nowadays and the midi score is a bit of an earful at times. Only real complaint I have is that the cutscenes are not working properly for me. Sometimes they don't appear at all or are very glitchy.

This game was overlooked very much like Looking Glass' System Shock and it is a shame as this is a really well done tactical shooter. Most of the time you will have atleast one squad member with you during missions, save for a select few that are unfortunately stealth-only, and the AI does its job fairly well at taking out the Pirates and Hegemony scum you will face. Also, this game features FMV cutscenes and the acting ain't bad I must say, certainly interesting to see how the members interact with each other when not on a mission. The sound design in game is quite good too, especially when you're getting hit by enemy fire as it makes you feel slightly panicked from the relentless fire that your foes are unleashing. Certainly a must for those who like Looking Glass' games as well as tactical games in general, even more so if it is sci-fi like this.

Feels strangely ahead of its time (as to expected, being a looking glass game) also, the music is pretty good