Dark Reign + Expansion

For a long time this game would constantly crash or not open at all, but thanks to some kind of update we're back in business! This game is simple to learn but has a ton of depth. The one divisive issue I see, beyond the fact that this IS a very classic looking RTS game with crunched but charming graphics, is that the speed is on FAST without any adjustment possible I could find. Everything works and in fact there's systems here like custom pathfinding commands and unit stances I wish were in more games. Within seconds you can command a unit to go scouting but come back if it takes damage, or harass enemies by shooting them a few times before running away, or just stand and fight to the death. Cue times are seconds long. Resources are gathered like lightning. And fights are over in a couple action packed blinks of an eye. This aint Star Craft where units line up and fire twenty or thirty shots. You can clear out a base in the time it takes to read this sentence with the right team...or get wiped out just as fast. But it's still great fun. Several levels of tutorial are nice and concise. When the worst you can say about a game is that it's almost too fast and that the two groups have almost no difference between them but both campaigns are lengthy and diverse, it's not a bad RTS at all. Play if you felt Total Anhiliation was WAY too slow and you always wanted the opportunity to make and save patrol paths you could assign to units and squads.

Spam factories, build one shockwave tank after another, smash the other guy! Man this was the first game I've ever played online. :D Dark Reign is a Sci-Fi RTS from the late 90s that was quite ahead of it's time. It has one addon that is some kind of a rarity. I was happy to have picked up what seemed like the last copy from a local computer store back in 1998. So what can I say... multiplayer is pretty good. I have mixed feelings for the single player mode. Some missions are so hard that it was very frustrating losing the hundred time to the AI and starting over. There's a map editor included so you can make your own maps for single- or multiplayer and even script them with triggers, events and actions through an external script. Man I'm so happy right now last time I've done anything with this game was when I was 12 years old. The visuals are top-notch, very beautiful tilesets and sprites! Graphics were neither too busy nor too colorful or desaturated. I loved the time before everything suddenly became 3D. Voiceovers were...alright, soundeffects rather good actually. Technically the engine was a tenfold ahead of comparable games, like Red Alert or BlahCraft. Also the game came with all modding tools and tutorials necessary to make new sprites, tilesets, missions, etcetera on the CD. It's a pity that the online community never grew big and the game pretty much became an underdog due to lack of interest... I don't know if there is an active community still. Gameplay wise it's pretty good... you'll probably need to get used to it. The interface is good (unit queues, customizable unit behaviour) and it has standard C&Cish input otherwise. The resource in this game, Water, is infinite, as in you have water pools that fill up at a slow rate. Actually, if you want a full review, I'm pretty sure gamespy has one! :-P Buy this gem, it's very gut!

I actually picked up Dark Reign when I was in college, I was supposed to spend the couple of quid on a sandwich for lunch but I saw the awesome looking box in the bargain bin and couldn't help myself. I spent years wishing I could get the expansion but I never found it, but even without it Dark Reign is a strategy classic that got overshadowed by Total Annihilation and Starcraft, and while it borrows from both it still manages to be its own game. As burn-x has mentioned before, the story is weak but the missions are challenging, it's hammed up and perhaps hasn't aged as well as Starcraft or Total Annihilation but - perhaps only for those of us who played it on its original release - Dark Reign will always have a special place as a great old RTS that's hard as nails and as charming as a lump of coal but we love it anyway, perhaps for its flaws.

Saving the game from the main menu appears to result in a corrupt save file; make sure to save from within an actual game and you'll be able to progress just fine. Game is otherwise fantastic. Old-school RTS with terrain height and visiblity mechanics and some functionality to give your units AI instead of managing them manually. Gameplay is fast and unforgiving. Missions are varied. Lacks more story than C&C or Warcraft (the story is communicated mostly through mission briefings/debriefings) but still plays well.

Played this as a young kid, had a wonderful time with it then and still.