Total Annihilation: Kingdoms + Iron Plague

Total Annhilation: Kingdoms was a move that surprised many fans of the original TA, with its fantasy setting, I believe, with many such fans expecting more mech based destruction. None the less, expectations were high, and the game was met with very mixed reviews, much because of its campaign structure, which eschewed multiple faction (The base game had four) based campaigns in favour of jumping from faction to faction in order to weave some kind of single storyline. For many, the effect of this was jarring, but I found it refreshing, both in the way it stopped me from playing with the same units mission after mission, but also in the way I felt it give a sense of scale that can go missing from a single faction campaign. Flitting about the globe with "meanwhiles" and so on gave a sense of a genuine world at war. The four factions are suitably different, particularly the beast-like Zhon, who do not make use of structures at all. Like Total Annhilation before it, it also has a strong skirmish mode, and makes use of that games crude, but moderately effective, early physics engine, a big part of what helps to seperate it from similar RTS's of the time. The other positive similarity is the resource system, even more simplified from TA, with Mana points replacing metal deposits, and no equivilent of energy. The game is not perfect however, by any means. Sometimes the games physics seem to defy logical explaination, when projectiles are stopped short by cover that does not appear to impede them in any way. The AI is reasonable for the time, but in todays gaming world, frustrates. Interface and unit options are a cut above many RTS's of the day, but feel slightly less fluid than the original TA, or at least my memory of it. This could of course be nostalgia. All in all, this is a fine game however, that deserves far more praise than it recieves.

This game was a lot of fun, but it wasn't as good as Total Annihilation. At the time, online play was very laggy, too. It was by and large more than both the computers and the bandwidth of the day could handle. Which is to say, it was very good looking. The lead developer of TAK was the lead artist on the original TA. After TA creator and Cavedog, TA's developer, founder Chris Taylor, left the company, the artist moved up to the equivalent of Chris's spot as project lead, and maybe even put too much emphasis on the art. Users with less than great video cards, CPU's, and connections found online(and sometimes even offline) play aggravating due to slowdowns that made everything stutter and jump from place to place on the screen. But with today's computers, everything should look fine without clogging up your machine. Seeing a flock of dirigibles coming your way and dropping bombs everywhere was wonderful to look at back then, and today wouldn't slow your gameplay to 3 frames per second. I broke the first big story about TAK's playable state, with a post titled, "So I played TAK today..." that got tens of thousands of views very quickly and was spread around the net overnight. It was about my short experience looking over the game at the Los Angeles E3 convention. Kind of fun being a super-mini almost-celebrity in a tiny pond, for a while. TAK seemed very fresh, with plenty of the gritty challenge and bloodthirsty aggression TA fans had become so fond of, and everyone was really excited about it. With the only two resources pared down to only one, it looked if anything even more action-oriented. I would still recommend people try TA instead of TAK, or at least first. TAK is less flexible, less challenging, and less replayable. It is easier to find "just the right solution" in TAK, even easier than figuring out how great flash tanks were in TA, which were actually more fun and intriguing to find counters for and to try to stave off. TAK is also much prettier. And it has a fantasy rather than sci-fi look/world, which some may prefer. Also, if I recall correctly, both TA and TAK had unusually good single player games, generally played all the way through even by the most die-hard online players of the day, who generally learned just enough to take battles online and ignored single player campaigns or played them through in off hours when they couldn't get a match going. I did recently replay the TA single player game and found it very good. Recommended, but with reservations. Maybe something around 3.5 stars, but I'll rate it at 4 here since 3 seems less fair than a 4.

Total annihilation Kingdoms, what can I say? When this game came out it outdid every other, it gave you great gameplay an amazing story line and some of the best music of its time. The game puts you in the roll of one of five monarchs who is able to build structures and raise an army to defeat other people, each monarch is in control of a different race, each race is completely different to the other, each possessing different strengths and weaknesses such as Aramons long range artillery the trebuchet that can fire across the entire map! Or the mighty ships of the Veruna navy that outmatch any other in a sea battle. Zhon can create an army any ware on the map thanks to there ability to summon units from beasts masters and the like instead of buildings, and Taros have some of the most divers and powerful units in the game! Creon, a race that was added in the expansion the Iron Plague also adds to the variety as they refuse to use magic and instead has advance in technology into a steam punk like race using steam and electricity for there machines to attack there enemies. To this day I have not seen any other game that is as diverse as this. When It comes to maps there are literally dozens to choose from, each one has been given an amazing amount of detail and still retains a design that can bring about many different types of unique strategies As each race is able to use the maps layout to its own advantage. This makes skirmish play vary enjoyable as there are so many possibilities to attack and defend on each one that you will find yourself continually playing to see what kind of strategy works best for each one. The campaign consists of the ware between to four monarch's , each monarch is fleshed out as you are able to see what happens to the Land Of Darien. While playing the campaign you will be able to see the great cities of Aramon, sail across watery island like land of Veruna, explore huge forests as you enter the land of Zhon and fight great evils as you travel through the realm of Taros.

Well so, I know how good the original Total Annihilation was, and I agree that it was (and is) pretty amazing. And so I will save you the blurb on how you should play the original and just get down to this. This is a great game. Especially if you do not have Total Annihilation bias. The game has similar mechanics, but does not perhaps implement them as carefully. That being said, I really like this one. Maybe even more. Why? Its not the story (love me some knock off history channel narrative). Or even the graphics (which are good, but only a step above the original. For me its the character that this game possesses. Its spellbinding. The music is wonderful, and sets the mood perfectly. Each race is unique, and looks like it. It has the setting and mood that the original Total Annihilation seemed to lack. Though its not as stellar of a game as the original, Kingdoms is still fun to boot. You will still create massive armies of orcs, or mer-creatures and send them off to their doom. Which really is what the Total Annihilation series is all about to begin with.