Posted April 12, 2009
On the surface, Perimeter looks a lot like it's just another Star Craft clone. But it's a hell of a lot more than that.
They use the Star Craft campaign model, which actually annoys me a tad (I prefer the Command and Conquer, or Dark Crusade campaign systems), and playing at least the Exodus feels a lot like playing the Protoss.
However, the game has a lot of unique and non-traditional RTS elements. Like Terraforming, the capability to adjust the game world to fit your needs. It allows you to do things that most games don't, and allows for interesting gameplay tactics.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the unit system though, and my guess is most RTS fans will.
First, there's a solid 250 unit cap, and in this game that feels tiny.
Second there's your 'squad' limit. You can only have up to 5 squads.
Then there's the unit production system.
You select the squad you want the unit(s) to go in to, and produce the unit(s), they automatically become part of that squad. Which isn't too bad. (I still dislike how few squads you can have though)
You produce one of 3 basic units, which then you can use combinations of those three basic units to make advanced units. This system is awesome, but horribly flawed:
The units you wish to combine must all be part of the same squad. So lets say you want to make the basic air-combat unit, it requires 5 Soldiers, and 4 Officers. you have a squad containing 60 Soldiers, and 48 Officers, so you combine it in to 12 of the air units. Great!
Now these units can't attack buildings, so you want to switch to something that can once you take care of most of the enemy units. You can! this is also great, in theory.
The rocket infantry requires 3 Soldiers. So you can convert those 12 air units in to 20 rocket infantry. This is where it's flawed, those 48 Officers, are wasted. You can't convert the squad in to 20 rocket, and 16 snipers (req. 3 officers). This wouldn't be too bad, except the officers still count towards your unit cap. So you just lost 20% of your unit cap.
The games namesake, your Perimeter Shield is a cool idea, and once you get to know it, has an incredible amount of tactical options. Early on though, it's a little irritating to work with, especially if you use the 'full shield' activation, instead of just select power cores. As the more power cores you have, the faster your shield drains energy. (I think it 'should' drain energy based off the surface area it covers, not the number of cores generating it.)
It's also a rather tough game. It's one of the few RTS I've ever seen that I can't just drop in to a skirmish against an 'easy' AI in order to pick up how the game works. So you might want to actually do something silly like read the manual and/or play the tutorial.
It's well worth buying though if you're a fan of how RTSs used to be. If you have a short attention span and prefer quick skirmishes though, go buy Warlords Battlecry III.
They use the Star Craft campaign model, which actually annoys me a tad (I prefer the Command and Conquer, or Dark Crusade campaign systems), and playing at least the Exodus feels a lot like playing the Protoss.
However, the game has a lot of unique and non-traditional RTS elements. Like Terraforming, the capability to adjust the game world to fit your needs. It allows you to do things that most games don't, and allows for interesting gameplay tactics.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the unit system though, and my guess is most RTS fans will.
First, there's a solid 250 unit cap, and in this game that feels tiny.
Second there's your 'squad' limit. You can only have up to 5 squads.
Then there's the unit production system.
You select the squad you want the unit(s) to go in to, and produce the unit(s), they automatically become part of that squad. Which isn't too bad. (I still dislike how few squads you can have though)
You produce one of 3 basic units, which then you can use combinations of those three basic units to make advanced units. This system is awesome, but horribly flawed:
The units you wish to combine must all be part of the same squad. So lets say you want to make the basic air-combat unit, it requires 5 Soldiers, and 4 Officers. you have a squad containing 60 Soldiers, and 48 Officers, so you combine it in to 12 of the air units. Great!
Now these units can't attack buildings, so you want to switch to something that can once you take care of most of the enemy units. You can! this is also great, in theory.
The rocket infantry requires 3 Soldiers. So you can convert those 12 air units in to 20 rocket infantry. This is where it's flawed, those 48 Officers, are wasted. You can't convert the squad in to 20 rocket, and 16 snipers (req. 3 officers). This wouldn't be too bad, except the officers still count towards your unit cap. So you just lost 20% of your unit cap.
The games namesake, your Perimeter Shield is a cool idea, and once you get to know it, has an incredible amount of tactical options. Early on though, it's a little irritating to work with, especially if you use the 'full shield' activation, instead of just select power cores. As the more power cores you have, the faster your shield drains energy. (I think it 'should' drain energy based off the surface area it covers, not the number of cores generating it.)
It's also a rather tough game. It's one of the few RTS I've ever seen that I can't just drop in to a skirmish against an 'easy' AI in order to pick up how the game works. So you might want to actually do something silly like read the manual and/or play the tutorial.
It's well worth buying though if you're a fan of how RTSs used to be. If you have a short attention span and prefer quick skirmishes though, go buy Warlords Battlecry III.