This is one of those games that developed my interest in military sci-fi, though the first of the series Aftermath was the one that actually sparked it off. Aftershock is a big brother/second attempt of the formula laid down by Aftermath and does very well. The only gripes of the time was Starforce which is now devoid in this DRM-free version, and there are various mods and modding guides if you feel the need to change the game. There are factions, and it's a good idea to be friendly to at least the humans but a better idea to be friendly to them all. Humans are generic and my favorite as they get the best flexibility in the field, Cyborgs make excellent high-speed high-health tank-scouts, and Psionics are fine medics with decent sniping capability and a '6th sense' which can detect living creatures through walls. As I mentioned above just be friendly with the humans and you will be fine, they are flexible enough to be anything but an uber-tank. Resource and base management is done proper but I will give you a warning, you can't just grab a ton of bases and use them all. Supply lines through territories cost maintenance to keep going and the cost gets higher for more and more lines so be careful and thoughtful on which bases to attach and which ones to leave as-is. Building space in bases is limited also, which means capability to make advanced items and weapons will be exponentially more expensive. This forces the player to use 'cheap' equipment for a long while as a means to keep fighting, and to use common munitions for a long while. I would easily say the game is very balanced. To cut to the chase, if you like Aftermath then Aftershock is a truly well-done sequel. If you haven't tried both, then it's the best infantry tactical game I ran into that is modern (XCom requires DOS and is dated) and there isn't many games to fill the niche Aftershock does, nor do they do it nearly as well.
Yes I remember these games on SNES from my youth, and haven't touched them at all since I was 7 or so. Now I played them again I am just having fun remembering the old days as much as I have fun simply playing EW Jim. Second game is my favorite still because it's the first one I rented long ago. Only reason I knocked it down to 3 stars is because the keyboard controls don't work well at all with this game, find a logitech rumblepad or something like I did and it feels dandy.
I will start off by saying that at first I was put off by this game. Earth 2150 felt shoddy to me at first, but then I started to actually play and began enjoying it more and more. There are a few nags, like the campaign is a bit oddly laid out and takes a bit to get used to with your main base being played on simultaneously as your current game, there is nagging pathing issues that occasionally annoy, and certain weapons don't seem as good as they sound and get owned by another unit with no problem. Get past these, they are valid cons, but if you just pay attention to building up your army and winning, then the true fun comes out because all those are minor things you forget about once you stop looking at them. They are that small of a nuisance. Simply pick an army you like and simply play, then you will be like me and get hooked on Earth 2150 after a good 4 hours of trial and error. By the way, before Impulse came out I had this game on another Stardock store and forgot what it was called, had red and yellow letters in the name though. Anyway they sorta went under and that in turn had me lose my first copy of Earth 2150, and I do not regret buying it again.
