GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
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Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 11/14/2005
- Released on: 11/16/2005
- Originally published on GameSpot: Earth 2160 (PC) Review
Earth 2160 is the latest game in a series that's flown a bit under the radar for some time now. Though not as well known as Warcraft or Age of Empires, the Earth games have still managed to garner a solid following thanks to some excellent gameplay mechanics, as well as graphics that have always pushed the boundaries of technology. And, on the surface, Earth 2160 delivers the same. It has a state-of-the-art graphics engine along with some great mechanics. However, all of that can't quite overcome a badly told single-player campaign that overstays its welcome. Still, if you can get over these flaws, there's a good game lurking in there.
Gorgeous graphics meet futuristic warfare in Earth 2160, the latest game in the popular Earth series.
Picking up after the events of Earth 2150 and its expansions, Earth 2160 takes place on Mars and the outer solar system, where the three surviving factions of humanity continue to battle for supremacy and a new home. As always, the factions in Earth 2160 are quite distinct from one another. The European Dynasty could probably be considered the most "conventional" of the three, as it has tanklike units and builds sprawling, interconnected bases. The Lunar Corporation is an Amazon-like faction headed up by women, and it relies on lots of hovercraft-like units and constructs towering, vertical bases. Then there's the Union of Civilized States, a powerful, technologically advanced faction that favors multilegged robotic units, as well as alienlike bases that "sprout" out of the ground. And speaking of alienlike, there's a fourth new faction in the game, the aliens, which differ from the human races because they don't research technology or build bases. Instead, the aliens have the ability to clone themselves and mutate to powerful new forms.
Earth 2160 essentially improves on the formula established by its predecessors. This is a real-time strategy game with a lot of depth, thanks to the ability to design your own units based on the technology that you've researched. If you encounter an enemy that uses a lot of laser weaponry, which cuts through your conventional armor like a hot knife through butter, then go back to the lab and research reflective armor, redesign and churn out new and improved units, and take it to the enemy. And considering the wide variety of chassis and parts to choose from, you can create a huge number of unit types, from mobile antiaircraft batteries, lumbering artillery, and huge, multiturreted tanks. What's even better is that the campaign features persistence, so the technology that you research remains with you as you go farther in the game (there's no need to reinvent the wheel every mission, like you do in most real-time strategy games). Instead, you can research even more-powerful technology, which can make your end units feel incredibly strong.
The ability to design units on the fly shakes up the game, as you always have to adapt to your opponent's technology.
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