GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 01/05/2001
- Updated on: 05/17/2006
- Released on: 12/14/2000
- Originally published on GameSpot: Ground Control: Dark Conspiracy (PC) Review
Ground Control: Dark Conspiracy is the official expansion to Swedish developer Massive Entertainment's graphically stunning real-time tactical combat game, which was released about six months earlier. Created by American studio High Voltage Software, Dark Conspiracy is a fully featured expansion that introduces an all-new faction of futuristic units for you to command, as well as a new campaign containing 15 successive single-player scenarios. The game also has several new multiplayer maps designed by the original Ground Control team. Yet despite all its additions, Dark Conspiracy makes no significant changes to the way the original game plays. Therefore, it may remind you of some of the frustrations you encountered with the original, even though Ground Control: Dark Conspiracy fundamentally remains the same great strategy game as its predecessor. Nevertheless, since the expansion is available for just a nominal shipping cost to players who already own Ground Control, its problems will seem mostly trivial.
Ground Control boasted some of the best graphics of any PC game released in 2000. As in many fully 3D real-time strategy games, Ground Control gives you the ability to freely adjust the camera perspective so that you can pan, rotate, and zoom your view to suit the situation. The game's incredibly detailed combat units, realistic terrain, and impressive special effects look great regardless of how close or how far away you prefer to view them. Dark Conspiracy looks as good as Ground Control did, for the most part. The new playable faction, the Phoenix Mercenaries, comprises a fairly interesting set of units that seem like a cross between Ground Control's original factions, the imposing forces of the Crayven Corporation and the sleek technology of the Order of the New Dawn. Dark Conspiracy also features some new environments in which you'll battle. Unfortunately these are unremarkable compared with those in the original game. Their topography consists mostly of the same sort of rolling hills as in Ground Control, only the environments themselves don't look as good because of the lower-quality textures that are used to depict the ground and the sky.
Dark Conspiracy also recycles most of the sounds from Ground Control, which were effective in the original game and remain so in the expansion. As in the original, in Dark Conspiracy it's impressive how the sound effects realistically grow much louder and more distinct as you zoom in closer to the action. And the new Phoenix mercenary units sound quite good, although their spoken lines do get repetitive. Also, because the expansion is story-driven and picks up soon after the original campaign's conclusion, there tends to be a lot of dialogue during, before, and after the single-player missions. This speech is generally convincing and helps the story along.
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