Electronics & Computers Deals here!
Battles also feel clunky due to a bizarre design choice to take firing orders away from you. Instead of right-clicking on enemy troops to get the guns blazing as in almost every other RTS ever made, here you have to move your troops within range of the bad guys to make them open fire. Also, your troops don't automatically follow enemies once battles have started, which turns many battles into irritating chase sequences where you have to run after enemies to keep them in firing range. It's hard to understand what Vertex4 was trying to accomplish here. There aren't any obvious pluses to making this drastic change to such a longstanding RTS convention, so this offbeat movement mechanism will only frustrate players.
Comic-book cutscenes are usually a treat, but not when the artwork is this shoddy.
Virtually all of SunAge's frills are as ineptly handled as the core game design. While the music is stark and ominous, the visuals are absent any personality. Buildings and troops lean on a standard RTS style that's about as distinctive as blades of grass. Cutscenes are even more amateurish, thanks to the worst comic art this side of early '90s Marvel. Gameplay options are just about worthless beyond the three solo campaigns played from the perspective of each race. You can skirmish against the AI only by hosting a multiplayer game and choosing computer opponents, which doesn't give you the option to save progress. And the actual multiplayer involves free-for-all and team games limited to just four players (which isn't much of a problem, actually, since there are never more than a couple of people hanging out in the online lobby).
Trudging through a game like SunAge is painful at best. Retro-RTS gaming is a great idea if you're into nostalgia, but the number of bugs and design miscues make this one an uncomfortable trip back in time.
- See more CNET content tagged:
- troop,
- real-time strategy,
- firing,
- bug,
- games
User reviews
Write your own review Be the first one to review SunAge (PC) and share your experience with the CNET community!
SunAge (PC):
%20PC%20Game%20reviews%20-%20CNET%20Reviews&srcUrl=http://reviews.cnet.com/pc-games/sunage-pc/4505-9696_7-31974928-2.html){kind=small}