Real Time Strategy Systems: Dawn of War II: Retribution

Retribution is an interesting real time strategy game (RTS) in its execution of resource management, army size, and most notably in the different ways each army plays. In the campaign modes the traditional front end resource gathering phase has been done away with in favor of resource tokens being scattered across the map. Resources aren't ‘harvested’ from the map but picked up along the way as they are dropped from crates and enemies With the  traditional RTS ‘Build Up’ phase gone the overall pace of every mission was sped up. Because of this Retribution has a lot in common with MOBA type games such as League of Legends or Heroes of Newerth.

Of the six faction campaigns the most notable deviation from traditional play style was the Tyranid faction. The Tyranids ravenous and swarming nature was expressed in gameplay by giving the army access to living tanks that tower over the other factions’ mightiest tanks and giving the army commander the ability to call in reinforcements at will. In a way I feel that the Tyranid player is rewarded for losing units. Every skill tree that the Hive Lord, the player character, climbs has powers that have him call in reinforcements to the front lines costing him nothing but supply. There are also a string of upgrades that give the Hive Lord buffs which he passes to nearby troops. Some buffs are basic like increased damage or speed but others are a little more creative such as the one which makes friendly creatures explode upon death.

 Wargear, equipment items, also contribute to this feel particularly the Pheromone Trail which slowly reinforces undermanned squads around the Hive Lord. The Pheromone Trail is also one of the first Wargear items given to the player. I feel that the abilities offered by these items and abilities are encouraging players to throw wave after wave of bugs at an objective. They do this by alleviating the cost of losing units and making losing supply an opportunity for the Hive Lord. To the Tyranid player losing supply means that your troops are literally blowing up in the enemies’ face and once enough supply is lost a squad of even tougher units can be summoned to the battlefield. 

Having to support an economy and constantly throw away units it possible but it also requires a lot of macro skill, like the Zerg from Starcraft 2. But because the traditional RTS economic system was disregarded the Tyranid army was given an opportunity to have a unique play style. In my book this deviation was successful and really gave the Tyranids an identity all their own. 

Sol Exodus: Combat Systems and Mission Types

Sol: Exodus is a space flight simulator; a genre that was very popular ten years ago but steadily fell off. Sol uses new features of today’s computers to improve on old systems and borrows from other genres to create new features. The end result is very interesting and this post will critique the unique combat hacking system and enemy fighter design.

The game’s combat is standard dog fighting for the most part but for larger enemies there is an interesting new system: Hacking. Ships too large to attack directly can be weakened by hacking their computers to expose sweet spots that are vulnerable to the player’s weapons. Hacking takes the form of a memory mini-game that goes on while the player is still flying through space. The hacking window shows an ever changing grid of letters and numbers that gradually fade while the correct characters will glow one by one in sequential order. After the key has been revealed the player just has to pick it out of a list of similar looking keys. The Hacking window is well sized and placed to allow players to hack and dog fight at the same time. In game I found having to do both at the same time was manageable and gave a sense of intensity to the character matching mini-game.

Hacking - Lower Left Corner

The enemy design is where the game falls down a bit. Enemy fighters and frigates are all very dark in their color scheme which lets them fade into the blackness of space. On one hand this is realistic but on the other hand it doesn’t make for good fun. Even large enemies can get mixed up in the background when the player is moving at max speed. The targeting computer compensates a little in this regard but I’d rather be able to see brightly colored space ships (see Battlestar Galactica’s Viper design).

The biggest issue I had with the game was its most used mission type and the enemies associated with that mission: the escort quest. Most of the missions will require the player to protect an asset from various types of enemies. The most frustrating of which are the leech ships which are tiny, dull colored, do massive damage, and latch onto the sides of friendly ships. They don’t target the player but the assets the player is trying to protect and this is where the frustration comes from. Making strafing runs against an enemy cruiser is one thing but strafing a friendly ship looking for little grey-blue bulbs to shoot off is another thing entirely. This wouldn’t be as large an issue if this enemy and mission type weren’t always reappearing.

As a whole the game is competent and has some potential. For now though its mission selection and enemy design are holding it back by creating frustration instead of engagement.