Stormrise
7
10
2
2
Might not be for everyone...
Decided I'd go ahead and give this game a try and was for the most part pleasantly surprised. When you begin the campaign you get a little backdrop on the main character who you'll be controlling (along with numerous other characters as well) and you learn how the world has gone to hell because we humans destroyed the environment..something about mutants, and some other stuff. The story is kinda mediocre, but not so horrible that it ruins the game or anything, anyways on to gameplay. So at first it felt very strange to me, I've played numerous RTS//Shooters which this game seems to be attempting to blend, but the controls for this game (I'm using a mouse and keyboard so I can't say if using a 360 controller is any easier or not) are nothing like either. Instead of getting an overhead godlike view as in most RTS your view is restricted to the squad you currently have selected, in otherwords you can't move your mouse to the edge of the screen and look about the entire map, you can only look about the squad you have selected so if you want to scout out ahead you'll need to actually send some units out there-which is kind of neat because it's more realistic, but at times it's a little annoying. They way you switch between units is called "snapping" you hold the rightmouse button which brings up an arrow and you point it out the squads icon (each squad has an icon over them to identify) and your viewpoint will instantly snap to that squad. It definately takes some getting used to, but after the first couple missions I pretty much got the hang of it. Your units will begin to battle enemies on their own so you don't need to baby them which is handy when you have a lot of units to control. The only thing that becomes a pain is indeed when you have multiple squads and 'snapping' to all of them as opposed to being able to just click and drag a box to select them all is a bit annoying. Anyways the graphics are great even on medium settings, sound is above average, difficulty is well...you won't be struggling too much if you're a vet to RTS games, especially since your units pretty much take care of themselves. Oh and one more thing people might be wondering seeing as how it's an RTS, is can you build stuff? And the answer is sadly..no. As a lot of RTS games now days you're unable to construct a base you just start with some units and a main deploy, however you do capture power beacons which you can upgrade with turrets, and shields, and from those you may also recruit more reinforcements. Overall I would say that if you're looking for something different and enjoy games set in post-apocalyptic sci-fi type worlds where you pilot giant robots (I forgot to mention your main character flies around in a giant robot) then go ahead and buy it. For those who are a bit unsure if they'll like it...wait for a price drop, either way the game is by no means horrible, and often times it's pretty fun, I'm just not so sure if the camera/movement style will be enjoyed by the masses, and neither am I sure the game is entirely worth the ***** price tag. Hope this helped you decide.
3/26/09
This looks really good!
I've seen a trailer for this game and it is an RTS game, but from in-game graphics and POV, I could've sworn it was a 3rd person shooter for the 360, that's how good it looks! I am eagerly awaiting the release of this one and so should others.
8/16/08