Top Secret Magazine - TotalAnnihilationCP

Among shooter fans the big argument used to be: what's better? Quake or Duke? Then with platform fans it was a question of Mario or Sonic. Fast forward to '98 and usenet and various online forums, and you still have people arguing, but the genre has changed to real-time strategy and the games in question are now Starcraft and TA. That's Total Annihilation.

Well I'm going to add my two cents to the debate and cast my vote with TA. She rocks, man. There are a gazillion different units to figure out how to use effectively and how to defend yourself from and the game is in 3D. Real 3D. Air units fly over ground units, enemy subs travel under your capital ships, and artillery on elevated plateaus have an advantage over attackers on the plains below them.

If you haven't played Total Annihilation before, here's the lowdown: it's a standard real-time strategy game -- meaning you lead an armed force in battle against another armed force, and in TA these combatants are called the Arm and the Core. There is a structure to the course of events in any level you play and it usually goes like this: build a military base, harvest resources, build offensive and defensive units and attack your enemy.

What separates TA from other games of this kind is its aforementioned 3D-ness and the fact that you're represented in the game by the Commander unit. The Commander is able to create other units which he/you then issue orders to. If the Commander is destroyed by the enemy, your forces have no one to lead them and you lose the game.

Another thing that shouldn't be overlooked is the sheer number of different units at your disposal.

Carnage on the high seas.

King of the hill rains fiery death on those below.

There are approximately 150 available when you first install the game on your hard drive. But then, you can visit Cavedog's website and download even more kinds of units for free.

Keeping track off all the different tanks, robots, planes and ships and what you can do with them and what they can do to you is no easy feat. This is compounded by a legitimate beef that some people have with Total Annihilation and that is the fact that a lot of the units look very similar.

Picture this scenario: 10 fast moving enemies are rapidly approaching your base from the left flank. You think they're lightly armed recon units, you figure your base defenses can handle them, so you ignore them. It turns out that they were actually a lethal variety of tank and your mistake has cost you the game. Infuriating, no?

Eventually you do get pretty good at accurately identifying what's what in TA, but when you first start out, its a serious pain.Graphics are very nice with different kinds of terrain of varying elevations and the musical score that accompanies the action has a heroic air to it. It's quite well done.

The Total Annihilation Commander pack gives you the original game, a strategy guide and two more sets of missions called "Battle Tactics" and "The Core Contingency." In total, this package contains 225 different missions and 225 different units. Gadzooks!

If there's someone on your Christmas present shopping list that you really don't like, buy them this compilation and you won't see them for weeks.

If you're a big strategy wargaming fan, I would recommend you try these games out.

Company:
Cavedog Entertainment
www.cavedog.com

Category:
Real-Time Strategy

NOTES:

Interest: 90%
Control : 80%
Graphics: 85%
Sound : 85%
Originality : 80%

TOTAL : 84%

Requirements:

Operating System:
Windows 95/98

Processor:
Pentium 100MHz or better

Memory:
32 MB of RAM

Hard Drive:
135 MB

Sound Card:
Soundblaster compatible sound card

Video:
VGA 256 color or better

Stefan Lister

TSM's
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