Following my previous Tomb Raider review today I'll be doing an overview on what is perhaps one of the best (and most overlooked) Real-Time Strategy games of all time.
Total Annihilation is real time strategy game developed by Cavedog, originally released in 1997 for PC and Mac. And it was also one of the first 3D Real-Time Strategy games (RTS), which was definitely a big deal in 1997 – as it represented a fairly big leap forward, in terms of both tech and the RTS genre intself. When Total Annihilation released there was A LOT of competition, with the likes of Command and Conquer, and Warcraft. In order to stand out and be successful, whoever developed an RTS game would have to either diverge dramatically, or be really good at besting the RTS giants of those days. Chris Taylor and his team at Cavedog Studios decided to do both: Diverge and innovate.
And the results spoke for themselves: This game got tons of awards on launch, and since its release it has been generally considered one of the best strategy games ever made, by a many of people and reviewers in the videogame industry. Not only that, but it generated a cult following that still subsists, even to this day, with a thriving modding community.
Graphics and Presentation
You do have to keep a couple of things in mind regarding just how amazing it was to witness a game like this back in 97. 3D RTS games were not a real thing in 1997, so when this game came out it was an incredibly impressive thing to look at.
And as far as the 3d graphics go, if you take things out of context, and look at each of the games' units and objects individually, it is fairly average for even its day - but this is a strategy game, meant to accommodate hundreds, if not thousands of units marching on screen, and when you have that, oh man, is it glorious.
As the first RTS to use 3D models for moving units, the developers Total Annihilation faced the problematic task of making their units look good, as the 3D games of this time had fairly ugly models when seen they were seen closely enough. Furthermore, this would be a strategy game so the detail could never be the same as an action adventure game, since RTS games involve the usage of many moving units, all fighting it out in large land masses. The Studio was able to get around the issue of making the game set in a futuristic setting, which required a much less detail for the assortment of mechs, airplanes, ships and tanks you’ll command throughout your skirmishes.
Judging this game’s graphics by today’s standards, Total Annihilation is a very strange game indeed. In theory this ought to be an unimpressive game. You have very low-poly units moving around in a pre-rendered 2D terrain – which strangely enough, features intricate elevation details imbedded within it, almost as if it was true 3D. Judging by such a quagmire of a technical achievement, one would think that this game would look either “meh” or just plain bad, when in motion. But nothing could further from the truth.
This game looks amazing when in motion: Whole forests can go up in flames during battles; units release smoke and debris when damaged; heavy explosions (and there are lots of those!) shake up the entire map; different units have different weight, speed, acceleration and turning values to them; the canons from tanks and mechs move independently, being able fire are units you are running away from…catches breath
The Gameplay
This is an RTS which greatly expanded upon what previous of the genre did before. The maps are bigger; the battles are more massive. You only have two resources: Energy and Metal. Energy can be gathered anywhere, via powerplants and nuclear reactors of all kinds; but metal can only be extracted in significant amounts from metal deposits, somewhat analog to real life, are more concentrated towards certain locations in the map. And it is precisely towards these locations where most of your conflicts and skirmishes will unfold. And this is the beauty of this game: As your skirmishes progress, you will eventually have multiple smaller bases and outposts spread out across the map, mostly built around metal deposits discovered by you or the enemy AI/player. Around there outposts of course, you will have multiple defense mechanisms, including artillery and mobile artillery, anti-air flak cannons, radar jamming devices, stealth units, you name it.
This game provides so many different units types, so many completely different defense mechanisms, that the average player will spend months both experiment and finding out about new possibilities and combinations, regarding both offense and defense. When I first played the game, it took me nearly 2 months to learn about the intricacies of the tech progression tree. And that was only in respects to the original game: Soon afterwards I got both expansions, and oh boy, these are what expansion packs are supposed to be. Both of them expand the story line (especially The Core Contingency), and Battle Tactics in particular offers so many new units, maps, and diverse campaign missions that you are sure to have one hell of a time perfecting your strategies.
And did I mention this game is FUN!? Oh yeah, unlike so many other deep strategy games in the market, both today and during that time, Total Annihilation is a total joy to play, no matter your skill level or experience with RTS games. Seeing the game in action, building your units, finding out new possibilities in your tech tree, imagining and then applying new defense strategies based on a combination of different defense turrets, everything is fast, fluid and rewarding. And the sheer amount of different unit types (Kbots, tanks, submarines, underwater bases, ships, fighter jets, bombers, etc) guarantees that any player will be able to formulate and devise his unique playstyle and trademark. If there is a game which allows you to authentically feel like a commander this is the one.
You can find the Commander Pack edition of this game on GOG which installs quite easily on modern systems. And after you've gotten yourself acquainted to the game, you'll be able to start getting yourself into the thriving modding community for this game. And a good place to start will definitely be Total Annihilation: Escalation, which is an ongoing fanmade project, aiming to act as a third pseudo-official expansion for the game. The developers went out of their way in the quality control, assuring that not only every single new unit is balanced, but also aesthetically pleasing, and in accordance to the original developers vision. The content which was already inside the game has also been either revamped or completely remastered, with many units featuring a slightly higher polygon count, and explosions featuring modernized lighting and sprite animation. I'll leave you guys with the trailer down bellow: