Video Games Suck - Earth 2150: The Moon Project

So this is a game that was released back in 2000 and I still spend hours a day playing this (when I'm not drinking of course).

I haven't played Supreme Commander yet, but I am fairly confident when I say that in the year of our Lord 2009, The Moon Project is the most kick ass real time strategy game ever, emphasis on 'real'. It takes the experience to a whole nother level. So lets get this show on the road

Graphics

The graphics kicked ass. You could set trees on fire, then watch them tumble, and nuke would level all buildings and trees in the immediate vicinity and create this massive bubble (that's right! Hydrogen bombs create a bubble, not a perfect mushroom cloud!) It's a shitload of fun to create 20 missile silos, fire them all off, and watch the mayhem as the guy's base is levelled. A lot of the things were really ahead of their time too, like a camera that rotates 360 degrees, and pans up and down 90 degrees, AND zooms in and out. To put that in perspective, this game came out at the same time as Red Alert 2, and that thing was only 2D. FOR SHAME!

Sound

The music is kinda lame, and it's best if you turn it off and blast some techno in the background. But the sounds are great, and they add to the experience. But I never cared too much about sound, it's not exactly like sound makes or breaks the RTS experience.

Gameplay

This is where the game excels. It is so versatile. You have the basics: power plants for a certain radius, guard towers for defense, research buildings, and war factories. But the guard towers are customizable, so you can go to the research building, research the lasers (there are 6 different kinds), and put them on there. Then if you come under air assault, you can research rockets (there are 10+ of them) and put them on there instead. Tanks are fully customizable, so you research the chassis, then research the weapon, and create them. You can even research force fields for your tank. Each war factory is an independent unit, so it creates the tanks at its own pace. You can create them sequentially, or concurrently. You can upgrade the buildings to have weapons so they act like guard towers, when under attack, you can turn off the lights at night and conceal your base under fog. You can build headquarters to manage the base defenses, the tank upgrades, the research upgrades, and building upgrades. Now if you go off to battle, you have to build supply depots, and get helicopters to resupply your troops as they run out of ammo. You can create dummy tanks so when the choppers come to nuke your base, they go for the decoys instead. You can even build mobiles ICBM launchers. You can build 50 nuclear silos, split the screen, and watch the nukes take off on one screen, and decimate a base in the other. You can build tunnels and attack them from below their base. Transport helicopters let you quickly, and automatically, move units from one side of the [big ass] map to the other. They managed to get rid of infantry, which was the best idea EVER. Who the fuck wants to shoot a god damn technician with a double barrel tank. It's humiliating. But the best part of the game has to be setting up row upon row of heavy guard towers, terraforming the terrain into a narrow valley, and watching the AI just get mowed down. This is the first, and only, war of attrition I've ever waged in an RTS. If you notice, in C&C, after you build 27 obelisks of light, the enemy stops attacking...that defeats the purpose of building defenses. I could literally go on for hours, you could: shell a base with artillery, assign new scripts to units (hold fire, return fire, hold position, chase enemy, fire on nearest, fire on weakest, static attack, dynamic attack...), mine the ground, install anti rockets, paralyze units with ion canons, scramble force fields, use submarines to nuke their base...Suffice it to say, this is one kick ass game.

Story

It has got to be the shittiest story ever. Something about the earth running out of resources. The cut scenes make Command & Conquer's video footage look Oscar worthy. Only play it as a tutorial.

This is one of the best RTS games ever made, but only for skirmish or multiplayer mode. I'd deduct a point for having a non existent story, but the replayability more than makes up for it. I'll just deduct one for the shitty music. 9/10