Update: Review Posted
Ok, I just finished the first mission, so these are just my thoughts after the first mission. I actually had to download this game twice, the first time I downloaded it, Impulse told me it was an invalid download. Luckily it took less than a half hour to download the 930MB file. The intro to the game is just the Russian/Soviet? National Anthem for about 2 min. Then the game goes to the main menu with the crazy techno music. If you saw the video you know that I'm talking about, it looks the same too.
The menu only has four options: New Game, Continue, Options, Exit. Well I just started the game so the first thing I always do is go to options, I certainly don't want to exit already. Ok options, the first thing I always like to set is the screen resolution. Just one problem, there are only 2 submenus under options: Gameplay and Sound. Lets look at the first option under Gameplay: Keyboard Layout. I have the option of Revolutionary or Orthodox, the game is preset to Revolutionary. I have no idea what the layout is for either one, because it doesn't show you what any of the keys are or give you the option to customize them. Next options: Do you like cats? The preset is Yes!, you can change it to No! What does this do? The world may never know. Alright next option: Invert Mouse. The preset is On. On? This is an RTS why would the mouse be inverted? I left it "On" just to see what it would be like. Well I can definitly say it wasn't inverted when I actually started the game. Maybe it is referring the button layout or maybe you get to control Stalin in first person later in the game. The last two options under gameplay are just Invert Zoom and Camera Sensitivity, they are actually self explanitory. Under Sound options you just get to control three different levels of sound and turn on/off 3D sound.
Ok New Game! You are taken directly to a still picture with 8-bit music. It's a picture of Stalin smoking a pipe and a clipboard with notes which are a desciption of the first mission. Aside from the picture being very clear and detailed, this seems very retro. I was definitely thinking back to the 8-bit and 16-bit days when seeing and hearing this. Objective One: Survive the Attack. You are immediately attacked by exploding confetti. Oh wait, those are colored little martians that look like Pikmin when I zoom in closer. Since there are no graphics' options, the game is set at a much lower resolution than my native resolution. The game has the basic right click RTS controls. You can't unselect units by left clicking though. Zoom is on the mouse wheel. There are four giant icons at the bottom of the screen: Move, Hold Position, Attack, and Stop. Ok, so the gameplay is very basic. Are there shortkeys for any of these? I have no idea since I wasn't able to see the key layout. I tried randomly mashing keys, but nothing seemed to do anything. Back to the exploding confetti, they are dropping power ups and money like mad. The text for the power ups and money move up so fast, I barely get a chance to see what they are. I definitely have no idea what I am getting if there are ever 3 or more power ups at a time, which seems to be happening all the time. Ok, I survived the first attack. What is the deal with music? It is very arcady techno music. I feel like I am at the arcade.
Objective Two: Attack the Enemy Position. Guess I am supposed to attack the purple marker on the map. Maybe I should get reinformcements before attacking. At the top of the screen you can buy reinforcements; however, on the first mission you only get two options: infantry and BT-7 which is a tank. I will say there are 15 options on the list. There is no base building in this game. Ok I have wasted all of my money. On to the purple marker on the mini map! Objective Complete, well that was easy. I only ran into three different units along the way. Exploding confetti: a useless unit, Giant three eyed martians, ripped off from Toy Story: a tank unit, and a Spiral looking tree: seems to just spawn the confetti units. The next to objectives are just "Find Scattered Reinforcments" and "Protect the Village or Die Trying" and that is the end of mission one and the end of my first impressions.
Score Based on Mission One:
Presentation: Stalin vs Martians? Awesome. 8/10
Graphics: Crap, but who cares. 5/10
Sound: Its crazy and you get to listen to your units say the same thing over and over. 7/10
Gameplay: Very basic and lots of power ups, woo! 4/10
Story: You get to read it on a notepad! 4/10
Lasting Appeal: Mission one accomplished! Time about 10 min. Eleven more to go! Multiplayer? No. 4/10
Overall!: 5/10
Later Impressions: (See Below)
Presentation: Stalin vs Martians? Awesome. 8/10
Graphics: Crap, would have given 5/10, but a complete lack of visual feedback on important game features. 3/10
Sound: Its crazy and there is absolutely no variety, not bad, but with no variety it gets old fast. 6/10
Gameplay: Only Mission 7 requires any strategy and its just keep your infantry spread out, however the controls are so crappy this is very frustrating. To expand on what I am saying is: it is nearly impossible to select individual infantry, they don't always listen to you the first time you order them to do something, it takes 2-3 tries usually to get the selection box to come up when selecting multiple units. Any mission where you get tanks, that is all you need. Just drive over all the "infantry" Martian units and shoot the "tank" units down with your tanks. 2/10
Story: Its funny and its only in the intro to the mission, no in game story. The intermission videos are on crack and you can see them on the games website. 5/10
Lasting Appeal: 3-4 hours, if you bother to finish it. 3/10
Overall!: 3.5/10 (This was an average with the gameplay weighted as 50% of the score, the rest being 10% each.)
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