LynX

Year of release: 1997
Development House: Cavedog Entertainment
Publisher: Cavedog Entertainment
Website: http://totalannihilation.com/


Game score: 98


Graphics: 5
Sound: 5
Gameplay: 5

Concept: 4
Execution: 5
Controls: 5
Enjoyment: 5
Replay ability: 5
Difficulty: 4
Learning Curve: 4


Patch version: 3.1c FINAL

Bugs: 1
Modability / Community support: 5


Review:

In 1997, when PC games were just taking tentative steps into the realm of 3D, Cavedog Entertainment, a relatively unknown development house released the game that was destined to be one of the most popular and long-lived games in gaming history. Total Annihilation. One of the true classics of the past millennium.
Anyone who considers himself/herself a serious gamer would have at least tried this classic.

Developed by the now-legendary Chris Taylor, Total Annihilation (TA) puts you far in the future, where two mighty factions, the Arm and the Core, have been fighting over the known galaxy for countless millennia. After pretty much exhausting most of the resources in the galaxy, they still fight smaller, tactical skirmishes over countless worlds.

The Arm fight against the transfer of consciousness from flesh to machine, resisting becoming cyborgs, while the Core embraced that way of life, for they were former humans who discarded their "meat bag" forms, to merge their mind with the Central Consciousness, the nerve center of every person who have given up their biological body.

Story aside, Total Annihilation offered a break from the traditional RTS mill with the Commander unit, the all-powerful guy with the Disintegrator Gun, or simply called D-Gun by TA vets. The Commander plays a central part in the game, as, aside from having the most powerful gun, he also is the initial builder unit, who runs around setting up your base. No RTS game prior to TA had this "Hero" unit concept, and TA can confidently claim to be the first.

Controls are intuitive, and uses the familiar point & click interface that newer RTS games take for granted, and proper shortcut buttons. Unit behaviour like movement (roam, engage, stand ground) and attacking (weapons free, return fire, hold fire) as well as stackable commands (build & patrol paths) and unit grouping round off the control interface. Additional help is included in the manual.

Another unique concept of TA is the nanolathe, which is basically making an assortment of buildings and units from Nano-matter.
There are two kinds of resources in TA: Metal and Energy. Metal is acquired by building metal extractors on patches of metal on the surface, and energy is generated by building Solar Collectors or Wind Generators. These resources are pretty much infinite, but there is a limit to how much you can store at a time, thus making the resource buildings important enough to warrant a garrison, while removing the absolute need to fight over diminishing resource patches.

However, the most important aspect of TA, would have to be its fully-3D units. Every unit and building is a 3D object, each with its own animations. Add to that a working physics/LOS system; Total Annihilation is a game ahead of its time. The units and weapons-fire are affected by factors such as terrain elevation, angle, and gravity. Meaning, in a low-G environment, ballistic shots can fly further, as do units on higher ground, and terrain affects a unit's movements as well. Units on higher ground also reveal more Fog of War.

The selection of units in TA is quite diverse as well; ranging from fast scouts, medium skirmishers, and heavy, ponderous artillery units, as well as fixed emplacements. Units come in four flavours: Kbots, which are sort of like mechanical infantry, tanks, aircraft and naval vessels. Each class has its own construction unit, which in turn can build advanced level 1 defenses and the Advanced Factory for each class. All units built by these factories are classified as "Level 2" tech by TA vets, and have the cooler, more powerful and expensive units like the dreaded Core Behemoth, a nasty, slow-moving tank-killer on tracks that eats smaller tanks for breakfast. The Advanced facilities also produce the Advanced construction unit: a unit that can build Level 2 buildings like Nukes, Anti-nukes and extreme-range artillery emplacements. The battles can only be described as "epic"; the limit is only your hardware limitations. Literally hundreds upon hundreds of units can be built, and while the original limit was 250, 3rd party patches enable newer systems to run 500-1000 units for each player(!)

While the two sides' units are pretty parallel to each other, the difference between them lies in the type of weapons, cost, general rate of movement and health each unit has. Arm units tend to be cheaper, faster, less well armored and have weaker weapons, and the Core have more expensive, heavier armored, slower moving and more damaging weapons. The result is a unit balance that is pretty much flawless. Add an inspiring selection of music that changes according to the tides of battle, you have a top-notch gaming experience in TA.

While the game's nifty features ensured it would be a hit, what really earned TA its Classic status is the sheer moddability of the game, and the tremendous support for the game that Cavedog provided. Cavedog had released new units for the game every week over the internet, as well as new maps. This alone extended the game's lifespan tremendously, and kept players adapting to changes in strategy that the new units brought. A huge TA modding community grew from that, adding so many custom units, TCs and "races" that are too numerous to count. The community was going strong, and still continues to this day, albeit being a shadow of its former glory. This decline was brought upon by problems at Cavedog, which eventually resulted in them having to close their doors. It was a sad end to the developers of such a fine game, but the community kept it strong for a few years; they actually tried to acquire the rights for the game, but a publishing house got ahold of the license, and the community has not been the same since.


Every game has its flaws, and TA is no exception.

Firstly is the bad unit pathing. Ground units have a very bad habit of bunching up in chokepoints, making them look like a traffic cop's worst nightmare. Often you'd have to micromanage them to move in smaller groups to avoid such problems. Many an army has been decimated by artillery fire while navigating the treacherous passes. And land units would bunch up along shorelines if they cannot cross over on a nearby bridge or patch of land, making them prime targets for submarines and the massive cannons of the battleships prowling offshore.

Another thing is the weak AI, which poses no challenge at all for the veteran player. Which is why the TA modding community released many AI enhancers that gives the AI a whole can of whupass.

In conclusion, Total Annihilation is undoubtedly one of the best RTS games ever, if not the best, and an example of what a classic game truly is.

Eyecandy:
Note: This is a 1997 game, don't expect Far Cry-like graphics.
http://totalannihilation.com/totala/screenshots.html


Good stuff:
Good controls, great graphics, gameplay, music, had tremendous modding support & huge modding community.

Bad stuff:
Baaad unit pathing, unchallenging AI for advanced players.


Reviewer System Specs: 1 (1997)
CPU: P166
RAM: 32MB
Video Card: N/A (does not require 3D acceleration); 640x480
Sound Card and Speakers: Generic
Other Relevant Comp Specs: Windows 95 OS

Reviewer System Specs: 2 (2004)
CPU: P4 2.4 Ghz
RAM: 512 DDR
Video Card: N/A (omitted as does not require 3D acceleration); 1024x768
Sound Card and Speakers: Altec Lansing
Other Relevant Comp Specs: Windows XP SP1