A
real-time strategy (
RTS) game by
Sierra Studios and
massive entertainment. The
scenario is
far future, where two
rival organization - the
Crayven Corporation and the
Order of the New Dawn are battling for
control of planets.
Unlikely most RTSes, Ground Control ignores resource gathering entirely. In each mission, the player controls a preset number of squads (which they select from their pool prior to the drop). After insertion, the player accomplishes their mission, then extracts from the area to a friendly LZ. In all, a very fun game. Like all games, it has some good and bad points.
Good:
Bad:
- If you move a group of squads, the ordering of the squads follows two rules. 1) The Command APC is placed as near the middle as possible. 2) Squads with lower numbers are placed to the right, in a strict hierarchy. Numbering is, of course, based on the order in which you placed the units into the dropships before the mission.
- The aerodynes (aerial units) are a bit strained. They can sit in very tight circles over a location, making them interact more like fast hovercars. The game would probably be improved by removing the planes entirely.
- The AI is, as usual, operationally dumb. If you give a ground unit a target on an elevation, it'll happily shoot away at it, doing almost no damage, while your artillery slowly bombards it into oblivion.
- The manual doesn't bother explaining defensive structures. So when you first encounter the anti-missile gun emplacement, which shoots down artillery shells, nuclear bombs, and anything else that drops out of the sky, you're in for a surprise. Whoops!
- Evac via an LZ requires only that the Command APC arrive at the LZ - so you can leave units in defensible positions around the board, and they will evac as long as they are still alive when the APC reaches the LZ.