Total Annihilation

Summary

Genre: Strategy
Number of players: 1-8

Review

Total Annihilation is a real time strategy game which features two teams, the Core and the Arm, battling for intergalactic supremacy. Sound familiar? It should. Practically every RTS game out has more or less exactly the same theme. But it's not necessarily the storyline that makes a game, it's the gameplay - and how does it fare?


Gameplay: One of the best things about Total Annihilation is that it is extremely fun building up a base. It doesn't take too long, has many advanced buildings and also features some very juicy tanks and weapons indeed. However, this game falls foul in a very similar way to Dark Reign - once you have access to the big tanks and K-Bots, there is absolutely no point whatsoever in building any other units.

One of the things that made StarCraft so good was the fact that every single unit had a weakness, be it the inability to attack the air, the inability to attack the ground, or just being a relatively weak unit. In a game such as this, the Core unit The Can has absolutely no weakness at all. It attacks both the air and the ground, has a decent range, and is very powerful indeed. Why then, after being able to build these super machines, would you ever want to build a Crasher again? It really takes a lot out of the game when two-thirds of your units are made redundant after building an advanced K-Bot lab.

Also, you can't help but marvel at the incredible lack of imagination these programmers have shown. They would really have been far better off calling the teams the Arm, and the Arm II. The units are more or less exactly the same for the two teams, only having different names. Yes, yes, one or two units are unique to one team, but the vast majority are precisely the same. Presumably this was done so the two teams are equal in power or something. Ridiculous!

However, the game runs smoothly enough, rarely suffering from slowdown or anything like that. Point in its favour, though: the game does involve ships and planes as well as ground units, a thing most other titles do not. But at the end of the day, the game boils down to a race to see who can build the advanced buildings first.


Challenge: It's not very easy to complete, but at the same time it's not as hard as Dark Reign or StarCraft for that matter. It would be a lot harder if your strongest weapons of war weren't so ridiculously powerful, though. Some levels in the single player might give you a bit of trouble, but on the whole, it's not too challenging.


Graphics: Not too bad, it has to be said. The landscapes are certainly very well done indeed, and the units are well drawn and clear. The action and explosions as units and buildings are destroyed is certainly very good indeed.


Sounds: The music is worthy of special mention. It's probably the best on a RTS game that I've heard. Obviously orchestral music isn't something a lot of people would think is fitting in a battle for supremacy, but it really does work, and some of the tunes are very catchy indeed!

The sounds the units produce are however very disappointing indeed, with pathetic mechanical noises instead of recognisable voices. Very dull indeed, especially if you're used to WarCraft II - ("Oohehehe! That tickles!")


Multiplayer: Now to be fair I haven't given it a go. But I've been told from several differing sources that this is the best feature of the game. But then again that's the case with most RTS games. It's certainly worth a go, and actually from the single player game I'd think TA has the potential to be a really good multiplayer experience.


Summing up: Not too bad a game, easily outdone in all respects by StarCraft. If you have SC, it's really not worth your while buying this one at all. And if you don't have SC, buy it instead!


Gamesmark: 74%


Reviewer: Tangycheese



Maverik's opinion: Nope, not impressed. Total Annihilation looks great, and features excellent and gameplay-affecting terrain, together with much detail. Unfortunately, the gameplay itself is below par, with a lot of fiddling around with repairs, grouping and clearing up destroyed units from the battlefield. There is not nearly enough variety between the units, and the two teams are all but identical. It's a shame, since with the great graphics and good concept, a better game should have been the result.