Total Annihilation takes place when scientists discover a way to totally eliminate death. Scientists managed to do this by making a computer copy of the brain. They then upload this information into a robot body. Naturally, this idea upset some people who enjoyed the physical aspects of having a body, as well as those just generally opposed to living in a mechanical body.

The governmental mandate to transfer all individuals minds into robotic bodies caused the universe to split into two factions. One was called the Core, which represented the uploaded minds of individuals. The rebel forces (i.e., those that want to keep their bodies) make up the Arm.

Thus the stage is set for a war on a galactic scale that rages on for millenia. You manage to take over as the only surviving commander of your respective side. It is up to you to bring the fight to the other side's home planet.

This game was pretty enjoyable, and had all the elements of your basic Real Time Strategy (RTS). You could command a large variety of units, on land, sea and air. There was also a wide variety in the units, which allow you to customize your battle preferences at least a little. Personally I found that once you could build attack aircraft, you could win.

Although this game was a lot of fun, it is still just your average RTS. Essentially, you just build enough units to rush the opponent's fortifications. One of the nice features about this game is that some of the levels were varied. What this means is that some of the levels took a long time to play, while others were short. In addition, there were also different objectives to achieve in order to win a stage.

Bottom Line: This game was a lot of fun, but it doesn't really have anything new and interesting to compete with some of the newer RTS games out there. But if you can find it cheap, it is probably worth your money.