:D.
but its to damn hard to find the enimy base.
Reviews for "DarkBase: Alien RTS"
Those old days.
Feel like playing Starcraft mixed with Dune2000. Graphics are cute just like the same old days, and song is nice but units are not so useful and control are quite limited. And yeah, there are a lot of glitch just like Megatron said. Reminds me when I create a large army of Saduakars stay still till a single siegetank kill them all up one by one without on one fighting back.
By the way, I feel so pity that Westwood sold itself to EA. What a shame to let them do the rest sequel for C&C. "Offence is the best defense" lol.
To many problems
The Idea of this game is actually entertaining, but the overall game play is where it hurts it. Units that you order to attack a certain structure will attack for a brief period then wander off and start attack random units off in the distance, the fact you have to actively remind your soldiers while running back and forth between searching for mineral deposits, fending off on-coming soldiers, and repeatedly remind your soldiers to attack a group or structure hinders the continued game play. There is also the upgrade issue, either you allow the upgrades to be available at the beginning, allowing players to gradually form better units per level provides a problem when enemy units already have achieved all upgrades before you and you rush to build either a huge army you can't micro-manage, or you just quit because you struggle to fight off an enemy that can tear through 20 of your units in 2 seconds. Even as a Real-time Strategy, you should have more control over your situation than pointing and clicking randomly and hoping you get an outcome in your favor.
Solid premise and well executed
As an real time strategy game this game works and delivers quite well. The story is tight and engaging. The gameplay is functional, if a little clunky and uninspiring. It just lacks that certain je ne sais quoi of the old Command and Conquer games.
Essentially, what I enjoyed about Red Alert et al. was the different but somehow similar types of units each faction had which complimented the tactic which suited that specific faction. On that note, this game does not have the sheer number and variety of units which makes RTS games exciting.
Another key aspect of RTS games is the inherent struggle for survival against the rival faction. The waves of attacks against your fledgling base crippling you until you become large enough to beat off any attacks with ease and can amass a large enough force of your own to wipe out the pesky bastards who've been ruining your attempts to mine resources. This game, however, was simply too easy. I played it on Medium setting and the only difficulty was in finding the enemy base. To actually walk in with a large force, even when the enemy had towers, was simple. Couple that with the fact that you only have to destroy the enemy's HQ and you win led to some incredibly anti-climactic victories. If I am expected to 'Destroy the enemy,' I expect that I should have to actually destroy that enemy. Not just ruin a specific building. Also, amassing large amounts of money was not difficult with the very fast moving harvesting critters. It seems a little unfair that my side had incredibly fast-moving resource gatherers whilst the enemy had lumbering harvesters which slow the accumulation of resources. Couple that with the fact that the harvesting creatures only cost tuppence, and you have an incredibly easy way to have vast amounts of wealth. Make the harvesters the same for each team. Make them slow and lumbering. And, above all, make them expensive so they are precious commodities which need protection.
Variety, being the spice of life, was another facet which made the Dune/Red Alert games enjoyable. Varied landscapes with impassable cliffs and expanses of water which need crossing. Varied missions which saw you having to capture specific buildings, or accumulate a specific amount of resource broke up the monotony of merely crushing another faction. Varied units for land, sea and air with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Essentially, it's a good game as far as it goes. I realise that this is a flash game, not a Westwood Studios creation with millions in the bank, so it obviously will not be as good as the classic RTS games. What stops me from giving you a higher score, I'm afraid, is that, whilst the game is good insofar as it goes, it does not go far enough. More variety, more difficulty, just more in general.
Drones
I had trouble getting them to mine, and keep mining. They seemed to glitch and keep on trying to walk into the crystal or the hive, giving me little to no income. A decent attempt, but it's just too damn unweildy.