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Req.: P2 600, 128MB RAM, 16MB Video Card, 500mg hd Reviewed On: P4 2.5ghz, 256MB, GeForce 4ti, SB, Win ME | |||
Intro Years in development, and oodles of screenshots and press releases later, Strategy First's real-time strategy space opus finally hits the shelves. Taking action into the edges of space and time, players take the role of two races of the same origin, but are unbeknownst to each other - before now, that is. With a fairly interesting story, high production values, and the talent behind the title, it would seem to stand to reason that O.R.B. had 'hit' all over it; unfortunately, that is not the case. Gameplay: 6/10 After a great war, one faction escaped and, eventually formed two peoples: the Malus and the Alyssians. Like all good stories, there has to be the militaristic and the harmonious factions, with the Malus taking up the arm of the aggressive and the Alyssians being their polar opposite. Being from the same people, each followed the same religion and each group as a piece of the Torumin, their version of the Bible. Being of different subsets, each interprets the message differently and when they come into contact with each other, the Malus take the Alyssians as 'The Great Betrayer', the name given to the being(s) that killed their creator. Despite sharing the same sun, and having the ability to create vast space armadas, each has never met one another. When the Alyssians hear scrambled messages of the Malus, it's then that everything hits the fan. The player starts off as the Malus and takes up arms to destroy 'The Great Betrayer'. A tutorial helps to soften the blow of the complexity of space combat, but it's also a bit deceiving. The intro and tutorial really make the game out to seem like something new and exciting. Aliens warring over ancient religious text gave a great sense of urgency and disparity to their causes. At the beginning of the Malus campaign, I was really involved in the game and wanted to destroy the Alyssians. Great production value helped with some strong narratives and some initially impressive graphics. After a nice intro mission, the game's entire tone seems to wane and the flaws inherent in the design become very apparent. One of the first problems is that the enemy is technologically and numerically superior; well, this isn't exactly a problem, since, after all, this is a game about tactics. It does become a problem whenever the pace of the game is slow - despite being able to ramp the speed up 3X faster. Fighting off enemy ships also becomes needlessly difficult since the player's ships can't catch a fleeing enemy vessel, despite the fact that the situation isn't true in reverse. The biggest problem comes in resource collecting: the floating asteroids provide minerals that each race can mine to make ships. A vessel is needed to scan asteroids for minerals and another is needed to extract them. While the recon vessel can proceed with its duties, the resource base implants itself into the asteroid and freighters commence with extracting the goods. The problem comes in the fact that a resource base is pretty costly and resources can get very scarce on most maps, so having to allocate a sizeable chunk of material to simply making vessels to extract said material is a bit annoying. Once a money train or two gets established, it's time to start researching and producing some offensive ships. The allocation of manpower is an important and subtle part of O.R.B., as giving a bulk of labor to research will cause greater technological advancements to come faster, but it'll come at the cost of a lack of men to pilot the crafts, and those who can work in secret ops. Getting the right amount of people to the necessary positions can also greatly improve chances of victory as a streamlined and efficient organization can take a lot of worry off the gamer's mind. With everything ready to go, it's time for the fun stuff: making some ships and taking down the enemy. After a few skirmishes with enemy craft, it becomes apparent that playing in the 3D view isn't the best way to go, and that your pilots are idiots. I'm not really opposed to switching to a larger map to play games; I enjoy moving dots and squares around just as much as watching them in action, but when a game is set in space, it's crucial that it's easy to attack and maneuver with ease, and I found that just wasn't the case. Once using the map to do basic navigation, combat requires the 3D view because leaving pilots to their own devices is a huge mistake. Doctrines -- instructions given to pilots that can be customized to say when to retreat, who to attack, what formation to take, etc. -- are a cool feature, but they aren't very helpful when the pilots can't do anymore that than shoot and turn, if they can manage that. Constant babysitting is required of the fighters as they seem to enjoy wandering off in the middle of combat, so following specific squadrons around is key as they will do their typical maneuver of flying straight at the enemy and turning, and to see that they don't wander off and get destroyed in the process, the player has to keep constant tabs on them.. This has unexpected pleasures as quickly tapping on an enemy will make your pilots turn faster and stay on target, allowing for some solid kills, but constant vigilance is always a must. However, if an enemy retreats, forget it; there's no way the player's ship will catch up, much less destroy them. The second level is also when a reoccurring theme presents itself, and that's having the missions degrade into simply killing everything in sight. Now, I'm not opposed to wiping out the enemy, but some cool objectives like 'disable the recon vessel and capture it with a troop transport' are overshadowed by the following objective of, 'oh, there's far superior fighters coming your way in huge waves, go ahead and kill them too' because O.R.B. just loves sending a few more waves after the majority of a level is complete and these are often superior ships in technology and numbers. This also makes the levels drag on, resulting in some once-enjoyable missions being turned into tedious struggles to survive. Completion
of levels bring some enjoyable cutscenes that explain the progression of the war,
but after a while, my initial impression of a fresh and stylish real-time strategy
title was replaced by the feelings that this was a mask for a pretty mediocre
game. Level after level of degenerating objects made all the levels seem like
one. The fact that a level has to be re-played due to the fact that it costs so
much to mine the minerals and the lack of them, knowing exactly where and when
to go is crucial, otherwise the enemy hops on them with their advance forces and
swats your brave squadrons away like they were flies. The story is one of the
game's strongest points, but it never really progressed at a satisfying level,
with no real twists or developments to make it very involving; that's a shame
too, as the premise is interesting enough, and taking it up a notch would've really
made this more than a standard RTS title.
Graphics: 6.5/10 Sound:
7.5/10 Overall:
5.5/10 [ top ] |
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