Earth 2160 (PC)

Graphics

Compared to the last games Earth 2160 has been given a shiny-shiny makeover, in the textures, landscapes, models and everything. The day/night cycles of the previous games have been tweaked to perfection regarding colour, lighting and shade. The effects have been beefed up and everything has had a nice lick of new paint, textures are definitely sharper and the various particle and emitter effects look stunning on the higher settings and resolutions.

The models are good, crisp and clean with enough variety between the units to be able to tell them apart faction, by faction.

Sound

I found the title song to be a little bit jarring and off-putting to be honest and I usually like that kind of music. The sound itself, ambient and otherwise is done with a clear and solid recording, the samples are well done and there are no tinny-sounds or over-amped bassy ones. Explosions sound good with a thunderous bang when something big goes down; weapon sounds are likewise well done and have a feeling of power as they hammer against an enemy’s hull.

Voices

A mixed bag but nothing that will win any Oscars, so to speak, what is there does well enough and some of the dialogues are amusing. The exchanges between the Virtual Agents can be quite funny.

AI

It’s good adaptive AI, sometimes there are pathing problems and the CPU might seem a tad too aggressive upon the harder difficulty levels, but that’s what hard is supposed to mean. It probes your defences and tries to work with you if you’re allied with it, most of all it can provide a good challenge to new and old players – using tactics to keep you on your toes, drawing you into ambushes and sometimes just rushing you outright.

Wrap Up

It’s got Skirmish, Single Player, Multiplayer and a host of improvements over the original but for me it didn’t quite hit the mark I was expecting. It is however a good game and well worth getting, the fact that you can join an AI in MP is a good bonus, since that kind of play was absent from the last games. The game does feel as though it could have been improved upon though with a few more tweaks and polishes, the lack of the tunnel feature is a real loss but there are probably reasons it didn’t make the cut. It’s a good sequel to the 2150 legacy but it might disappoint some fans. It does however still keep a number of the features that made Earth 2150 a really great game, so I’m more than happy to award it the score I did.

And yes, the game does have a Map and Level Editor, which adds to its replayability.