Normally strategy games with different races are not really that different, but in Kingdoms the rules really change from race to race. The game has four distinct races, with each one possessing totally different units, fighting philosophy and leaders. It seems not a smidgen of detail has been overlooked.
On muddy and shallow river banks, sunken ship’s hulls and broken floating battle towers remain mired to the bottom, sometimes with their masts sticking up and posing a navigation hazzard on future voyages. You can still see the ship for some time even after it is under the waves, as it slowly sinks into the darkness and eventually out of sight. When a ship sinks it is nothing short of spectacular to watch as the flaming hull is slowly overcome by the crystal blue water. Some units can wade into the surf a bit, leaving a slight trail of bubbles in their wake.īut ships rule the sea lanes, and the game has a fairly extensive navy to go along with the land and air troops. At the sandy coast lines, waves crash onto the shore overtop the clear blue-green water.
One of the best looking parts of the game is when you are fortunate enough to play on a map with water. When he attacks, flame shoots out of his mouth toward the helpless ground troops below, washing them in flickering death. A flying drake (sort of a miniature dragon) will glide gracefully across the landscape, pausing to rest his veined wings before propelling his muscled body forward again. At 1024 x 768, everything from individual units to terrain features looks real. When I say the game is beautiful, I mean it. The first game was more like an attempt to imitate Command and Conquer, while Kingdoms stands solidly on its own. I won’t fault Cavedog for using the Total Annihilation name, after all brand recognition is a hard thing to generate in this business, but Kingdoms is nothing at all like the precursor game of the same name with giant robots and tanks. I found myself being overrun by enemies several times when I was just starting out because I was too busy looking at the pretty scenery to concentrate on strategy. The first thing you will notice about Total Annihilation: Kingdoms is that the game is completely beautiful. Total Annihilation: Kingdoms raises the expectations bar for gamers by giving them an intelligent artificial intelligence coupled with graphics that are truly spellbinding. I think we have finally found our first serious contestant for the GiN strategy game of the year award.
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