As someone who (not so) recently had the opportunity to replay some of the popular 'real-time strategy' games of the past like [url=en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_II:_Tides_of_Darkness]Warcraft 2[/url] or [url=en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer_(1995_video_game)]
Command & Conquer[/url], I must say this genre is way too overrated that aged quite badly (and I'm not talking about visuals here, but gameplay and complexity). If we play any entry of the [url=en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_War_(video_game_series)]Total War series[/url] we'll quickly realize how obsolete these old RTS games became (yes, they were made in the '90s, but real classics CAN stand the test of time).
Taking this into account, it's quite obvious I approached [i]Grey Goo[/i] with heavy prejudice, but it quickly diminished. Although it uses the old mechanics and shows strong similarities to [i]Starcraft[/i], so it can hardly be called a strategy-, rather a management game, its decent plot and exciting species make it a positive surprise.
Set in the distant future, the game uses an in medias res beginning and instead of starting the campaign with the humans, an honourable civilization, the 4-armed Beta are introduced first, who seem to be on a constant run from a dangerous species, the 'Silent Ones', who are intent on destroying the entire world. When they are attacked by a large army of robots, they falsely identify them as their arch enemy and prepare for a massive retaliation. Upon capturing the leader of the attackers, who turn out to be humans, they also discover another dangerous enemy, the Goo, a formless entity of unknown origin that consumes everything (does anyone remember the movie [url=en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blob_(1988_film)]The Blob[/url]?). But can the Goo really be the Slient Ones, the Betas are so afraid of?
A minor flaw is that the story can be pieced together by roughly halfway through the game, so the other half basically only contains filler material. Despite this, the plot is very good, probably the best ever told in a simple RTS, so revealing further information would ruin the experience. After completing the Beta campaign, we get to play the human side as well, followed by the Goo.
The main attraction is the single player campaign, which contains 16 missions (5-5 for each side and a final one). Then there's the Emergence campaign with another 3, taking place between the Human and the Goo campaigns as an expansion, featuring Singleton, the android commander of the Humans.
Map design is exemplary, terrain has strong infulence on gameplay. Units placed on elevated areas receive relative advantage, while forests provide invisibility until the enemy also enters the covered area, making them perfect ambush points.
The single resource type we need to collect from blue pools in orange craters - is called 'Catalyst'. While these deplete, they can slowly regenerate in time. There are plenty of pools across most maps, so exploring and harvesting ones laying even a bit further from our base is also recommended.
We have the usual buildings (factory, repair pad, airport, etc.) including silos, where we can store resource surplus. However, since the unit cap is relatively low (200, and most units take 3-4 spaces), we can quickly run out of units during a major attack, which we believed enough to take out the enemy base. Each faction has an own epic unit, a single gigantic killing machine requiring 70 (!) space, so it takes up roughly 1/3 of our entire unit capacity, but its worth it. Producing it is both a resource- and time consuming procedure though.
While units can't be upgraded in the regular way, we can research additional unit specific upgrades which can enhance the abilities of certain unit types. There are 4 research groups with 3 options within each, but only 1 can be attained.
The game is relatively easy, even on hard difficulty (we can set it before each mission), although the bonus objectives can be tough sometimes, as they usually have time limits. Primary missions are not really diverse, ranging mostly from simple search and destroy tasks to capture and protect.
Unfortunately the 3 species are not balanced enough and it really shows, especially in skirmish and multiplayer.
The Beta, while seemingly powerful are rather weak, including their high tier heavy robots. They mostly use mech-like bipedal robots and their general weakness clearly shows in comparison with the other 2 factions. The problem is that their strength lies in defense, but there's no way to win in an RTS just by defending. What we can do is to slowly conquer the entire map, since Betas can build cheap and strong walls anywhere on the map, with pillars which most of their units can mount. While mounted, these units gain increased fire rate and they don't get damaged, only after the pillar is destroyed (which can be repaired). Advanced buildings require 'Hubs' (small central buildings) though.
Most Beta units can also fire while moving and the Beta is the only species that can have 2 epic units at once. The 'Hand of Ruk' is a giant flying fortress, but don't count as air units - so they can be targeted by everything. They fire giant missiles, which can't be used against nearby enemies, but these fortresses also have 6 hardpoints, where we can attach 6 units (5 Commandos and a Cloudburst is ideal).
Humans use modern warfare and instead of participating personally on the battlefield, they deploy drones, powerful robot tanks and aircrafts. With the corresponding research the majority of their units can repair themselves when not in combat. They also have access to sturdy defense turrets of different kinds (laser, artillery, air defense). And if that wasn't enough they can teleport their troops to far locations causing nasty surprises. Unfortunately they can't build just anywhere: conduits must be laid down to connect their buildings to the core. If a conduit is destroyed, unconnected buildings cease functioning.
The Goo is the uncommon species, which has absolutely no buildings and requires a completely different playstyle. Its nature and the way it works is clearly shown at the beginning cutscene of the human campaign, where by taking a small sample of Goo on board, it destroys their entire mothership. By consuming resources, a 'Mother Goo' can multiply and evolve into different types of units. By spawning other mothers and placing them on catalyst ponds all over the map, we can quickly build a formidable army and rush our enemies. The fact that these mothers can pass through any terrain and damage enemy units on contact while also possessing the ability to regenerate and having many long ranged units, makes the Goo easily the most powerful faction in the game.
There are plenty of multiplayer maps which allow 4 opponents to play by setting alliances beforehand. Finding people to play online can be tough though (I couldn't) and loading times can be insanely long. The AI difficulty can be scaled: on harder settings the game clearly tells us that it cheats by seeing the entire map constantly :)
The graphics are amazing and colourful, explosions and laser fire effects are beautifully animated. The cutscenes look even better with highly detailed and expressive facial animations. My only criticism is that they are not as action-packed and dynamic as the ones in [i]Starcraft[/i] for example and that the user interface is way too large, considering how few options and command buttons can be found on it.
Voice acting and the distinctively styled music for each faction is also remarkable.
While [i]Grey Goo[/i] follows the obsolete formula of RTSs and it obviously can't compete with the [i]Total War series[/i], it has enough good ideas to make it enjoyable and stand out from the crowd.
PROS
+ good map design with different terrains
+ exciting plot
+ detailed graphics, amazing cutscenes
+ great voice acting
CONS
- still an old styled RTS
- long loading times
- unbalanced sides
RATING
7/10
