Dark Reign 2

"Own a car? sell it now and buy this game. Hah."

Introduction

This game is so beautiful, the graphic so fluid that makes me cringe when I play it. *cringes*

This RTS is your above average RTS game that has such awesome graphic that makes you smirk. Its about two race (Sprawlers and the JDAs) that are fighting for the ownership of Earth. You see your little soldlier gliding in the air and you have 360 degree view of the whole environment. You see him shooting with his laser gun and it makes you proud. The solid graphic makes you think you're actually inside the game. Yes, it's that intense.

Gameplay

There are several options in which to play this game such as campaign, multi-player and skirmish and single player mode. I usually play single player.

You start off with the selection of two race - the JDAs and the Sprawlers. The JDA is more technological advance then their counter part, the Sprawlers. The Sprawlers is about brute force. You get a few soldiers and some trucks (its the vehicle for you to mine the resource, like all standard RTS games)

You mine the resource with your trucks, which enables you to manufacture soldiers and armor vehicles and upgrade on the structures. You can choose soldiers, light armored vehicles that are fast, heavy tanks and a few more fighting units. There is balance in the fighting units which is good because you can attack at different angles - like, do you want an air strike or ground strike? A fast hit and run strategy or come with all your heavy forces and take them out at once? It becomes a challenge because you want to have an equilibrium in your fighting units so it can't be vulnerable to attacks. Like, if you bring all your armored tanks it won't be able to defend itself against air planes and it is too slow to get away from the light armor vehicles which can attack you from a far distant.

You build structures such as the standard command post to command all your fighting units and it it to automation control. For example, when they're too heavily damaged they can go to the home base and get itself repaired. They can fight until they die or just sustain little damage before retreating back. Then you have the production line which builds all the fight units. You can upgrade these structures once you have the resource by mining all the crystal, which is the prime resource for the game. You also engender a refinery, which process the crystal into usable substance. You can also build laser fences around the establishment to prevent the opposing force to infiltrate your base. You can also station sentries, which are towers with machine guns to fend off any wondering soldiers or forces.

Graphic

Geeze... I totally adore the graphics for this game. It's wonderful. The graphic is solid and so are the graphics. The game doesn't use pixels - it utilize Direct3d, which produce such wonder full graphics.
You can see the textures in the game such as the reflection of the soldiers when he stands over the puddle of water. The grass is realistic; it feels as though the blade of grass is living and breathing the air. You can also see the sheet of rain when it pours - its so realistic.

The fighting units designs are sub-par. Tanks look like modern tanks with a futuristic touch to it. There are different texture part to the tank which makes it distinguishable. Then there are the unit fighting armor soldiers of the future with their laser guns and fighting equipments. The texture on the everything in the game varies, so it doesn't look bland and mundane. The battle part of the game where lasers, guns, cannons and fire going everywhere in the game is an eye candy. This just shows that the programmers and the artists utilize the Direct3d's full potential in making such a game with such awesome graphics.

You could also rotate the camera at a 360 degree angle in this game and you cam zoom the camera at ground level - without much lag and decrease in the detail of the textures. Its so cool when you see your whole force fighting against the opposing force and there is laser guns and cannons and explosions going everywhere. Its mayhem!

Sound/Music

The soldiers and vehicle operators in the game have a distinct and unique voice in the game. It gives your the illusion that you're interacting with a living and breathing soldiers that are fighting for you -- which is the ultimate goal of RTS. It makes you appear to be commanding a living, sweating force. The voices varie and they did a good job. There are serveral phrases for each unit, depending on what you're commanding them to do. Then there are the explosions of buildings, the dying cries of the soldiers, the blowing up sound effect of an armored tank exploding.

The music for this game is a mixture of techno and instrumental music. It never gets boring and sometimes there is a pause in the music for you to think. There are many songs in the sound track, not just one so you know you're not listening to some repetitive song.

Buy or Rent...?

Got a car? Sell it and buy this game! Its fantastic! The graphics, the gameplay, the music... the fully 3-d camera rotation. Buy it. I cannot stress enough how prominent the game is and that it isn't that popular in mainstream.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/03, Updated 07/25/03