I remember this game being punishingly difficult because of the persistent soldiers. It was easy to screw up early on and be doomed to failure from the outset, or have to keep save scumming because you lost someone important. But I was only 12 when it played the demo so perhaps that was the reason.
I remember playing this on hardest difficulty at night, sacrificing sleep. As I recall, it has very strong feedback loops, do well consistently early on and you end up loosing pretty much nobody, with everyone becoming elite in their respective fields. Most people struggling are probably leaning far to much/long in infantry and crewed vehicles. Soldiers were the most unimportant class in the game, peaking at one guy with missile launcher or crewing a defense turret, while a skilled mechanic could command or maintain an entire armoured formation. Also discourages dividing forces or rushing, supplies are either limited or finite, so buildup over time for everyone is limited. Do prepare everything and turtle, then go do your objectives.
One thing I found it really hard to understand is how much difference each skill level made in what area. As an example, the manual hints at the fact a good mechanic is a better driver than a bad mechanic - but it doesn't really explain in what areas those abilities manifest (damage, resistance, speed etc) nor does it give any clues on how big a gap there is between an average mechanic, a great mechanic and a control computer. I think these sorts of questions are one of the reasons I find the game so interesting. I get the feeling there is a huge level of depth and I only really just scratched the surface in my recent playthrough.
@kaluventhebritish I think I will get into a modded one myself, nice revisitation 20+y later. From what I remember, AI and Radio controlled ones had straight up lower stats than manually crewed vehicles. I think mechanics got Boni to them based on Skill (and could partially transfer them in case of remote driving), the soviet protagonist in his "Mascha" was a one man task force. Output differences in Shooting, repairing and research were very obvious though. Teleporting uncrewed tanks backed by mechanics in Long range/fire support/self protection vehicles were overpowered. They got damaged, teleported, Gorki quickly repaired them and off they went again.
Also a note on the third faction: the people who took over the OW maintenance also put together a complex campaign for them as well, based on the development notes left over in the data folder. It's pretty good but HARD.
The Russian and American campaigns both also split into two separate endings with a few missions unique to both, whilst they also "share" an ending in one path, these shared missions are often somewhat different depending on which faction you play. It's a lot of content and I can see why they ran out of time. I recently purchased it on steam for almost nothing and replayed it - and I can see why I didn't complete the game when I was younger, and used a walkthrough when I finally did a few years later. Was fun to revisit!
I remember buying this classic game back in the summer of 2001 and playing it religiously. Many happy memories. For New Year this year, I bought the game and have been playing it since. Great game, great game.
The story is so bonkers I am surprised there never was an early 2000s animated TV show and a late 2010s life action movie based on it, that by now has two sequels (preferably with Dwayne Johnson as leading actor).
@@BohemianBard I did actually look up that novel before I wrote the script for the video, I was interested in how loosely based it was and if the ideas in the book were more or less crazy than the game. Unfortunately it's way out of print so the book would have cost me some 30 times more than the game did, plus the single review it had said the English translation was pretty bad. A shame. I was quite interested in having a read!
I hope you do. I think I could watch 10 different videos on this game and still not fully understand it, even after playing a big bunch of the campaign last week.
dont worry its not so missable, when u play mp it always crashes when someone presses spacebar >_> and if not u get overwhelmed by mad polish players with bazuka or monkeys :D
There is a mission where you have to recruit six or so team members to go off on your own, and honestly that generated quite a few "WTF IS THIS SHIT" moments for me. On my 10th or so attempt I really started to question my life choices.
@@kaluventhebritish hello, i think that you can point out the Sands of Siberia mod, that adds like 50missions and nowdays, almost whole Arabian campaign
Anecdotally, playing on the middle difficulty I only needed reset on 3 or 4 missions in total (the final mission for allies, 2 of the alliance missions and 1 mission in Soviet campaign). e.g. for the mentioned exploding apes (which were a very rude surprise), the base is set up to defend in the direction they come from, and since they can't take much punishment, stationing a good soldier in the bunker should deal with them. I believe they also get a call out from one of the characters when they appear. I think the game generally expects you to lose some manpower to rude surprises to avoid breaking the difficulty curve, because the way the bonuses from skills work, around level 8 the people become godly, and level 10 soldier with some easy levels in other skills (which improve his fighting as well because reasons) can tear through a whole bunch of level 3/4s.
I wonder if this game got its freeform vehicle designing idea from 'Warzone 2100' which was 1st released in 1999, where it does have some premade designs but otherwise you have to design them by yourself. Granted, I dunno if that feature was there ever since the 1st release.
I remember this game being punishingly difficult because of the persistent soldiers. It was easy to screw up early on and be doomed to failure from the outset, or have to keep save scumming because you lost someone important. But I was only 12 when it played the demo so perhaps that was the reason.
I remember playing this on hardest difficulty at night, sacrificing sleep.
As I recall, it has very strong feedback loops, do well consistently early on and you end up loosing pretty much nobody, with everyone becoming elite in their respective fields. Most people struggling are probably leaning far to much/long in infantry and crewed vehicles.
Soldiers were the most unimportant class in the game, peaking at one guy with missile launcher or crewing a defense turret, while a skilled mechanic could command or maintain an entire armoured formation.
Also discourages dividing forces or rushing, supplies are either limited or finite, so buildup over time for everyone is limited. Do prepare everything and turtle, then go do your objectives.
One thing I found it really hard to understand is how much difference each skill level made in what area. As an example, the manual hints at the fact a good mechanic is a better driver than a bad mechanic - but it doesn't really explain in what areas those abilities manifest (damage, resistance, speed etc) nor does it give any clues on how big a gap there is between an average mechanic, a great mechanic and a control computer.
I think these sorts of questions are one of the reasons I find the game so interesting. I get the feeling there is a huge level of depth and I only really just scratched the surface in my recent playthrough.
@kaluventhebritish I think I will get into a modded one myself, nice revisitation 20+y later.
From what I remember, AI and Radio controlled ones had straight up lower stats than manually crewed vehicles. I think mechanics got Boni to them based on Skill (and could partially transfer them in case of remote driving), the soviet protagonist in his "Mascha" was a one man task force. Output differences in Shooting, repairing and research were very obvious though.
Teleporting uncrewed tanks backed by mechanics in Long range/fire support/self protection vehicles were overpowered. They got damaged, teleported, Gorki quickly repaired them and off they went again.
One of my favorite from my childhood
Also a note on the third faction: the people who took over the OW maintenance also put together a complex campaign for them as well, based on the development notes left over in the data folder.
It's pretty good but HARD.
I never played this game but I love the premise.
The Russian and American campaigns both also split into two separate endings with a few missions unique to both, whilst they also "share" an ending in one path, these shared missions are often somewhat different depending on which faction you play.
It's a lot of content and I can see why they ran out of time.
I recently purchased it on steam for almost nothing and replayed it - and I can see why I didn't complete the game when I was younger, and used a walkthrough when I finally did a few years later. Was fun to revisit!
Mechanically, this seems like a descendant of War Wind. Except playable.
I feel like I must have played the demo of this as a kid, it feels so familiar
I remember buying this classic game back in the summer of 2001 and playing it religiously. Many happy memories. For New Year this year, I bought the game and have been playing it since. Great game, great game.
"Electronic Boutique".
That's a name I haven't heard in a long time, a long time.
The story is so bonkers I am surprised there never was an early 2000s animated TV show and a late 2010s life action movie based on it, that by now has two sequels (preferably with Dwayne Johnson as leading actor).
BTW, the game's story is loosely based on the sci-fi novel The Last Day of Creation (1981) by Wolfgang Jeschke.
@@BohemianBard I did actually look up that novel before I wrote the script for the video, I was interested in how loosely based it was and if the ideas in the book were more or less crazy than the game. Unfortunately it's way out of print so the book would have cost me some 30 times more than the game did, plus the single review it had said the English translation was pretty bad. A shame. I was quite interested in having a read!
I was in the process of making a video on this hidden childhood gem as well ! The odds
I hope you do. I think I could watch 10 different videos on this game and still not fully understand it, even after playing a big bunch of the campaign last week.
I LOVE THIS GAME!! And i struggle to get fellow RTS enjoyers to play it with me!
dont worry its not so missable, when u play mp it always crashes when someone presses spacebar >_> and if not u get overwhelmed by mad polish players with bazuka or monkeys :D
Czech national treasure! 🇨🇿
It really is.
1st mission - Dies 20times - WTF IS THIS SHIT - uninstall - only to discover what a gem it is years later :D
There is a mission where you have to recruit six or so team members to go off on your own, and honestly that generated quite a few "WTF IS THIS SHIT" moments for me. On my 10th or so attempt I really started to question my life choices.
@@kaluventhebritish hello, i think that you can point out the Sands of Siberia mod, that adds like 50missions and nowdays, almost whole Arabian campaign
Anecdotally, playing on the middle difficulty I only needed reset on 3 or 4 missions in total (the final mission for allies, 2 of the alliance missions and 1 mission in Soviet campaign). e.g. for the mentioned exploding apes (which were a very rude surprise), the base is set up to defend in the direction they come from, and since they can't take much punishment, stationing a good soldier in the bunker should deal with them. I believe they also get a call out from one of the characters when they appear.
I think the game generally expects you to lose some manpower to rude surprises to avoid breaking the difficulty curve, because the way the bonuses from skills work, around level 8 the people become godly, and level 10 soldier with some easy levels in other skills (which improve his fighting as well because reasons) can tear through a whole bunch of level 3/4s.
I miss insane premise like tvis
I wonder if this game got its freeform vehicle designing idea from 'Warzone 2100' which was 1st released in 1999, where it does have some premade designs but otherwise you have to design them by yourself. Granted, I dunno if that feature was there ever since the 1st release.
Thanks for covering this game! But when someone calls Czechia Eastern European, it always hurts a bit.
Sorry about that, I don't really know the proper definitions, but ignorance is always a bad excuse. I guess "Central European" is far more accurate.