25
Nov 2001
For
awhile now, I've been kicking around the idea of writing an
editorial against Real-time Strategy (RTS) games going 3D.
In fact I started an article about that before I got sick,
but never finished it. If you want, you can check out the
unfinished work here.
However,
a recent game just blew my socks off and made me rethink that
position. The German company Fishtank
Interactive has released a RTS game, called S.W.I.N.E.,
with a 3D engine that is absolutely gorgeous.
The
Story
I
think some people may pass on this game because of preconceived
notions and that is unfortunate. The story centers around
the battles between pigs and rabbits, but this is no Looney
Tunes adventure. These pigs and rabbits have attitude and
operate heavy artillary. In fact, I would say it's not a kids
game with a "TEEN" rating.
On
August 3, under the orders of General Iron Tusk, the NATIONAL
ARMY OF PIGS crossed the border without warning and penetrated
deep into Carrotland territory. Within two weeks, they'd burned
everything to the ground and laid siege to the capital city.
As a result of the surprise attack, the rabbit army was decimated.
Towns and villages are deserted. The defense's determined
efforts were not met with much success, and the severely weakened
rabbit army were not able to stem the hordes of swine. In
desperation, the government and the staff of generals reach
the following decision: Because of the overwhelming might
of Iron Tusk's war machine, success via a frontal attack will
be impossible. The rabbits will have to resort to subterfuge
to have any chance of success. From the remains of their reserves,
the rabbits create a powerful fighting force. Without suffering
too many losses, this force must harass and stage skirmishes
against the enemy until they lose all their supply lines and
military objectives.
In
the demo, you only get one level and that is a bit unfortunate
because it would have been nice to try both sides.
Graphics
As
I said earlier, most of the early 3D efforts for RTS games were
abyssmal, but that has changed. S.W.I.N.E. is beautiful. From
tank treads, to dust and trees to incredible moving water, every
thing seems to be rendered in exquisite detail. Ah, but that
level of detail comes at a cost. The recommended system requirements
are a tad high.
Windows®
98/2000/Me
DirectX
8.0 or higher
PIII/800MHz
256 MB of RAM
Geforce2 GTS / Radeon DDR
24x CD ROM drive
DirectSound
compliant sound card.
Even
though it doesn't list Windows XP, it runs perfectly under
Win XP Pro for me. (NOTE: I had to reduce the quality of
the images to bring the size down so they aren't quite representative
on how good the game looks).
Gameplay
There
have been many games produced that look great but the gameplay
was lousy - S.W.I.N.E. is not one of them. This is not a typical
resource gathering/unit building RTS like a Warcraft or Red
Alert. Instead, you select the units you want before a mission
based on how many Strategic Points are available.
One
of the ways S.W.I.N.E. differs from traditional RTS games
is in its resource management. As mentioned above, this is
not a resource gathering and unit building marathon. Units
are assigned at the start of each mission but you can purchase
or sell additional units, resources and special capabilities
for them. You can also purchase additional units during each
mission if you have sufficient Strategy Points (SP). You can
repair, re-supply and refuel your units if you have the appropriate
resource trailers. The resources trailers are an important
element of the tactical and strategic elements of the game
so use them effectively. If you lose the truck pulling one
of these trailers, you won't be able to move them and if the
trailer is destroyed, it becomes very difficult to complete
the mission. Also, you will be able to take units with you
to subsequent missions as you successfully complete the missions.
The
other aspects of the combat are typical fare. You can group
the units and most of the game can be controlled by the mouse.
The interface is clean and easy to understand. My biggest
complaint is how the repair, ammo and fueling operations are
selected. Many times I would select the function only to have
it not register. When battle is fast and furious, having to
go back and reselect something can be frustrating.
The
voiceovers lend a touch of humour to the whole thing and the
cutscenes (at least in the demo) are first rate.
Conclusion
I
really enjoyed playing this demo and look forward to the full
version.
It's
not a perfect game (and the website is a muddled Flash nightmare),
but it should supply many hours of enjoyment. You can download
the 88MB demo from here
or here
(includes additional screenshots from the full game).
Rating:
4 out of 5
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