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Dark Reign 2
By Nelson “Admiral” HernandezA Couple of Quibbles
There are a few unfortunate things that spoil this otherwise good picture. The first is how unit groups work. Units get strung out in a ragged column as soon as you give them an order to go anywhere. The formation keys are virtually useless, and units make no attempt to stay in formation anyway. As a result of this it is very difficult to mount coordinated attacks. You mill around in front of the enemy base trying to establish some order after the approach march, and then commence the attack. At that point everything gets very messy and sometimes units have trouble getting into a position from which they can fire. Unless you’ve set your unit behavior to a cautious level your troops will run into the enemy base (again in column) heedless of the defenses and be cut down in the blink of an eye.
The overall impression was reminiscent of the sack of Rome. But this isn’t Age of Empires, which had much better formation management anyway, and a game that emphasizes combined arms to such a degree should have a way of managing things so that battles do not turn into clashes between disorderly mobs.
Admiral Nelson, meet Davy Jones
The other problem only effects the single-player campaigns, but this will be most people’s major experience with the game anyhow. It is the AI, which is several generations behind and reminded me of the grandfather of all RTS games, Dune 2. In short, the AI cannot mount a good attack. Groups of three to six units charge toward your lines once every few minutes and are easily picked off by light perimeter defenses. Sometimes the computer shows skill at using combined arms tactics, nipping away at an exposed antiaircraft post, then sending in a couple of Strikers to do some damage to your vulnerable land defenses. But it is always more of an annoyance than a threat and the attackers are eventually overwhelmed.
The computer never expands its bases, makes hardly any effort to harass your Taelon collectors, and in the endgame simply becomes a punching bag as it grows completely passive. During the time I played I never saw the AI use a spy or artillery intelligently, and it hardly ever used its special weapons effectively either. I should also say that the tactical AI as represented by the unit behavior menu works just fine.
The AI’s strategic deficiencies are made up for by giving it well developed bases at the outset of the later scenarios and inserting time limits, which really drive me nuts. The campaign missions would not be difficult at all were it not for the time limits, because the AI simply never poses a threat to you except in the first few minutes, when your base is still undefended.
