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Games section
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Earth 2140 is sold in a DVD box with a professional printed cover and manual.
Real time strategy games differ from each other not only by technique but also by the background story. While the story of Napalm was treated perfunctorily, Earth 2140 has a very good one and a great intro sequence.
Let us start with the story as the manual tells it:
It is the year 2140. After several wars and catastrophes there are only two powers left: the United Civilized States (UCS), which contains the American continent, western Europe and northern Africa, and the Eurasian Dynasty (ED), with eastern Europe and Asia. Due to the damage from wars both nations have been forced to live underground.
Australia and large parts of Africa have been victims of the wars. Toxic biological and chemical weapons were spread over these lands and contaminated them so no human could live there. Even the use of robots or machines is impossible. Everyone believed that these continents would remain unusable and so they were erased from every map. The main part of mankind forgot that they ever existed.
The people of the UCS just lived for their fun and let machines (so called "Black Tech" robots) do all the work. There was no political interest, the leadership was raffled. The Eurasian Dynasty was led by a dictator of the Khan Dynasty. In these days Tiao Zhe Khan (the name means "The man who provokes war") was the leader of the ED. Because of the problems caused by the wars and the contamination, the 34th Khan, Yon Shi Khan ("Brave Warrior") had ordered that the main parts of the human body were to be replaced by machines.
Now, under the leadership of the 37th Khan, this plan has been brought to perfection. The population consists of extremely powerful androids. The "human" body consists of a rudimentary organism which supports the brain and several mechanical elements. The population is totally controlled.
Natural resources are getting thin and are found only deep under the surface. There have been several minor conflicts between the UCS and the ED which escalated and have grown to a brutal war - the last world war! Only one party can win. This last war decides who gets the last resources and becomes the ultimate leader of the world.
Before starting the battle, Earth has to be installed on the hard disk drive. It is possible to play the game from the CD but it is not the best alternative. An installation on a hard disk drive is recommended for more speed. This is very easy and one can choose between several possibilities depending on the available space on the hard disk drive.
I chose the full installation and after a short time 100 MB were missing in action and I had two directories: Earth2140 and Earth2140Samples.
The game is in the main directory, in four versions: with or without PPC and in 640*480 or 800*600 resolution. These four start icons are also on the CD if you decide to play from CD.
After starting the game the intro begins at once. And it is great! Seven minutes of rendered film with impressive music and sound effects. The atmosphere recalls Terminator.
Really impressive! And on computers without PPC the film runs nearly smooth. After the intro I was eager to start the battle but before this some settings have to be made. The option screen is scrollable to the left and right, the main decision is to chose a party or to continue an old game.
Looking to the right I can see the credits, I can start the intro again or leave the game. The left side offers the choice between network game or modem/direct link game. (see the extra box for it!!) You can also have a look at a well done data bank. But I want to win the last world war, so I start the game immediately.
Earth 2140 is a classical real time strategy game like DuneII, Command&Conquer or Napalm. It is quite simple: You choose between the parties, in our case the United Civilized States or the Eurasian Dynasty.
After this you choose the difficulty and on a world map the state you wish to fight for. Here is a last chance to choose the other party. By clicking on a state the game begins. A mission screen appears telling you what has to be done to pass the level.
At the beginning there is not much to see. The divisions are standing still and waiting
for commands. All around them is it black. On the left side is a controlbar which is
movable by pressing the
One moves the divisions on the screen and whenever they meet foreign divisions the fight begins. It is important to have a strategy and not to run blindly into the battle, because you can only see other divisions just around your own.
The map grows by moving into unknown dark area. You can see this area all the time then but you only know if there are foreign divisions when you have a division of yours there. So always pay attention.
For most of the level it goes like this: first you build a power plant, a mine and a refinery to get raw materials and money. With this money other buildings can be built, for example to build new divisions. These buildings have to be protected and at the same time the given mission - 25 on each side - has to be carried out.
The graphics of Earth2140 are really impressive. With PPC a resolution of 800*600 possible but even in 640*480 it looks quite good. A PPC is recommended - the game runs also on a 68k but with my 060 it is slower than Napalm. Anyone who has a PPC can buy the game without hesitation.
The divisions are animated with a lot of details and effects like explosions are great, not to mention the intro and the short animated films which link the levels.
The difficulty, the availability of tips and tricks in the internet and several magazines (it is has been out for PC for a while) leads to just one conclusion:
Napalm is pushed from the throne. But Napalm 2 is coming.
