Dark Planet: Battle for Natrolis is a real-time strategy game that is a bit
of the old and a bit of the new. A great looking 3D graphics engine has
been placed on a traditional, "three races battle it out on a distant
world" themed strategy game. Does this combination work?
The
three races in question here are the Colonists, the Dreil, and the Sorin.
The Colonists are the technology-loving, space-conquering humans, and the Dreil
are the insect-like horde that relies on biologically based weapons and
structures. If you're a strategy game veteran, then you've seen these
races before, most notably in StarCraft.
The Sorin are a more original race, consisting of sword-wielding, spell-casting
reptilian creatures that seem to share some cultural similarities with Earth's Far
Eastern cultures.
Playing each of the three different races does provide a different
experience, as they all feature unique units, structures, and tech trees.
These differences even extend to resource gathering, as each race requires a
different set of resources. The resource sites that will be centers of
conflict will depend entirely upon the combination of races present in the
current game. The Dreil are also in need of a resource that is guaranteed
to put them in conflict with anybody - some units can put enemies in cocoons
which can be brought back to the base and used as a special resource.
The game supports single player action in the form of campaigns for each of
the three races or in multiplayer games versus computer opponents. The
single player campaigns are a series of missions that are loosely linked by a
storyline - completing a mission makes the next one available for play.
The storylines for the campaigns are disappointing, and consist of a couple of
paragraphs of text to be read before and after a mission. There is also a
complete lack of any voiceovers or cutscenes, which makes it hard to be drawn
into the story. Most of the time you'll feel that you are merely playing a
series of disjointed missions.
The graphics in Dark Planet are noticeably good. The maps are colorful
and very dynamic - trees rustle in the wind, smoke rises from gas vents, fish
swim through translucent waters, and more. One particularly good effect is
the way landscape is revealed as the shroud is erased. It starts out flat
and then morphs into the underlying terrain, be it hill, valley, or river, as
units push back the edges of the fog of war.
Unfortunately, there are also a few downsides to the graphics engine.
First off, the units are very colorful and combat effects feature numerous
spectacular explosions, which makes for some lively battles but also combine to
make it difficult to follow the action in heated firefights. Also, the
zoomed-in view gives you a great close-up look at the game's myriad of units,
but shows so little real estate that it is not practical to play the game at
that level. Instead, most players will leave the camera pulled back in
order to manage their forces, but at this level it becomes harder to distinguish
the different unit types from each other.
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