Being a fan of real-time strategy games unfortunately means suffering through countless copycat games devoid of innovation and of dubious quality.  Every once in a while, though, a gaming gem is found among the debris that brings joy to the heart of RTS fans and reminds them why they enjoy the genre so much.  One such game may be Perimeter, an innovative and great-looking game due at the end of 2002 from Russian publisher 1C.

The game takes place in a science fiction universe in which mankind has had to abandon a dying Earth.  The people come to be known as the Exodus civilization, and on their search for a new home they come across the Psychosphere worlds.  These strange and mysterious worlds begin to have an effect on the Exodus peoples, driving some of them mad and splitting the Exodus into warring factions.

The battles in Perimeter take place on the Psychosphere worlds, and focus on the capture and defense of territory.  Controlling the landscape alone is not enough for success - players will need to manipulate the land itself in order to succeed because the land is terraformable by special units.  Whether it is to flatten out a plateau for a base or to manipulate the terrain to enhance defenses, you'll need to quickly master terraforming tactics.  It is not just players that will have an effect on the terrain in the game - combat and geological forces will shape and reshape the terrain as play progresses.

Land in Perimeter is not just a place to build your structures.  Your bases will be able to draw energy from the terraformed land to power your structures and units.  More land means more energy, hence the territorial nature of the game.  This method of generating resources eliminates the need for worker units which need to be constantly assigned to resource gathering.  You'll be free to turn your attention to more militaristic pursuits.

With all the terrain modification taking place in the game, you've probably guessed by now that it takes place in 3D.  Perimeter features a fully 3D graphics engine that will make full use of today's graphics hardware.  The game was on display at E3 in Los Angeles, and its graphics really looked impressive - make sure that you follow the link to the screenshots at the end of this article and check them out for yourself.

Perimeter also took a novel approach to units in the game.  The first thing that is different from most other RTS games is that units in the game are squad-based.  You'll be free from clicking on each of your individual units, and from constantly grouping and re-grouping single units as the game progresses.  In addition, units in Perimeter are transformable, allowing you to change your forces to adapt to the current tactical situation.

So why is the game called Perimeter?  It's because the focus of conflict will be on the perimeters of players' bases and lands.  Terraformed territory and bases generate force fields which can not be penetrated by standard units.  As the perimeters of opposing players meet they are annihilated, opening up the opportunity to move in and capture the now unprotected land.

Perimeter takes the real-time strategy genre, infuses it with a wealth of novel concepts, and wraps it all up in a great-looking graphical package.  Strategy fans are well-advised not to pass up the opportunity to take a closer look at the game when it is released later this year - if anything, it certainly won't be another run-of-the-mill RTS game.