But even though this battle-first philosophy is front and center all the way, there is no way to give special orders, set up formations, or guide your troops in any detailed fashion. Additionally, you'll do some very limited base-building, collect a mineral resource known as xenolite, and order up troops from a command HQ in multiplayer. Focus is mainly on combat strategizing and action. If not for the modern 3D graphics, you might think that the game had originally been released a decade ago. Yet despite all the great multiplayer trappings, the hybrid sci-fi/fantasy storyline, and the superb unit matching among factions, gameplay is rudimentary. There isn't a huge range of units available to each side, although there are enough to keep things interesting and force you to rely on tactical planning during matches. Factions also have unique looks, so you can always tell who's who at a glance. The rock-paper-scissors formula is solid here. They also have a variety of troop types that use very similar melee and ranged attacks. This trio fits together very well because each comes with pluses and minuses that you need to deal with in multiplayer matches. And the Cult is an alien civilization that features units with shape-changing abilities and futuristic hardware. Here, you deal with shamans, spear-throwing heathens, and the like. Tribes consist of mutated humans living in the wild that use fantasy-standard weapons and magic. Humans come from five big cities that survived the cataclysm, employing battle robots and armored troops. The three sci-fi/fantasy mash-up factions featured here have also been designed extremely well for multiplayer matchups. The one drawback is that games often suffer from noticeable lag. Co-op maps let you team up with two buddies to scrap your way through levels, taking on computer-controlled mobs and bosses with big loot. It's something of a shame that more people aren't playing online, too, because it features some really good ideas taken from MMOGs like World of Warcraft and multiplayer role-playing games like Diablo. Few seem to be playing either Deathmatch or co-op, although if you stick around for an hour or so, you can likely find a game. Finding an online match isn't particularly easy, though. You need to log in online whenever you start the game, whether you are entering the single-player campaign, playing cooperative missions, or taking on all comers in Deathmatch modes that range from mano-a-mano games to three-versus-three team contests. Modes of play have obviously been built around multiplayer. Overall, the look of the game is odd and effective, succeeding in transporting you to a colorful take on the future even while the repetitive, generic RTS order acknowledgements and corny militaristic music often beam you right back home. Huge mushrooms can be found all over the place in some maps, and many are big enough to house hundreds of Smurfs, along with sinister-looking refugees from the Little Shop of Horrors. Flora and fauna consist of extraterrestrial additions like the sort of giant exotic plants that decorated the strange new worlds in old Star Trek episodes. Everything has changed so much that the game might as well be taking place on an alien world. The time is the far future and the place is Earth long after an asteroid called Shard Zero went all 2012 to create a plague that destroyed and reshaped the entire planet. Worldshift's storyline, backdrop, and three factions are almost surreal. Most of WorldShift centers on old-fashioned RTS combat. This problem, along with a range of serious single-player bugs, make the game look better on paper than it is in reality. Although the multiplayer games have been intricately designed with a lot of strategic depth and many elements borrowed from massively multiplayer online games, much of this has been wasted on a boring point-and-click RTS that seems to have traveled through time from 1997. Unfortunately, the gameplay itself is mired in the past. It also has a wide range of solo, co-op, and Deathmatch modes of play, which means that it comes with plenty under the hood. WorldShift is an intriguing real-time strategy experiment, with a weird far-future story and three complementary races.
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