Earth 2150

Earth 2150 is a real-time strategy game, originally published by SSI and the Polish developer Reality Pump, and a sequel to the largely unknown Earth 2140. It was the first commercial full-3D game of its kind, although Pumpkin Studios' Warzone 2100 was released in the American market prior to Earth 2150. A sequel to Earth 2150 has been announced, Earth 2160. The game also has two stand-alone expansion packs. Earth 2150: The Moon Project, and Earth 2150:Lost Souls.

Story

Due to a major war between the United Civilised States and the Eurasian Dynasty, the Earth has been knocked out of orbit, and in a few months will be hurled into the Sun. The game also introduces a third race, the Lunar Corporation, a race that is the descendants of wealthy lunar colonists. The objective of the game is to collect enough resources to build an Evacuation Ship, allowing your people to journey to Mars and relative safety.

The races

Earth 2150 consists of 3 unique factions.

United Civilised States: This faction is a demarchy that controls North and South America. The name implies that the United States of America gradually expanded its borders to include both continents. The United Civilised States(or UCS for short) is a race of hedonists whom refuse to do anything that is not pleasurable - thus, they have created robots to maintain the system. Since war is by no means pleasurable, military robots are the norm. These robots are mecha and they are just as effective as a human-piloted vehicle. The UCS has a robotic theme to its structures and vehicles.

Eurasian Dynasty: Essentially a new Mongol Empire based in Russia, the Eurasian Dynasty (or ED for short) use primitive (by 22nd Century standards) technology such as tanks and helicopters. The ED has an industrial, Soviet-esque theme to its structures and vehicles.

Lunar Corporation: The Lunar Corporation (or LC for short) are space colonists whom colonised the Moon and cut themselves off from Earth soon after World War 3 (note - World War 3 is not the war in Earth 2140, nor is it the war in Earth 2150; it took place in 2084). Normally a pacifistic race, the LC are forced to head to Earth in order to secure minerals to build their Evacuation Ship (due to the Moon's general lack of accesible resources, in real life as well as in the game). The Lunar Corporation is by far the most advanced of the three factions, utilising solar power as well as antigravity vehicles (explained as a result of researching extraterrestrial technologies), and exotic weapons such as electro-cannons and sonic weapons.

The game

Play is simple yet complex: whereas you gather resources and build an army during the game as normal, you must complete the game by sending enough resources for the Evacuation Ship within a time limit. The terrain starts off as arctic, but soon changes to spring and then summer terrain. Soon, the water evaporates turning Earth into a desert, and by the game's end the name Hell may be a better word for our planet - volcanic terrain and rivers of lava show that the planet is in dire straits, not only giving the player different visuals of different terrains, but also an incentive to complete the game. Tardy or unskilled players are greeted with a losing screen showing the Earth exploding, meaning that your race, and possibly the human race, is extinct. However, you cannot stockpile and build the Evacuation Ship alone - the player must engage the enemy in order to secure new stockpiles of minerals to haul away.

The game also is unusual in the fact that there is a use of modular units whereby the player constructs his or her own units from a template design on a special screen using his or her chosen race's technology. Also of note is that there is no infantry in the game - as well as being tricky to animate, infantry were not included due to the fact that the game was originally released for the German market and the heavy censorship of games there, and that it was probably seen that infantry could not survive in the more extreme environments of the game anyway.

Energy-weapons, shields and anti-gravity aside, Earth 2150 is an extremely realistic game - such weapons as machine guns and rocket launchers have limited ammunition for instance. Lasers and similar energy weapons can decimate entire columns of armour, but if the tanks are carrying shields then they have a fighting chance as the energy weapons are deflected or dissipated.

External link

• Earth 2150.com (http://www.earth2150.com)