Total Annihilation-

Total Annihilation is a real-time strategy junky's dream. In it is found superb graphics, wonderful unit variety, and the end of the dreaded "Tank rush", "orc rush", or any other sort of rush.

Like most other real time strategy games, Total Annihilation's plot is fairly weak. Two factions, the good "Arm" and the bad "Core" are vying for control of the galaxy. Enough said.

Total Annihilation's graphics are drawn on the fly by your computer instead of using pixelated bitmaps. This is very similar to how Mechwarrior's graphics were drawn, and leads to an interesting compromise between speed and detail.

Obviously the easiest way to draw graphics is to use moving icons that move around on a square or hexagonal grid. If you have very few frames to describe the units motion the RAM requirements are small. If the number of frames describing a units motion increases, however, the RAM requirements grow very quickly. For every angle of the turret, for every position of the arms, another picture needs to be used.

Enter the world of polygon graphics that are drawn on the fly. Suddenly a whole new level of movement is possible. At the expense of some fine detail, coarse detail is increased dramatically. An arm can be moved to any position, a turret can swing around to point at any angle. Other examples of this technology are A-10 Cuba! and Virtua Fighter, where fluid motion is more important than fine detail.

How does this technology translate to Total Annihilation? I can give many examples. When a tank fires, not only does the turret recoil with the blast, but the whole tank will rock back. Gatling style missile launchers launch, then rotate to load another launch tube and fire the next. When planes land their wings often fold up or retract to provide more room. Vehicles climbing steep slopes tilt back. Explosions are spectacular and realistic, with arms, wheels, and cannon parts bouncing on the ground.

All of these graphics so far have been eye candy, treats that don't effect gameplay. Are there any features to this technology that do effect gameplay? Most definitely. Two of the biggest features unique to Total Annihilations game engine are the use of terrain and acceleration.

In most games (Red Alert, for example) units have a maximum speed and take no time to get to that speed. When you want a unit to change from a standstill to maximum speed, or change from a northern heading to a southern heading, you just click and instantly the change takes place. In Total Annihilation, however, not only do vehicles need time to accelerate, but their turn radius is dependant on their current speed. A tank or battleship going full out does not turn on a dime! Because of this, a herd of tanks charging another, motionless herd of tanks has the initiative in maneuvering, and can sweep past before the defending tanks can get enough speed up to meet the challenge.

Terrain is also used to good effect. Different vehicles can climb varying slopes, making some terrain impassible to some units. Additionally, terrain blocks line of sight, making sneak attacks useful (albeit you need a radar jammer to completely hide in radar covered areas).

Weapons are also effected by terrain. Laser weapons are very accurate, but have no burst radius and cannot round hills. Ballistic weapons, however, have a blast radius as well as the ability to arc over a hill if making a blind shot or if working off of the information of an assisting spotter or radar.

The variety of units in Total Annihilation is staggering. 150 structures and mobile units are found in the whole game, with 75 units per side. Though the Arm and Core's units are largely analogous one to the other, there are fundamental differences. Each side has a small and fast infantry unit, for instance. The Arm's version, the Peewee, has twin guns that fire small projectiles at very fast rates. The Core's analogue, the A.K., has a single laser that does more damage, is more accurate, has a longer range, but has a much slower rate of fire. In other words, the units are not the exactly the same on one side as the other, as is found in some games such as Warcraft 2.

To add to the frenzy of the 150 units that come with the game, new units are available for download from Cavedog's site every week. The game will constantly and gradually be evolving.

The only shortfall that I can find with this game is that, at the time of writing, no map or unit editor is available. This is to be remedied soon with an add on map editor, but no unit editor is in the works. This is because the polygon graphics involved in the game are very difficult to work with, and novice programmers such as myself would not be able to do justice to them. Also, the landscapes found on the maps are extremely detailed. I have doubts that when the map editor comes out any good maps will be produced by the gamers themselves.