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(More customer reviews)The Sun Age is upon us: our solar system is dying and humanity faces extinction. Humans and mutants (Raak-Zun) battle over Earth's remaining resources when an alien race (the Sentinels) appear and open a portal to another pristine planet - and now another three-way race is on. As an extra twist, who is the mysterious entity puppet-mastering everyone behind the scenes? As RTS storylines go, no originality awards here but not too shabby either...
SUN AGE is an RTS featuring the above three factions, each with its own buildings, units and weaponry, engaged across two different planets in a variety of environments, from dilapidated cities to jungles.
The game's strong point is its interesting balancing: there are four types of armor (Structural, Synthetic, Plated and Flak) and four types of damages (Laser, Flame, Explosive and Projectile) and each faction develops its distinct technologies at different rates. So, it is common to have to face an enemy better equipped than you - making things interesting as the game will REALLY test your strategy skills! Ok, maybe your patience too...
Another good feature are the power-grids: for a building to function it has to be located within the boundaries of your faction's power-grid, each with its own beautiful effect. As a result, bases can be established fast - but now have a soft underbelly to exploit: this makes for additional strategy planning, both offensive and defensive!
Graphically, the game has an unshakable retro feeling. Both the unit design and their movement repertoire - as well as the gameplay - are all done in...2D! Sure, there are 3 layers of apparent action (foot-soldiers, elevated ground vehicles and aircrafts) and the tracers and the rockets will try to create the illusion of 3D, but the overall visual effect is just a notch better than the original STARCRAFT - a 10 year old game, mind you. If you have experienced C&C3-TIBERIAN WARS or SUPREME COMMANDER (or even EMPEROR BATTLE FOR DUNE) visually you will be greatly disappointed by this game. On the other hand, older gamers will probably appreciate the fresh look on a familiar interface. It will be like replaying a revamped STARCRAFT all over again.
The sounds (explosions, movement and environmentals) also have a retro character but are not bad. What is truly bad is the voice acting. And if you think all those cardboard voices will get on your nerves, try ...saving the game. Apparently, this is a Corrupt Save-Files Age, and more often than not, you will have to start over. A patch is desperately needed (1.05 has been released but to only limited effect), but keep in mind that older saved games hardly ever are compatible with newer patches.
Finally, a lot of the hotkeys do not work: mouse-selecting a group of units will only select units of the same type (not a bad idea altogether, unless one is under pressure to fend off a sudden attack); however, when ordering grouped units, their response is...fickle at best. And at the heat of the battle that can be really frustrating.
This is an RTS game that had been in development for about a decade and, being the labor of love of its developing team (VERTEX4), was supposed to reinvigorate the genre - hence my generous rating. Unfortunately, the road to mediocrity is paved by good intentions.
If looking for a budget RTS game and have played all the older ones, well, go for it. Otherwise, wait for STARCRAFT II.
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2D sci-fi RTS game with both single and multiplayer modes
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