Planetary Annihilation

My background in this area is the Supreme Commander series and it was this alone that encouraged me to try out the game. Like Supcom the war is there, the crazy engineering of weird devices, and a whole lot more.

The ability to blow up planets is insanely fun in the sense of, “I know where you are and will not hunt you down, instead, I’ll blow you up“. I’ll never forget the first time the A.I. blew up my planet and I don’t think anyone would. The A.I. was on the second planet in my system and had sent units to my planet. I was fighting and smashing their onslaught towards my base. The next thing I know, I hear this “powering up sound” and then, “boom”! Game over! He obviously was not happy with my kills so he said, “See ya sucka”.

“I know where you are and will not hunt you down, instead I’ll blow you up”.

What stands out to me in this game is the AI. The graphics are great, and the story is ok. That A.I.! I notice in the beginning of a game the A.I. likes to toy with the player. It will test your defenses and then try to find a way to break through them. Even better though, I watched the A.I. commander rebuild part of his base that I had recently nuked into another area.  This is the A.I. I wished Supcom could have had, Supcom’s A.I. was not bad but it wasn’t the greatest either. PA’s A.I. acts and executes like a predator! This sense of being hunted really appealed to me in the end and makes this one of the best Supcom-like titles I’ve played in a long time. The A.I. is a winner.

This sense of being hunted really appealed to me in the end and makes this one of the best Supcom like titles I’ve played in a long time.

The performance of the game could be a little better though. I noticed subtle HDD/video lag in some parts of the game that otherwise should not exist. I played for a couple of hours one day and afterward would get a crash to the desktop or the video drivers complaining of losing connection. After checking out the forums I noticed the common theme was for players to update their drivers. All of my drivers are updated and I am running two brand new EVGA 970S SC. Everything I have thrown at those cards has been chopped down with no sweat. I disagree with the devs that it’s a driver issue, this is more of a coding issue with the game.

I have read many comments, reviews, and the like about the game. Many people seem to be mixed about liking the game. The greatest complaints are the bland story, performance, and the lack of more things to build. In my humble opinion, I like the game because I find the A.I. very challenging. This A.I. seems so bent on your destruction. But, this is just me. In the end, you will have to decide what you like and what you are willing to play.

If you are a hardcore RTS fan then you should pick this game up. If working correctly, it will provide many hours of fun!

Game On!

-Six