he distant future looks bleak. Earth has been torn apart by wars and strife, and three coalitions--the United Continent of America, the Asian Federation and the Southern Bloc--battle for control of what remains. The coalitions, separated by disparate philosophies, have vowed to fight to the death. The story is familiar, and so is the real-time gameplay of Mayday: Conflict Earth, JoWood Productions' latest attempt to drill into the real-time strategy vein of gold.
Gamers control one of the three factions as they attempt to gain control over our blue planet. The United Continent of America forces represent the remnants of both North and South America, the Asian Federation includes most of the Orient and the Southern Bloc musters the forces of the Middle East.
Each faction has a campaign that is introduced and propelled by full-motion video, missions and a bucket of units to triumph in said missions. Mayday: Conflict Earth eschews the standard build-and-conquer fare of many production-based real-time strategy games, in that each scenario provides the structures needed to win the mission at hand--no construction is required. Players will not need to waste time gathering resources either, for these automatically accumulate as the clock ticks.
The units are controlled from an isometric view in standard realtime. Tanks, infantry, battle walkers and hovercraft all pass muster. Players lead these troops both against the game's artificial intelligence in the single-player campaigns and against other humans via LAN-based multiplayer gaming. (Mayday: Conflict Earth doesn't support Internet-based multiplayer.)
Worldwide war proves world-weary
This would have been a solid title in 1996, but alas, the gaming world has moved on, and it appears that JoWood hasn't. There is nothing in Mayday: Conflict Earth that hasn't been done before, and also done better. Mechs, hover vehicles, tanks and infantry have populated many a
previous battlefield. We've clicked on the enemy and eased back into our gaming chair to watch the fireworks. It's a dead horse, but Conflict Earth is still kicking it.
The missions are old hat. Gamers must destroy this, guard that and rescue whatever. Although the missions are not conceptually new, developer Boris Games has made many of them difficult exercises in puzzle-solving. Too often there is a trick--be it a certain path, certain unit or specific strategy--that must be followed in order to win, which is frustrating and boring.
The ambiance will not help to prop open gamers' drooping eyes. The tanks look like tanks from any number of other titles past, and the buildings are poorly detailed structures that are easily confused. To add insult to injury, the units are frequently mirrored in each coalition. If the United
Continent of America forces have a light tank, the Southern Bloc will have one, too. The tanks may look different on the screen, but their functions are identical.
Westwood's Red Alert 2 proved that older 2-D technology can still support an absorbing game, but Mayday: Conflict Earth proves that copying technology and style cannot. A poor effort, Conflict Earth is one title to be avoided.
What was JoWood thinking? I guess they threw this to the consumers in hopes of getting a few sales before the reviews came in. I bet they didn't get many.
--Mark
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