Ground Control II:
Operation Exodus

In the year 2741, the Northern Star Alliance continues its fight for freedom against the treacherous Terran Empire

	Ground Control II: Operation Exodus
	Massive Entertainment/Vivendi
	Windows 98, XP, ME
	MSRP: $49.99

Review by Mark H. Walker

nce again, the galaxy is going at it. You'd hope that after thousands of years, we'd learn to stop fighting. But, thankfully for gamers, such is not the case. The combatants du jour are the Northern Star Alliance and the Imperial Terran Army (with a guest appearance by the morph-capable Viron aliens), and the canvas on which they paint their destruction is Massive Entertainment's sequel to 2000's Ground Control, Ground Control II: Operation Exodus.

A real-time strategy game by description, the Ground Control II franchise is a bit different. Not different like your strange uncle, who wears his underwear outside his jeans, but good different, like Butterfinger milkshakes. For starters, there is no resource management. And that's a good thing; if we never have another peasant/goblin/worker/whatever chop, mine or hunt for a piece of wood, gold or deer, it will be too soon for us. In GC2, you concentrate on tactics, not economics, as you fight your way through two 12-mission campaigns. Gamers control a select number of units, and although reinforcements may be purchased and landed via dropship, the emphasis is on the intelligent use of your infantry, tanks, artillery and support.

The game uses a 3-D engine that allows gamers to view the battlefield from multiple angles and levels of magnification as their charges engage the enemy. The units are the usual conglomeration of tanks, hovercraft, infantry, snipers, rocket-armed infantry, etc. The Virons, however, have the unique ability to combine two units into a new combatant.

There's a robust multiplayer feature included in the game. Not only may gamers jump into the middle of a multiplayer melee, but they may help each other play through the campaigns in cooperative mode.

A breath of even fresher air

The original Ground Control was a breath of fresh air in the stagnant real-time genre. It rewarded clever tactics and shunned the production model used by many of its predecessors. Operation Exodus sticks with the same formula and also throws what is one of the most beautiful strategy games ever made onto gamers' monitors.

Once again, the emphasis is on tactics. Borrowing a page from its turn-based gaming brethren, Ground Control II gives infantry a bonus when defending in woods, allows them to enter and defend buildings and provides advantages for units occupying high ground. Additionally, vehicles have stronger armor in the front than they do on their sides and rear, making flank attacks an attractive option. Couple these tactical morsels with artillery's ability to fire from afar, engineers that repair damaged units and units' ability to gain experience—making them more effective—and you get the basis for some serious tactical fun.

And as we alluded to before, it's a beautiful fun to boot. Rocket trails cross the lush terrain, tank cannons recoil, and tracer rounds fly through the green forest. What's fantastic is that you can zoom on the action until you are close enough to see the detail on the infantry's backpacks. Awesome stuff. Doesn't sound bad either. Guns boom, lasers pfzzt, and voice actors act—act well, as a matter of fact.

The missions are reminiscent of the first game. You attack each level through a series of smaller objectives, each fed after the previous objective is completed. After you have conquered an objective you receive points that may be used to buy addition troops, which land via dropship. Clever, neat and fun.

But that is no surprise; the entire game is clever, neat and fun. Ground Control II combines clever tactical gaming with drop-jaw graphics to produce what may well be one of the best strategy games of the year.

Can't write any more; I must play. — Mark

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