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REVIEWS

In the distant galaxy called Ring World, three species of aliens battle for control. Have you guessed what kind of game Echelon is yet? To say that Echelon is anything other than just another C&C clone, a better than average clone, but a clone none the less. The goods news is that Echelon is better than many of the other Command and Conquer clones so easily found on the shelves of many software stores. The bad news is does nothing to advance its genre.

Echelon’s graphics, to be fair, are well done. The units are well rendered and pleasant to look at rather than being stiff or seeming out of place. There are several kinds of units for each race. They each have their’s own variation of the basic units: infantry, light recon units, various tanks, etc. The interface graphics are equally well done. The game’s battlefields are good as well, smooth and nice looking. However on the downside, Echelon is played form the same point of view as all the other RTS games and the units have certain . . .similarities . . . to the units of nearly every other RTS game. When you get right down to it, graphics are acceptable, but they leave you feeling very apathetic about the whole experience.

Audio in Echelon is nothing special at all.   The tracks just aren’t very inspiring. They don’t seem to really add anything to the game. Explosions and sound effects are rather bland, apparently coming form the same stock of sounds that many other games use.

Echelon uses a pretty standard game interface, production, orders, resources, and all the usual elements. Anyone who’s ever played an RTS game will be able to just jump right in, more than likely with only a cursory glance through the manual. New to RTS games? If that is the case then you picked a god game to learn on. The simple interface will only take a new user a short time to learn and prepare them for more challenging games to come.

So how's the game itself like? You are introduced to the three remaining species of the Ring World (the Aruthas, Eriins and Trasks). You choose which one you want to lead, through 5 missions, to victory. The missions will fit the culture, weaponry and goals of the species. In the game's favor, I will say that the AI in the game surprised me. If you get this game and expect to find it a "cakewalk" as they say (I know I did), then you are out of luck. I found it pretty challenging and it did manage to beat me on more than one occasion. Also in the game’s favor, each of the three races fights with unique tactics. But this in itself is nothing new; we have seen this before in several other games including Starcraft and KKND 2. Echelon’s gameplay includes many of the other "standard" features of RTS games. There’s resource gathering and management, defense construction, even the occasional tank/infantry rush that has come to be so familiar. On the downside, there are no training missions in the game to acquaint the player with the units; you just get dropped right into the middle of things. Also, Echelon has no multiplayer, if it had then it would greatly increase the game’s appeal.

In the grand scheme of things Echelon is a minor player. I would recommend this game only some one who is very new to the real time strategy genre and testing the waters. It is not very involved and the plot is pretty basic. It provides a good base for some one to build on before getting involved in some of the more complex games such as Total Annihilation or Starcraft.

Reviewed by Jon Eyman

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