Total Annihilation Kingdoms: Iron Plague

DEVELOPER : Cavedog
PUBLISHER : GT Interactive

 

System Requirements Pentium 200, 32MB RAM

Recommended Pentium II 300MHz, 64+ MB RAM, 4 megs video card

Ratings
Code Issues Graphics: 8 The terrain still looks fabulous and the units are detailed and well animated. Audio: 7 Dreadful confirmation sounds will probably make you start killing your own units. Interface: 8 Possibly the best interface in any RTS, hampered by one (fixable) flaw.	Play Issues Solo Play: 6 - The scripted missions play well, but the AI is…well, ok, but there are no difficulty settings. Replayability: 6 - 25 missions, and 25 new maps Multiplay: 7 Learning Curve: 9
Other/Notes Documentation 5.0 – You got one with Kingdoms,  waddaya need another one for? Pros: If you liked the original, you get a significant addition for $20. Cons: Awful unit sounds, perhaps the worst since Resident Evil. If you didn’t like the original, why the hell would you buy the expansion? Overall: 7.0

One fateful day about three years ago I went to my local computer store with one of my friends. I bought a cool looking game called Total Annihilation. My friend bought a LAN kit to use at my house, (since my wife and I each had a computer). My life was forever changed that day. Virtually every weekend since then has featured some sort of LAN party and for about a year TA was the game of choice. We were constantly adding new map sets and new 3rd party units. And the game got better and better. When TA: Kingdoms was announced our anticipation started building. Unfortunately TAK was a bit of an underachiever compared to its big brother.

Although TA:K was a fun game, it never really caught on the way the original TA did for several reasons. Many people had serious issues with frame rates bogging down during large battles. The skirmish AI was hopeless, and even 4 computer players had no chance against a human. Even moving units was an exercise in frustration, because a 'move order' was essentially a forced march order, and moving units would not fight any enemies they encountered. TA:K also suffered from some serious play imbalances, and the subsequent patch alleviated some issues, but created new problems. All of these factors combined to prevent Kingdoms from achieving the greatness of its predecessor.

However despite Kingdoms shortcomings, it was a fun game. The story was interesting and Cavedog's online service, (Boneyards) was well set up and offered a good place to meet opponents. And although Kingdom's stint on the LAN was short lived, I spent many hours inflicting crushing defeats upon the enemies of Taros via the Boneyards ladder. And to their credit, Cavedog's 2.0 patch fixed many of the games problems, especially the performance issues. And enterprising individuals could edit a keys file to create an attack-move command, and to set up 'double click' selecting.

The Iron Plague is the first, and last official expansion for TA:K, as Cavedog is in it's death throes. In a nutshell, the Iron Plague picks up after the great war represented in TA:K. Apparently, Garricaius, the missing father of the four warring monarchs, renounced magic, and headed deep into the wilderness to carve out a new kind of kingdom. This kingdom, Creon, is based on technology instead of on magic. The first two scenarios set up the series of events that brings the mighty kingdom of Creon into conflict with the other kingdoms.

For your $20 Iron Plague includes a twenty-five mission campaign based on the conflict between Creon and the other four Kingdoms. It also includes the version 2.0 patch and the Darrien Crusades, (also available form Cavedog). The campaign missions are considerably more challenging than the original, and there is no difficulty setting, so if you get struck, it is back to skirmish mode. The new maps are good, but there are not any new tilesets, so it looks like more of the same. Cavedog does deserve commendation for the 2.0 patch, as it significantly improves game performance, even at much higher resolutions. The new version will automatically scale down the various detail levels to maintain a reasonable frame rate. There is even a 'Kenny" mode, that does away with unit animations for drastically underpowered systems. But the best thing about Iron Plague is the addition of a fifth playable race, Creon.

The units of Creon are a cool combination of industrial primitive technology. The footsoldier is an automaton wielding dual hammers. Supporting them are war wagons with a flame throwing machine and turtles that look like the original DaVinci tanks. Further up the tech tree are triceratops with cannons, mechanical dragons, and lightning rifle troops. Defensive units include a gattling crossbow tower, a bomb sprinkler and solar laser. But by far the coolest units are those in the Creon navy. The second scenario puts you up against these fearsome vessels. Ironclads, and armored stern wheelers wreak havoc with wooden ships. And mortar armed submarines offer the chance to bombard enemy emplacements deep inland. The boats look great and are really very nasty to go up against.

Creon's ground forces do suffer from a lack of infantry and cavalry. All but one of their units are ranged attackers, and only the mechanical dragons are fast. Although the ranged units can inflict a fearsome toll on slow ground units, cavalry and catapults prove difficult to counter. I suffered excessively from Verunan catapults and also versus Aramon's horseman and knights. Another melee unit higher up the tech tree would help keep enemies off fragile ranged units, and a fast melee unit would do wonders to shore up the counter punch ability, particularly versus artillery.

One shortcoming that must be mentioned are the unit sound effects. They are terrible. I have to believe that someone, somewhere, determined that it was ok to skimp on paying real actors, and just used the people around the office for the unit acknowledgements. This is an error that will grate on your nerves any time you play Creon. The basic construction unit, the engineer, whines in a nasally voice, "Do you know how heavy this thing is", and the automatons sound like Cylons. Some of the sounds are good, like the ratcheting sound of the scout flying machine, but most are pathetic.

It is worth mentioning that the AI has been significantly improved from the original, where it was virtually non existent. It is still no match one on one against a decent player. However, I did get beat by two opponents teamed up against me, and lost a four player free for all. Playing online is still your best bet for meeting worthy opponents, and Boneyards makes it easy to do that, even if you are stuck with a stone age dial up ISP. But at least now there is a little challenge in skirmish mode. Not a lot, but some.

Overall, if you like Kingdoms, then Iron Plague is a worthy add on for a nice low price. If you purchased Kingdoms and didn't like it, the improvements in version 2.0 might make you like it a bit more. Download the patch and then see what you think. And if you hated Kingdoms to begin with, go out and buy something else.