Earth 2150
$15.95		(Win95/98/Me) (OEM) (EARTH215PO)

TopWare Interactive / SSI / Mattel

Game

Rating:

8/10 from  EuroGamer

from DailyRadar.com

9 from  GameZone Online

Your Only Safety Is on Far-Away Mars

After years of war, Earth lies in ruins. Now, it is plummeting into the Sun. Your only chance for survival is to fight your way onto a shuttle to Mars. In a deteriorating landscape with hostile weather conditions, you’ll need all your cunning and intelligence to defeat your enemies. The first all-terrain, totally immersive, real-time strategy game, Earth 2150™ has revolutionized RTS gameplay.

Earth 2150 challenges you with:

• Completely 3D landscapes, changing light, and weather effects.
• Over 45 in-depth video sequences tightly integrated into the game.
• A nonlinear mission system with 75 highly challenging missions.
• Handy 3D camera system and a sophisticated tracking system.
• Three totally different interfaces, soundtracks, and strategies.
• Multiplayer mode that supports up to 8 players.

Gamer Community Connections:
You can engage in Internet or LAN matches for up to 8 players with the multiplayer mode. An easy-to-use map editor lets you create your own mission map and post it to the Internet for immediate download. Mattel Interactive will also make a steady stream of new maps and other surprises available on the Internet.

Challenging Environments:
The completely 3D landscape demands that you take it into account as you plan your troops’ movements. Will they have to climb treacherous mountains? Build protective bulwarks? Dig entire tunnel systems? Falling bombs and hidden mines can change the entire situation in an instant. Dynamic weather effects can lay waste to large sections of the territory, and challenging day-and-night cycles will affect your strategy. You’ll want to watch the shadows change as the sun rises above the horizon or sinks lower in the sky. Be ready to rethink your strategy as you wage battle on, above, and below the Earth’s surface with a full arsenal of aircraft, tanks, robots, ships, and helicopters, or construct your own units from a choice of chassis and weapon systems.

Strategic Deployment Flexibility:
Think carefully about your next action. The 75 highly challenging missions will test your strategic capabilities. Should you search for alien artifacts or send your troops on training exercises? Create your own troop formations, change the squads and patrol areas, and call on computer generals to help perfect your campaign strategy. Over 45 in-depth video sequences give you vital information, including follow-up reports and weather forecasts. And you can keep your troops in sight at all times with the 3D camera system.

The Story

In the year 2002 a space research corporation named the LUNAR CORPORATION was founded. The company's goals, according to its brochure, were to introduce humans to the glories of space travel, to monopolize space exploration and, above all, the exploitation of space. During the crisis of 2012 - 2014, the Lunar Corporation absorbed the old NASA structure, inheriting all its patented space technology. In 2034 the company completed construction of the first city in orbit. They called it Orbital City 1. A stampede of company employees and their families fled the political and economic chaos on Earth for of the safety and security of the newly built city.

As the situation on Earth continued to deteriorate, all those who could afford to do so left. The population of Orbital 1 increased to the point where a second city was needed. Construction began in 2036, but was never completed. In 2037 the first permanent base was set up on the Moon. In 2084, when the Great War broke out on Earth, all the residents of Orbital 1 were evacuated to a city on the Moon called LUNA 1. Thereafter, the Lunar Corporation broke off all contact with Earth. Since then, it followed an independent development path. A second orbital city, Luna 2, was founded, several years later.

After several years of war, Earth lay in ruins. All authority and power centers were destroyed and the planet descended into total anarchy. The long process of restoring the old order began some years later. In America, 12 of the previous states were reorganized into the United Civilized States (UCS). In Eastern Europe and Asia, representatives of the Khan clan began building their own dynasty. This strong clan had access to post-Soviet nuclear stockpiles, which gave them a heck of a lot of weight in negotiations with their neighbors. A new country, called the Eurasian Dynasty (ED) was proclaimed soon afterwards. Both the ED and the UCS rapidly consolidated and developed their respective territories. By the year 2120, no other power on Earth could match them, and they ruled over all areas still supporting life. After years of territorial expansion it became clear that the rulers of these two empires were still power-hungry. War reared its ugly head. In the year 2147, the unavoidable war between the ED and UCS adversely affected the Earth’s solar orbit. At first the symptoms were minimal, causing only slight environmental changes.

Then the first signs of impending disaster were correctly interpreted in the year 2150 by the Lunar Corporation’s space scientists. They calculated that within the next few years the distance between the Earth and the Sun would shrink by nearly 17%, causing gravitational forces to rip open the planet’s outer crust, destroying all life forms on its surface. Now the only hope was a mass migration from Earth. But the war had forced all scientific activity into the realm of weaponry - space flight research had been almost totally ignored. But now all available resources were poured into the project. It soon became clear that the only escape route was to Mars. But settling so many people there would require enormous material resources. None of the races had the resources to do this. So they knew that not all of Earth’s inhabitants would manage to escape from the planet in time. Their response was sadly all too typical. Rather than joining forces to avoid disaster, another murderous war broke out over the few remaining resources. The heads of the Lunar Corporation soon decided to start exploring the Earth for the materials they needed. Doing this meant, of course, joining in the war......

Lunar Corporation - History

Founded in 2002, this space research corporation aims to introduce humans to space travel and to secure a monopoly over all space exploitation. During the crisis of 2012 - 2014 it absorbed the old NASA structure, inheriting all its patented space technology. In 2034 the company completed construction of the first orbiting city.

In 2035 the first permanent base on the Moon was founded. When the Great War broke out in 2084, the entire orbital city population was moved to the Moon to a newly built city, LUNA1. The Lunar Corporation then broke off all contact with the Earth, essentially becoming an independent country. A few years later, they started construction of another city, LUNA2. By 2150 the population of both cities had swollen to 233,000.

Eurasian Dynasty - History

The Eurasian Dynasty (ED) is a highly-centralized entity which has ruled the territories of Eastern Europe and Asia for generations. The present dictator, who started the war, is Tiao Thi Zhe Khan of the Khan dynasty. Pressed by ecological problems resulting from the war, and by ever-increasing levels of environmental contamination, Khan 34th, Yong Shi Khan, ordered the development of a technology allowing organic human body parts to be replaced by mechanical components.

The idea was to control population growth. Cloning centers "cyborgizing" research subjects (actually obedient citizens) soon sprang up around the country. This devilish system continued for 14 years until the rebellion of 2146. The rebels closed down the cloning institutes and the citizens of Eastern Europe and Asia returned to their former (and much more enjoyable) procreation methods.

United Civilized States - History

The United Civilized States covers the area of North and South America. At one time during the war, Western Europe and North Africa were also under UCS control, but those territories were lost in the year 2146 and have still not been regained.

The UCS is ruled by the "chaos theory". Everything here occurs randomly. The citizens themselves contribute hardly anything to their society, instead living decadent, lazy lives, dedicated only to the pursuit of physical pleasure. All the real work is done by robots. Naturally, a system like this has produced an equally stagnant political system, with government heads randomly chosen by computer.

The war between the UCS and the ED has its roots in a long-forgotten quarrel that hardly interests the UCS citizens. But it does ensure a steady stream of entertaining TV news!

Requirements:

Windows 95B/98/Me, DirectX 7.0a required Windows Media Player 6.4 or higher required Pentium II 233Mhz (PII 400 recommended) 32 MB of RAM (64MB of RAM recommended) 450 MB minimum hard disk space 3D Hardware Accelerated video card with 4MB RAM (Voodoo 1 or better) DirectX compatible sound card 4X CD-ROM required (8X CD-ROM recommended) Windows compatible mouse Multi-Player: TCP/IP, IPX, and Modem to Modem (56K or better required for modem play; Internet Service Provider required for Internet play).

Reviews:

EuroGamer by Peter Male

"The AI is fairly effective, and certainly not as stupid as we have seen in so many other strategy titles. In fact, at times the AI will put up a tremendous fight and give you a serious hiding should you fail to manage your units properly."

"The camera in Earth 2150 can be positioned in any way, and moved fluidly from one view to another. This makes it extremely useful during the many battles that will occur in the course of the game, as it allows the player to more finely position their troops."

"Earth 2150 is a great title, and thankfully its forgotten prequel won't be able to damage the reputation that this game will bring TopWare. Certainly anybody that has played and enjoyed other 3D strategy games like Warzone 2100 will find Earth 2150 an extremely fun and challenging game to play."

DailyRadar.com by Andrew S Bub

"Yes. Earth 2150 succeeds exactly where Force Commander, Wargames, Warzone 2100 and Machines failed; it has a camera and interface that make sense. Camera control is fluid, useful, intuitive and actually helpful in the game. It's easy to control your troops and pan, zoom, twist and turn to see every aspect of the battlefield, which is the saving grace for a game this complex."

GameZone Online by Michael Lafferty (7/4/00)

"Earth 2150, from SSI and TopWare Interactive, is a real-time strategy sim that may tap an overworked plot line, but still delivers with incredible graphics, fast-paced action and layers of reasoning wrapped up in a nice package."

"Earth 2150 is remarkable, challenging and enjoyable. This program demands that you look ahead and plan down the line. The immediate future may be in your reach, but what about beyond the construction. Are you prepared to be attacked or to attack? If not, the battle is over before it begins."

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