Earth 2160 Review

Earth 2160 is the follow up to Earth 2150 which told the story of three human factions that survived the destruction of Earth and escaped to the planet Mars. In the year 2160 however, a new faction appeared on the Red Planet sending each faction on a question for supremacy of Mars and the outer reaches of the solar system

Storyline/Game Play

Earth 2160 features two single player modes and four multiplayer modes where you'll be able to take battles online. The single player campaign actually includes four separate campaign, one for each faction, and the skirmish mode allows you to battle up to eight computer operated opponents.

Each of the campaigns are quite long with 25 missions and unfortunately tend to become a bit tedious to downright boring. The storyline is not very engaging and is hampered by how drawn out and "event driven" everything seems to be. With 10 different maps and a map editor there is fun to be had in the skirmish and multiplayer modes. The mutliplayer mode is run through EarthNet or via LAN setup.

The game play and features for Earth 2160 are very good, there was an awful lot of detail in the mechanics of game play making civilization management fluid and easy to control. One feature included in Earth 2160's game play is a picture in picture ability that enables you to open up a small window that displays another part of the game map. This feature is an excellent notion especially for RTS games where there's so much going on at once.

The four factions are all quite unique and there's a huge variety their units and buildings. This is evident even before you install the game, the tech tree poster included shows literally dozens of units for each faction. This complexity does take some time to pick up and is best practiced in skirmish mode rather due to the slow moving campaigns.

Graphics/Audio

The graphics for Earth 2160 are quite good, with nice detailed shading and lighting effects along with good character models. There's a large number of units and each one has been designed well and look unique. Battles can include dozens, even hundreds of units and the game engine handles all of this, rendering superbly, with realistic explosions, vehicle effects and movement.

Audio effects and dialog of Earth 2160 is anything but impressive. The dialog and voice acting between characters in the single player campaign is unrealistic and annoying to the point where you may be inclined to play with the volume off. Sound effects of weapons and explosions are also a disappointment, with tracks sounding as if they came from a Hollywood B movie.

Bottom Line

Earth 2160 will most likely be a hit with fans of the previous titles (Earth 2140 and Earth 2150) and overall it has some great game play features and terrific graphics. However, it is bogged down by a boring, un engaging single player campaign and very average audio and sound effects. Skirmish and multiplayer game modes do offer a better option for fun, but be prepared for a steep learning curve in regards to all of the faction units, buildings and unique features.