Planetary Annihilation

Normally, when a game is launched, it's to fanfare and celebration, though that's not always the way it works out, and this is a case in point. There have been voices from within the Planetary Annihilation community suggesting that the game isn't ready for a full release, with concerns regarding stability and single-player modes that are tied to an always-on connection.  

The lack of offline play is troubling, and we hoped that this feature would be part of the final build. It's not, and so you're reliant on external servers, and you can't access single-player content unless you're online (something that didn't go down well when SimCity released last year, if you remember). The client is also a little unstable, and we experienced more than one crash (the whole system, and to desktop), and on some of the larger-scale matches the framerate drops to a crawl, even with the graphics toned down; it doesn't feel fully optimised yet. 

Issues like this would normally totally overshadow the launch of a new title, and while our enthusiasm was dampened a little, there wasn't enough problems to ruin our enjoyment. When it's working, Planetary Annihilation is a wonderful sandbox of real-time strategic possibility. It offers a take on futuristic war that's played out on an unprecedented scale, so much so it's almost dizzying in the breadth of its scope. Where other RTS games typically give you a small square patch of land to squabble over, here you're battling across whole planets, and you're doing so with a truly impressive collection of tools at your disposal.

Players control a Commander, a robotic entity upon which all success hinges. Lose it and lose the match. Commanders build bases on planets, themselves orbiting stars in fully-formed solar systems. Huge armies roll into explosive battles, there's orbital strikes, nukes, and you can even smash moons into planets for devastating effect. The selection of options open to the player is pleasing to say the least, and even though many of our battles were settled early on, it's exciting to know what possibilities are potentially lurking around the corner.

The battles take place in real-time, and there's as much base-building here as there is fighting. It's an arms race, and early game construction requires a streamlined approach to stay competitive in the mid to late-game. Knowing which buildings to drop first, and in which order, and the ins and outs of the economy, is utterly essential. The Commander makes standard factories, these can then make fabricator units, units that go on to make more advanced factories, which in turn make better units.  

Frustratingly, Uber Entertainment doesn't really tell the player any of this. There's nothing in the way of a tutorial, except for a YouTube video that doesn't explain much of anything. At least they linked to player-made videos, so the information is available, but they're over-relying on the community here. The game needs a playable tutorial, such is the level of depth and complexity. 

However, once the basics have been grasped, there's strategical and tactical options aplenty. Units are split between bots, air, land and, when the need arises, naval. There's a variety of planet types (including one that looks remarkably like a Death Star), and often battles take place between forces based in different parts of a system, which means aggressive expansion across multiple planets, with each Commander making a claim for the resources needed to expand further. It's unrelenting, and as previously mentioned, success rests on a robust economy. You can never rest on your laurels, and failure to expand rapidly will usually result in defeat.

There's currently three modes on offer. Online battles are between human players, usually on multiple planets, and are either free-for-all affairs or played in teams. We didn't have trouble getting games when we tried, although more could be done on explaining the different options, perhaps via tooltips or something like that.

The skirmish mode is similar. The player can pick the battleground, the difficulty and so on, and go into battle against the AI whilst packing a decent range of tactical options. You can even create your own systems via the editor feature. Playing against the AI was surprisingly tough (though, we should add in the spirit of disclosure, we're not the world's greatest real-time general), and the computer-controlled forces move through the gears at alarming speed. Scouting an enemy early is crucial, and responding to your opponents is equally important.

Finally there's the Galactic War campaign, which is actually a little milder when it comes difficulty. Here players have a barebones spread of tactical options, and as they search new systems, tech is learned that dictates the armies that can be built in subsequent battles. To start with there's three slots where, for example, efficiency, tank and air-focused techs can be stored; with a build like that you'll make certain units more efficiently, and start the match equipped with the options to develop your army into a fleet of tanks with aerial support. Defeating an enemy or searching an uninhabited system yields up a new tech skill, and then decisions must be made as to which techs occupy the three slots.

The campaign has a roguelike element with procedurally-generated galaxies, and commanders have only one life which adds tension to each encounter. The only thing that's missing is a story-driven campaign, though perhaps we'd feel differently had the Galactic War come with a stronger narrative through-line to hold it together. It might not be the easiest thing to thread a story into a campaign of this sort, but there's certainly ways that they could have given this mode more personality. That said, we liked it, and found ourselves gravitating towards it over the the AI skirmishes.

There's an in-game store that currently includes a selection of additional Commander units as developed in conjunction with some players who backed the game when it went through Kickstarter.

Visually there's a lot going on, but for the most part all the information you need is communicated via an effective and simple aesthetic. As the planets are fully spherical, navigating the battlefield can be a challenge, especially when it's populated by literally hundreds of units, but the control scheme is solid, and it's straight forward to snap between flash points, even if they're on different planets. It's easy to work out what's happening when looking directly at the action, but from further away the units are replaced by icons, and distance can make it hard to read what's going on. 

There's a huge range of possibilities here, and in terms of strategy sandboxes, we can't think of a similar title with more potential. There's a plethora of different directions you can build an army, and fans of real-time strategy will no doubt enjoy the wealth of options. Praise must also be lavished on the orchestral soundtrack, which was added as part of a Kickstarter stretch-goal, because it's magnificent and really layers in the atmosphere.

However, despite some undeniable positives, the omission of an offline mode and the missing tutorials are obvious problems that need to be rectified. Fans of Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation will feel at home here as those games have much in common with what's here. Having said that, newcomers will likely find it daunting, such is the scale of the game, and not enough is done to ease these players into the game. It feels very much like this has been built for the people who backed it on Kickstarter, which to an extent is true, but now with the game being labelled as finished, Uber needs to address the fact that people will be drawn to their game thanks to the enticing premise. If they're to keep these new players happy, they'll need to do more to make it accessible.

The scale and the ambition of Planetary Annihilation is to be admired, and while we're certainly impressed with what we've seen, our recommendation comes with a side-order of caution; it's a very good work-in-progress, but perhaps it's not quite finished just yet.