As well as building an army of troops, tanks, planes and boats, you also have to consider the orbital theatre. It adds another level of warfare to the fight. The joy of having a whole solar system to skirmish in is clear.
This, at least, gave me some choice over which planet I was murdered on. After a go at the Galactic Campaign I just went straight to Skirmish Mode if I wanted to fight against the computer. It’s just a list of battles with a lucky dip thrown in. In essence, it is only a randomised set of fights on a ‘world map’ that can be uncovered as you go. But this game mode is almost an afterthought. The single-player Galactic Campaign sees you bouncing from one system to another, collecting tech upgrades (advanced units, increased damage, etc) and fighting through strongholds of enemies. When he dies (in a spectacular nuclear blast caused by his damaged core) you will lose. At all costs, you must keep your Commander alive. Now, use your Commander to build up your forces and economy in the traditional RTS fashion. It has to be, for the speed you will be playing at. The camera zooms out smoothly to take in the whole picture and transferring focus between planets is a cinch. These are planets in the Super Mario Galaxy sense, where it only takes a few minutes to circumnavigate the world. Each match is played in a solar system, often containing more than one planet. The game itself has some wonderful gimmickry. You get a sense, as you fire up another doomed match, that the developers aren’t just making a game, they’re creating a spectator sport. The ‘Chrono Cam’ allows you to play back your match from any perspective and there are servers full of recordings of multiplayer skirmishes. Stuff like “Tips to become a better PA player” and so on. It is purpose-built for Twitch (the game has keyboard shortcuts to begin broadcasting) and the main menu is a hub of popular YouTube videos related to the game. Along comes Planetary Annihilation, fresh out of Kickstarter, looking to get a piece of the action.
StarCraft 2 bestrides the world like an esports colossus, with one foot in Townsville, America and the other in the Cybertopian Republic of South Korea. Because I am a frail, fleshy human being whose idea of multi-tasking is using a fork AND a knife at the dinner table. It is a brilliant, ludicrous RTS and I will probably never try to play it again. Just a deathly, speedy logic and a finger that clicks like a woodpecker’s beak. A cold, cybernetically enhanced supercomputer capable of thousands of thoughts per nanosecond. Planetary Annihilation is best enjoyed if you are a robot.
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