4-Aug-2003 Keith Pullin plays cowboys and indians in an RTS of many faces
If someone told you German developer Related Designs was about to release a strategy game that looked as gorgeous as Age Of Mythology and played like a cross between Warcraft III and Commandos, your initial reaction would probably be: "who?" and "yeah, right."
It's hard not to be sceptical when such lofty claims are wafted about on a heady summer breeze - we certainly had our doubts - but that was before we got the preview code. Now, after a weekend befriending Native Americans, ambushing the Spanish navy and building railroads with American settlers, we can confidently state that No Man's Land: Fight For Your Rights stands every chance of ranking among the best the genre has to offer.
Granted, it may not possess the most catchiest of titles (Fight For Your Rights indeed - is this some kind of ploy to attract RTS-loving hip-hoppers?), but what it may lack in snappy subtitles, it makes up for in enterprising game design.
Mythological Railways No Man's Land covers 300 years of American history from the discovery of the New World through to the construction of the transcontinental railroad. There are three campaigns to get stuck into featuring six cultures, each boasting well over a dozen unique unit types and at least one playable 'star' personality that the story is based around.
Choose the first campaign for example, and you partake in grim territorial battles between the ruthless, all-conquering Spanish led by the brutal Carvinez and the peaceful, spiritual Indians guided by tribal leader Umak. It's fairly straightforward RTS stuff - gather some wood, gold and food, before amassing a terrible army to wipe out those pilfering Spaniards.
Select the second and third scenarios and the game leaves the wilds of the South American jungle to focus on the cutthroat business of creating profitable railroad companies in the fledgling US of A. To do that successfully you need to encroach on Native American soil and that doesn't always go down too well. It's Railroad Tycoon meets Age Of Mythology. Very weird, but compelling stuff.
A Bolt From The Blue While it's true that the game is based on historical fact, Related Designs has gone to great lengths to focus on entertainment rather than education. As MD Burkhard Ratheiser points out: "No Man's Land is historically accurate, but only aesthetically. It's not like a history book, and we certainly don't want to give gamers a lesson in American history. It's just a fictitious story set amid a historical background."
NML boasts all the natural geographical beauty of the era in full 3D, but doesn't bother with real names, dates, places and so on. Good job too, as the last thing we need is another deadpan period drama based on the conquest of the Americas.
This loose guide-rope also gives the developer plenty of artistic freedom; the two Native American cultures, for example, have magical abilities. Tribal shamans can call upon earthly spirits to protect them, summoning bears, wolves and other bestial guardians. They can also harness more destructive powers like fireballs. Surround a colonial fortress with a few angry shamans and those dirty land-grabbing white devils soon know what they've let themselves in for.
The Spanish and the British have their own trump card - ships. Bloody big ones, and lots of them. These cannon ball-spewing behemoths can annihilate Indian kayaks in no time and so, as a naval force, the invading Spaniards and Brits are simply untouchable.
Great White Hope NML is an equal opportunities destroyer though - every culture has its advantages and disadvantages. It bodes well for the LAN/Internet multiplayer mode, and from playing it with the developers we found the balance to be pretty good. Indeed, one of the most enjoyable gameplay elements we came across was the Native Americans' unique capacity to dive into the ocean, swim down unnoticed to the underside of a galleon and then cut a hole in the hull to sabotage it. Sharks can cause a slight problem, however, and the amount of times our eager beavers became Great White lunches defies belief.
Little touches like this crop up liberally, and what's even more impressive is the way certain single player levels take on a distinctly stealthy tone. Again, the influence is there for all to see - in this mood the game is Commandos, pure and simple, something Burkhard freely admits: "In No Man's Land there's a little bit of everything!"
Well, we won't argue with you there.
NML is virtually complete bar a few tweaks and hopefully we'll have the review next month. So, until then dig out all the games we've mentioned above, play them again and imagine all the best bits in one tidy little package. Now, wouldn't that would be something? See, we told you...
One of the more novel features of NML is the way you can create counter-upgrades - sneaky devices that disrupt your opponent's upgrades and production facilities. These must be researched first and can only be used by specific elite units, but can be used to devastating effect. There is a catch, however, as if you use them in a multiplayer game they affect everybody on the map - even any allies you might have. So, before embarking upon the joys of counter-upgrades, make sure you're good friends with your allies, otherwise things could get uglier than an ugly fish in a plastic sturgeon's waiting room.
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