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All three campaigns for all three games? That there's a lot of content you're promising us, axeil! I got into E2150 late with Lost Souls, and later tried the Moon Project. The oppressive atmosphere of Lost Souls, and the grim feel in general, got to me and I never finished either game. I did have a lot of fun with Moon Project's skirmish mode, though. General belief among the fanbase when MP/LS were released was that the Eurasian Dynasty were heavily overpowered thanks to the instant-kill-on-overheat mechanic for lasers, and the way their basic cannons could ignore the other factions' shields. I'll be interested to see if that bears out over the campaigns themselves. One thing I do remember is that the game could never keep straight just what was happening to Earth. The in-game events and text implied the Earth has been knocked into an orbit closer to the sun, and this will make the surface too hot to be inhabitable. That's just about plausible but then...well, we'll see. Things get melodramatic.
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Dec 21, 2012 16:03
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 22:59 |
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.png) I'm going to vote UCS for the simple and pragmatic reason that I like mechs, especially mechs with plasma cannons, even if we are some way off from Moon Project's massed air-plasma hilarity.
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Jan 6, 2013 16:16
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I am genuinely torn. I shall vote UCS so we can see the other half of what was going on. Then we can finish E2150 on a high note with the ED, and move on to Moon Project. This also means we won't be doing UCS stuff back-to-back when we get there. (I've always felt the three games have a roughly one-faction-centric approach to their plots. E2150 is the LC's game, Moon Project is the UCS's game, and Lost Souls is all about the ED)
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Jan 22, 2013 03:15
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Yeah, the exploding planet is a little odd. The manual text says Earth will simply be uninhabitable in its new orbit, but I guess the cutscene artists went for maximum drama. I've been replaying Moon Project to get back into the vibe. Ye Gods it's hard!
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Jan 22, 2013 17:09
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E2150 has some very tasty faction differences like this. Building and harvesting is vastly different between the three sides. I wish more games did this; the only real comparator is Starcraft, and 2150 goes further than that. Later patches and games gave the LC powerplant a power radius to resolve MP balance problems and prevent tower spam. This rather hurt their uniqueness, alas. The UCS are a rolling juggernaut faction. Their starting units are dire and don't get better, although the Tiger is the better of the starting units raw stats-wise. It just has terrible guns. Once the plasma comes out, Tigers become a lot more scary. They're credible late-game scouts and raiders. Later UCS chassis designs can hold absurd amounts of firepower, and UCS heavy weapon mounts have a lot of submounts. Their air force is likewise excellent, and their lategame navy is similarly dangerous even if you only see it in skirmishes. UCS in 2150 are a bit weaker as they lack the powerful utility and support units they get in later games, like plasma AA or the mobile cloaking generators that can hide your entire army. But the way massed plasma volleys just erase the enemy has to be seen to be believed.
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Jan 27, 2013 11:50
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Ah yes, that now-forgotten age just after the release of the original Command and Conquer, when everyone and their dog tried to write an RTS. Dozens of them were released and swiftly forgotten, and now only lurk in the depths of abandonware sites or obscure Mobygames pages.
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Jan 29, 2013 23:52
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E2150 has some...issues with units around building construction. I've been replaying and just lost my entire air force as LC, because they all queued up patiently outside my supply centre to reload their rockets and got crushed by a descending building. Something that comes through a little in that battle video is how incredibly whiny the units in this game are. It's not too bad in the UCS as the "under fire" reports are mechanical and monotone, but there's still a lot of them. For the other two factions you can really start to get pissed off by the constant mid-battle cries of "NYET comrade!", or "Mayday! Can anyone hear me?" or worst of all "Oh Goddess! Where are you?" Comms discipline, people! Learn it, live it! Also the Moon Project ED units that sass you for giving them orders. We're a brutal fascist dictatorship! Have those drivers SHOT!
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Jan 30, 2013 18:24
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I've been waiting for this little charmer to show up. Heh. Heh. Heh. One day I will find the level designer and murder him in his sleep.
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Feb 3, 2013 01:26
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3 1 2. Teleporter, then super-unit, then sweet glorious revenge. The UCS always have a tough start, but once they get up and running...
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Feb 5, 2013 19:15
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Yay Grizzlies! And plasma weapons! Finally the UCS campaign stops being about sneaking around and starts being about massive energy-weapon death. I believe one of the reason Grizzlies are so awesome is that their heavy mount uses a building weapon, rather than a unit heavy weapon. This will become more important in Moon Project, so I'll discuss it further then. Likewise the Spider gets better once there are more utility mounts to put on it, but even in vanilla 2150 it can be used to form that strange UCS sight, a rapid-reaction battlefield repair force.
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Feb 7, 2013 15:14
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quote:Oddly, the game doesn't identify the UCS Heavy Rocket Launcher as a heavy weapon. Which is why you can mount it on top of advanced plasma cannons, for absurdly overpowered lategame units. Also fun - putting shadow generators on top of advanced plasma cannons. Oh, and on the NEO point...I did like what they do with him later. Mwee hee hee.
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Feb 17, 2013 04:36
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Shields in vanilla E2150 work differently to the expandalones. They were considered heavily overpowered in the original.
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Feb 18, 2013 22:31
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The New York map has a battered Statue of Liberty. Speaking of which, I was playing around in the skirmish mode and greatly appreciate the UCS flying harvesters. They can be merrily mining away at distant ore fields and move quickly enough to give you a solid income stream. They give the UCS a huge advantage on island maps. It's covered a bit more in the manuals, but UCS officials are chosen by lottery. This is supposedly to prevent the "entrenched politics" that caused WW3.
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Feb 22, 2013 09:33
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The differing faction attitudes to their evacuation ships is actually a neat little plot point. Later 2150 titles and 2160 build on it further. Yes, the UCS solution is to save everybody and build a gigantic spaceship to do so with. Stocked with AIs, robot servants, robot armies, and flat-packed infrastructure for the new world. And shyeah, those guns are for meteors. Suuuuuuuure. We haven't seen the ED approach yet, but it's rather less nice. What's interesting is that the cutscene implies the LC are the last to leave.
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Feb 24, 2013 02:18
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Yes, after all the high-tech zappy guns, we'll be off to the most conventional faction with the biggest horde armies. Although the start is still tough; the ED artillery isn't in vanilla 2150 and their starting tank dies to a kitten's stare. It'll be amazing. We'll have to actually care about supply units. Edit: As we wave goodbye to the UCS campaign, I note the writing wasn't anywhere near as fun as the LC briefings...and the ED campaign is a riot. Fortunately the dev team took this on board. The UCS are a lot more fun in Moon Project, oh yes...
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Feb 24, 2013 23:02
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The UCS are, if a little chilling at times, not actively malevolent. They took everybody they could. They're written to be a lot more entertaining in Moon Project. Your briefing officer in particular is a riot in MP... Now we're off to the ED, where things are...rather different.
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Feb 27, 2013 03:21
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Mr Toes posted:Also, the voice acting sucked. E2160 went off my purchase list the moment I watched a gameplay video that showed the shiny all-American rear end-kicking...Eurasian Dynasty characters. What the gently caress happened?
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Feb 28, 2013 18:12
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The other factions have ammo, but are much less likely to use ammo-hungry weapons as primaries. The UCS only really use their rockets as backup, and the LC barely touch ammo-using weapons.
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Mar 2, 2013 09:11
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It's the standard campaign failure cutscene.
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Mar 2, 2013 21:10
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That War theme is what sold me the game, way back when. And holy crap, I only just now realised what the series was doing with this map!
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Mar 3, 2013 19:08
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Boats will be about the only thing with heavies right now. This should be Interesting. The ED have a tough time on the water. UCS plasmaboats are devastating, on the rare occasion the answer isn't just Send More Gargoyles.
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Mar 27, 2013 09:28
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It's a nasty surprise to suddenly have to care about supply, isn't it? The UCS only really need to top up their rockets after major battles (unless you went heavily for 120mm cannon mechs, and who does that?). The LC consider supply transport postings to be pleasant sightseeing holidays. But the ED...
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Apr 5, 2013 08:58
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I can't help but note that it's only now we qualify for a ticket on the evacuation ships. The ED are leaving a lot of people behind...
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May 4, 2013 22:16
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Go hit Area 51. If you keep doing resource missions you'll finish the campaign.
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May 16, 2013 20:00
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I'll be glad when you get on to the Moon Project campaign (and not just for the Best UCS Briefing Officer Ever). The problem with the weirdly-long ED campaign is that it overstays its welcome considerably, and the way the tech tree is stretched out to keep giving you things to research gets very boring.
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Aug 31, 2013 22:02
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Because of the way the Moon Project's plot works, UCS! The ED campaign in Moon Project is completely different to the other two and more of a side-joke thing.
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Sep 27, 2013 21:10
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Watching all the outros back to back gives a rough chronology for the factions' departure. The ED leave early, with an impressive "fleet" that only saves a few thousand people, and the Earth is battered but not gone. The UCS wait longer to finish their own massive evacuation ship that carries millions, and by their departure time the Earth's surface is largely molten. The LC strangely leave last, and in their outro the Earth is a glowing fireball that breaks apart behind them. This is all reading way too much into a few FMVs, of course, but I like things to be neat. To space! The Moon Project UCS campaign is much, much better than the original one, and we're about to find out why...
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Oct 12, 2013 22:43
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Aaaand it's Crazy AI Loyalist NEO at last! This guy is hilarious. Presumably the other UCS AIs shunted him off to the moon to keep him as far away from them as possible. Moon Project and Lost Souls do some weird things with research. The Harvester quirk persists in skirmish games and is, yes, likely to be a bug. I think it was actually introduced in one of the patches, since I don't remember seeing this when running Moon Project for the first time.
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Oct 15, 2013 09:38
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I believe I've mentioned the incident I had once when all my LC bombers lined up outside my supply platform for rearming...and a main base landed on them. The lifter mission is hilarious, but the Fat Girl ruined the Lunar Corporation for me. It was the only unit anyone ever built in multiplayer, and the AI pretty much exclusively builds them too. Why bother climbing the tech tree to heavy weapons when you can rush out a four-electrocannon Fat Girl before anyone else can get anti-stun hardware on the field? Sure, they fold if you hit them hard...but they eat the other factions' light units for breakfast and can roll over your base long before you can get Urals or Panthers out. The game became an endless sea of Fat Girls, stretching from horizon to horizon.
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Feb 4, 2014 13:09
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I've only been warning about this very mission in spoiler tags since day one, y'know... Do it the hilarious way. It's how all the FAQs tell you to do it, even before the infinite-power patch came out.
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Feb 6, 2014 19:39
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They give the LC a powerplant that isn't dependent on the day/night cycle. The mission descriptions say you have to put the Zyrex plants in special "platinum-rich" craters, but in skirmish missions you can put them anywhere.
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Feb 23, 2014 18:07
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Ah, the utterly loving batshit portion of this game. The real treat comes when you get your first promotion...
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Jun 27, 2014 18:41
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Yeah, those cutscenes are something special. The dark-robed emperor has appeared on and off in E2150 material for a while now, in manual photos and the like, so yes that is supposed to be our beloved Great Khan. Our character, though. Oh yes. That is some poor out-of-work actor left destitute by the fall of the USSR, giving his all for one last role... EDIT: Rewatching it, I remember loving that guy who manfully strides past the camera in the opening camera pan. Dynasty staff officers must heroically strut at all times when in Headquarters, comrades!
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Jun 28, 2014 13:57
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He speaks the truth. Lost Souls assumes you already beat games 1 and 2. I didn't even get past the fifth mission.
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Dec 7, 2014 19:56
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Yeah, this is where Lost Souls just joyfully leaps into a great steaming sea of bullshit. Look at that screenshot. Sixteen bombers. In your base. Without warning. I can only conclude the developers (a) thought everyone had finished games 1 and 2, so they must be able to beat the AI with their eyes shut, or (b) were only hearing feedback from the craziest of grogs and elitest of multiplayer champions. Lost Souls' extra units are fun in MP and skirmish, but the campaign is just dreadful.
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Dec 20, 2014 22:48
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Some interesting notes about Lost Souls' spawning bollocks! Firstly, the spawns-at-the-enemy-base are actually an attempt to give the enemy something to match the player's off-map HQ. The AI does have a main base somewhere in the game logic, and ships units to and from landing zones. AND it gets mission-based free spawns atop that (like the 16 bombers). I have no idea if the off-map production is timed to actual unit production stats, or if the dev team just said "gently caress it". The other reason for the spawns is that the Lost Souls AI was programmed to be much, much more aggressive than the previous two games. It will regularly build large attack forces and use them. This has the unwanted side-effect of making the AI mine itself out very quickly. We saw back in Moon Project how often a mission could be won by sitting on your resource patch and waiting for the AI to try and mine from it - the free units are a somewhat misguided attempt to keep the AI in the fight by ensuring it always has units to throw at you.
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Dec 24, 2014 08:29
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The robots care about the human population of the UCS...
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Dec 26, 2014 13:50
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Given the UCS ship is an immense warp-capable saucer explicitly shown to have a ring of plasma cannons...it would be a short but amusing battle.
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Dec 27, 2014 22:31
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my dad posted:Yeah, one laser zap would overload a plasma cannon, and the chain reaction would blow the whole ship up. Having checked the relevant cutscene, the UCS mothership actually appears to be armed with stolen ED lasers. Tricksy robots.
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Dec 27, 2014 22:52
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 22:59 |
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In practice, the unit lights are very useful for helping you pick them out from the landscape. E2150 is one of the few games where camo and not using lights at night can actually be worth something!
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Jan 2, 2015 20:33
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