Total Annihilation

[Lyinginbedmon]

This is a game that I played many years ago, and it's a real classic as far as I'm concerned.

Total Annihilation is set in the distant future, during a civil war in humanity between the Core (Transhumanist cyborgs) and Arm (Humanist rebels) forces. You play as the commander of a force on one side or the other with an array of units at your disposal from various construction buildings, each of which can be upgraded into an Advanced form, and your chief resources are metal and energy, both of which can be harvested from your environment (Including metal from the remains of fallen comrades & enemies).

Of course it's an old game so the graphics aren't exactly amazing, but the gameplay remains pretty solid. My one legitimate complaint really is that computer AI during campaign mode at least, it seems to toy with you occasionally and definitely decides to overwhelm you if it can regardless of how far into the match you are. (Darn that AI with it's dozens of Warlord battleships...dang harbour)

Total Annihilation was made by Cavedog, also responsible for Total Annihilation: Kingdoms (A fantasy-style reimagining) and several expansions for both. While Cavedog was short-lived as far as games developers go, it made some real classics in my opinion, and you can now happily download Total Annihilation for little if any cash on a variety of sites online.

I will warn you though, the cheats don't work in campaign mode, even against the malicious cheating Core forces

[Ergo]

I freakin' loved Total Annihilation.

There's actually a remake of TA around called Spring - although it seems to have become an engine for a number of fan-made projects now (TA-derived and otherwise). I haven't actually tried it myself, but it looks pretty snazzy.

Not sure if you're aware of this, but after Cavedog disappeared Chris Taylor (who designed TA) went on to found Gas Powered Games, who then made Supreme Commander - the "spiritual successor" to TA. I liked SC, but I didn't find it as fun as TA (especially in multiplayer, where TA came into its own.)

Having said that I'm pretty pumped for Supreme Commander 2 - it looks like it fixes the gripes I had with the original, and then some.

Anyway, back on topic; Total Annihilation rocked. Nothing quite like crushing your mates with an army of Krogoths (Core Contingency). And the nuke/anti-nuke battles - good grief; they were epic.

[Smeghead]

Didn't one of the sides have a huge cannon as their final structure that could fire fonstantly and reach almost across the entire map? or am I thinking of some other game

[Ergo]

Yeah that's definitely Total Annihilation. That cannon could only reach all the way across the smaller maps though (thankfully).

Most games I played were on the largest maps where the artillery was generally a front-line support offense/defense weapon. Thankfully you could ban whichever structures/units you wanted for any given game, which made the smaller maps more playable (in my opinion anyway).

[Metcarfre]

I loved that game. I would just play random maps with computer enemies. Fun times abounded when I would just turtle and then build the giant mecha, have my air force circle around it as it slowly stomped through all the enemy forces and destroyed their base.

Plus, it worked on Mac (which is pretty much the only reason I got to play it).

[Lyinginbedmon]

This campaign AI in Larab Harbour is getting seriously annoying. I'd almost swear Cavedog made a malicious and vindictive form of human-esque artificial intelligence.

[Machalllewis]

You play as the commander of a force on one side or the other with an array of units at your disposal from various construction buildings, each of which can be upgraded into an Advanced form.

Can I just say that this describes every RTS ever.

EVER!

[Lyinginbedmon]

You play as the commander of a force on one side or the other with an array of units at your disposal from various construction buildings, each of which can be upgraded into an Advanced form.

Can I just say that this describes every RTS ever.

EVER!

Not exactly.

In TA, you build the initial form and then the constructor from it can build the advanced form elsewhere.
In Warcraft, you upgrade the building itself
In Starcraft, you upgrade the building itself (If Zerg), add expansions (If Terran) or build more advanced versions (If Protoss)

Different RTS' have different methods.


Urrgh hate this AI so much! I'm in #7 of ~30 missions and I'm getting dozens of Warlords getting hurled at me?!

[Lyinginbedmon]

Haha! Beat Larab Harbour! Am currently sweeping the map clear of Core forces in mission #8 with relative ease!

This is why difficult games exist. For the exhilarating high you get when you actually beat them.

[The R]

Oh my god, yes Total Annihilation.

Back in summer 2004 a friend of mine introduced me to this 1997 masterpiece of a game and it almost took over my life for the rest of that year. Out of every RTS I ever played, this had them all beat by miles.

There was just so much awesome, especially the soundtrack... there are very few battle themes that compare to TA's, especially "The March Unto Death".

Although the online play was a bit unbalanced to say the least, I still had loads of fun with it back on Microsoft ZONE and the gamespy thingy. I think I still have some old .TAD's (Total Annihilation Demo Recorder Files) from back when I played online. I think I went under "SuperSonikElektronik" & "BossSavage" back then.

But, yes even though it was a total resource-sink the Krogoth with +target all was the greatest thing ever.... like having your own mecha-godzilla that would end with a massive explosion. Also as cheap as it sounds, the BIG BERTHA long-range artillery cannons were the ultimate "HAHAHAH SHELLING YOU FROM AFAR, SCREW YOUR PUNY BASE" weapon. Glorious.