872nd played so far

Genre: Strategy
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 1997
Developer: Cavedog Entertainment
Publisher: GT Interactive Software

I vaguely remember playing Total Annihilation with friends, in an era where Warcraft dominated the RTS conversation at school. Aside from the futuristic setting – Command & Conquer had that – there was something about the 3D graphics, and I believe the upgrades that were possible impressed me too. I’m expecting something that hasn’t aged as well, but I’m still excited about finally giving this game a go again.

Our Thoughts

Sometimes these games do disappoint a bit. Total Annihilation has an interesting setting that has a central conflict that I feel comes through better here than in most contemporary games. As you chase each other through these different systems, it feels like the excitement is there. It’s a huge campaign by default, and progress is pretty slow to get through it, which is probably great to immerse yourself even if for me I was hoping to see a bit more a bit sooner. Part of that is that it’s all a bit outdated compared to what we are used to now, so the controls are more frustrating to work with. It’s all a bit janky – it plays as a decent old style RTS, but not as accessible.

As for those upgrade, they came out really slow – another reason I was waiting for everything to go that bit faster – and there wasn’t as much customization as I remembered. There’s still some, which is quite nice, but I wasn’t as exciting – I guess it’s another thing where time caught up with it.

Final Thoughts

Sure, Total Annihilation is still a good RTS – I got quite deep into it. It’s a bit janky, it’s old, and man, there are times when I wished it would step up a bit, but we have a fun game here still that I think I just need to take more time with.