MetalCraze
Arcane
Oh god I love this piece of shit from the time when Interplay was still good. Why haven't I heard about this game before? No I mean I understand that it came out at the same time WarCraft 2 and Red Alert 1 did so it never had a chance and was very obscure, especially due to its great complexity (f.e. to resupply some unit with ammo and the supply truck is empty you must move it close to one of the base buildings - take materials from there - drive to a unit and rearm it - same with repair bots - and somehow it isn't annoying) and turn-based gameplay which is very tactical and fun but still.
The game is indeed very complex - you can upgrade 8 parameters of each type of the unit, there are lots of variables when it comes to them - like how far they can see, how much armor they have and how many hits they can take, how far the can move, how much ammo they can carry etc. MAX also forces you to use all units so there is no crappy situation like with your typical strategy where units become obsolete - like f.e. all your ground vehicles can see only at close distances (but shoot much further) apart from 2 units one of which is a radar unit which can't move far but sees far and can help pinpoint targets for all other vehicles and a scout unit which can see far and move very far (making it very good for pinpointing too) - it's also armed so it makes it a great unit for harassing enemy unarmed vehicles (workers/suppliers etc) and immediately pull it back after it damaged/destroyed them. Add to that that there are also marine and airborne units and each has unique role. And then there are infiltrators which can steal/disable enemy vehicles and disable his defence structures. They can also find mines (yes you can use mines in the game too) and you can see that tactical possibilities are countless.
The game also has one of the best AIs I've ever seen. The bitch will use every single hole in your defence to harass and kill your unprotected units - and it annoys the shit out of me (of course only my fault here) - AI also will never blindly rush your defences and die - in fact it will avoid them through various holes in their visibility or at places where they don't see it and rape your units in the ass. Like f.e. knowing that I can shoot only twice at his plane (bombers take 3 hits from AA cannons by default to go down and two from interceptors) he flies right to my units, gets hit twice - takes out my engineer unit and the thing it was building - and flies away for repairs. With more direct combat AI sometimes sends his scouts to die so I will run out of shots I can make at his main strike force - and then attacks my helpless units with all his shit. And yeah he loves to harass you with scouts too. Other example of pretty good AI is how he was trying to avoid getting in range of my mobile AA units with his AVACS plane at my base while gathering all info he could get up until I've managed to corner him (which did took some time) - yes unlike in other games AI doesn't know where you are or what do you have at your base so it scouts all logical places on the map first and then attacks in a way which depends on what he found at your base.
Not only that but each destroyed unit leaves remnants which you can the gather with bulldozers and recycle into resources (AI does the same). There are three types of resources (raw materials - for building/repairs/ammo, fuel - for making factories and generators work and gold for buying upgrades and doing research) and they don't lie around on top of the surface like in your typical strategies - you must use survey units to find them first and then build mines there. Resources are being stored in special storages so you must connect them to your mines with pipes (or build next to them) - resources do not go into some obscure place where you have some total number of them so if f.e. you have Mine 1 here and Mine 2 there with a factory connected to it but no connection between the mines - factory can only use resources from Mine 2 - so you must either use pipes which is better (but enemy can take them out so defences are important) or transfer them between bases using supply units which is a pain in the butt.
The game is very complex and it does take time to learn it - and btw your favorite tank rushes will never work out here, especially when the game puts attacker into worse situation than defender (if enemy units have some shots to make and you attack them - they shoot first and your unit only afterwards - so combat requires special approach and certain amount of thoughts put into it)
No seriously I laugh at your fucking next-gen. A 13 years old game has better AI and more tactical abilities than any piece of shit strategy coming out today - or probably I just have some o' those 'unrealistic standards'.
M.A.X. also looks very good (and yes you can move camera closer or further - and scaling is very smooth) - gives me some of that Dune 2 nostalgia:
A game with great depth, but does require some time put into learning of it.
The game is indeed very complex - you can upgrade 8 parameters of each type of the unit, there are lots of variables when it comes to them - like how far they can see, how much armor they have and how many hits they can take, how far the can move, how much ammo they can carry etc. MAX also forces you to use all units so there is no crappy situation like with your typical strategy where units become obsolete - like f.e. all your ground vehicles can see only at close distances (but shoot much further) apart from 2 units one of which is a radar unit which can't move far but sees far and can help pinpoint targets for all other vehicles and a scout unit which can see far and move very far (making it very good for pinpointing too) - it's also armed so it makes it a great unit for harassing enemy unarmed vehicles (workers/suppliers etc) and immediately pull it back after it damaged/destroyed them. Add to that that there are also marine and airborne units and each has unique role. And then there are infiltrators which can steal/disable enemy vehicles and disable his defence structures. They can also find mines (yes you can use mines in the game too) and you can see that tactical possibilities are countless.
The game also has one of the best AIs I've ever seen. The bitch will use every single hole in your defence to harass and kill your unprotected units - and it annoys the shit out of me (of course only my fault here) - AI also will never blindly rush your defences and die - in fact it will avoid them through various holes in their visibility or at places where they don't see it and rape your units in the ass. Like f.e. knowing that I can shoot only twice at his plane (bombers take 3 hits from AA cannons by default to go down and two from interceptors) he flies right to my units, gets hit twice - takes out my engineer unit and the thing it was building - and flies away for repairs. With more direct combat AI sometimes sends his scouts to die so I will run out of shots I can make at his main strike force - and then attacks my helpless units with all his shit. And yeah he loves to harass you with scouts too. Other example of pretty good AI is how he was trying to avoid getting in range of my mobile AA units with his AVACS plane at my base while gathering all info he could get up until I've managed to corner him (which did took some time) - yes unlike in other games AI doesn't know where you are or what do you have at your base so it scouts all logical places on the map first and then attacks in a way which depends on what he found at your base.
Not only that but each destroyed unit leaves remnants which you can the gather with bulldozers and recycle into resources (AI does the same). There are three types of resources (raw materials - for building/repairs/ammo, fuel - for making factories and generators work and gold for buying upgrades and doing research) and they don't lie around on top of the surface like in your typical strategies - you must use survey units to find them first and then build mines there. Resources are being stored in special storages so you must connect them to your mines with pipes (or build next to them) - resources do not go into some obscure place where you have some total number of them so if f.e. you have Mine 1 here and Mine 2 there with a factory connected to it but no connection between the mines - factory can only use resources from Mine 2 - so you must either use pipes which is better (but enemy can take them out so defences are important) or transfer them between bases using supply units which is a pain in the butt.
The game is very complex and it does take time to learn it - and btw your favorite tank rushes will never work out here, especially when the game puts attacker into worse situation than defender (if enemy units have some shots to make and you attack them - they shoot first and your unit only afterwards - so combat requires special approach and certain amount of thoughts put into it)
No seriously I laugh at your fucking next-gen. A 13 years old game has better AI and more tactical abilities than any piece of shit strategy coming out today - or probably I just have some o' those 'unrealistic standards'.
M.A.X. also looks very good (and yes you can move camera closer or further - and scaling is very smooth) - gives me some of that Dune 2 nostalgia:
A game with great depth, but does require some time put into learning of it.
