Played for a few missions this weekend. Wow, a really good game. The atmosphere is simply perfect, with the good radio voice over and the really, really nice CD soundtrack.
I find the game actually more of a FPS with RTS element, so people who are very bad at RTS shan't shy from it.
The RTS part of the game is actually pretty light so far. There are at max 10 offensive units (tanks, bombers, etc) and 10 defensive units (portable turrets) you can own at one time, and the quantity of pilots you can have is limited too, so there's hardly any unit spamming at all. It's mostly build up a turret perimeter, then build a small, balanced tank squad, and then lead them or order them to fight at spots you want.
The unit building and control needs to get used to, after all controlling multiple units in a FPS is completely different from the classic click and point mouse control. Fortunately almost all commands can be done with the 1~7 number keys, and directing guys to move or attack is as easy as first choose a single unit or a squad (with just one key) and then spacebar on a ground or some bad guys.
Compared to Uprising, BZ seems far well balanced because unlike Uprising your main tank can singlehandy decimate whole armies, in BZ you're as weak (or as strong) as all your other AI controlled friendly tanks, in fact sometimes even worse because the AI shoots quite accurately. You must rely on your troops if you want to survive long enough.
The game actually emphasis a lot on Strategy rather than Tactics it seems. Building units is very fast, but resource accumulation is slow, and units die quite fast. Units quantity is very limited as mentioned above. And the battlefield is quite large. So if you send 10 guys to assault an enemy bunch and they are apparently losing, don't think you can win by sending reinforcement. By the time the first two reinforcement tanks arrive, your troops are all dead.
On the other hand, even if your main "army" got decimated doesn't necessary mean you lose the whole war. All troops need ammo, and their health don't regenerate. You must use armories to "catapult" repair and ammo packs to refresh your tanks' status after every other major battle, and the supply packs fly quite slow, so the other side will have sufficient time to replenish some new units. Of course you can force your battered tanks to fight with what little health or ammo left, but the enemy turrets will surely annihilate them in seconds.
However, enemy bases are far from unbeatable even with all kind of turrets set up. In the game, buildings are very weak, and even the Recycler, which is more or less the HQ, can be destroyed by 3 tanks under 20 seconds.
So it seems the game comes down to this: instead of spam as many troops as you can and click your mouse as fast as you can, you must use your brain to think: how to use your limited troops (at max 10 tanks), to kill your enemies at the best efficiency? You may try use some decoy to distract the enemy lots, and then make a sneak attack right on their most exposed buildings with a few bombers. Or you may set up mines and ambushes to help tip the fight into your favor. The battlefield is large and has little obstacle, so the strategy to win is really alot.
Keep in mind because preparing for a fight takes time, and you MUST rely on supplies to keep the fight going on which takes quite a bit of time, and the actual fighting is actually over very soon, so you must think of plans before going out, otherwise you'll either lose your first fight very fast, or you'll lack the stamina to keep your push going on because of supply problem.
Really recommended. On the website Skyway mentioned above you can download a full playable version. Then you can use TPB or something to get a full CD version so you can listen to the awesome CD music. Great game.
