The Martians have attacked our beautiful planet and Earthlings are tasked with protecting our home. So the battle between Earth and Mars begins.
STORY OF EARTH VS MARS
The premise is pretty self explanatory if you read the title of the game. Earth is at war as the Martians invade. It’s a tale told many a time where humanity struggles to come to terms with the technology of their intelligent enemies.
That’s where the Splice-O-Tron comes in. For story and gameplay, this splicing ability benefits the game. Humans have discovered how to meld humans with creatures, such as a cheetah, to give a super soldier the elite speed a cheetah would possess or even a rhino for its prowess of strength. As you splice your infantry, they become stronger and more specialised in what they can excel at. These super soldiers can be mixed and matched, so a leg may belong to a cheetah, but the arm above belongs to the DNA of a fly. Maybe not ideal for the soldier, but it sure makes them more interesting to play as.
The style is slickly presented and well voice acted to boot. Characters tend to be a bit too talkative, but it’s a forgivable trait as it does enforce a bit of humour that the otherwise serious story would entail.
GAMEPLAY THAT ISN’T OUT OF THIS WORLD
Turn-based strategy games aren’t for everyone due to the slow process and thoughtful decision-making needed. And this won’t appeal to gamers who don’t dabble in the genre. The combat is basic. I wish there was more to say. High terrain doesn’t gain any advantage; attacking from behind makes no difference or bonus. Mostly the goal is to just attack first. Which feels like it takes away from the actual strategy element. Every time you attack, there is a little cutscene of your soldiers or tanks fighting the Martians. The first few times it’s fine, although after a while it just feels like a time waster when there are so many infantry to take down.
Upgrading does improve combat and changes the gameplay enough to not be a replica of the battle before, however, it never changed it enough for me to be really invested or to get the player thinking.
Unfortunately, EARTH VS MARS hasn’t got off to the best start. With low numbers as of review, the multiplayer is poorly populated. Which is a shame, as other players would pose a fun challenge compared to the story missions.
One of the best implementations is the level builder. It’s easy and simple to use, which is all you can ask for when designing a map of your choice.
CONCLUSION
EARTH VS MARS is a solid strategy game. But that’s mostly it. It doesn’t add any interesting characteristics that we haven’t seen before, and it takes few risks with its gameplay. After a while, I did find myself wanting to play a different strategy game, one that really makes me think and one that doesn’t take an absurd amount of time to show the damage being committed to enemy combatants. In the end, Earth VS MARS doesn’t do much wrong; on a different side of the same coin, it doesn’t do too much great either to separate itself from an ever-competitive genre.
