Earth 2160 now available for purchase

[Sui]

Earth 2160 is the latest game to leap enthusiastically onto the steam-powered bandwagon, and can now be downloaded for around twenty dollars on Valve's victorian wonder platform. 2160 is the sequel to Earth 2150; an RTS that I won't pretend to know anything about – and the game follows in it's predecessor's sci-fi space boots in being a rather large-scale strategy game.
I've been doing some background reading, and from various reviews I've collected some basic information concerning Earth 2160 which may help you decide whether it's worth your money.

• Despite being over half a year old, the graphics look surprisingly slick, and are saturated with shiny science fiction effects and such. However, design-wise it looks like a "1970’s science fiction novel cover-painting", according to PCGamer. And that's not a compliment.
• The game's main campaign is, for lack of a better word, crappy. A poor storyline and dire voice acting make it somewhat laughable, apparently. On top of that, the individual missions are quite a grind, with even the shorter battles lasting for over an hour.
• The game redeems itself with it's gameplay, however. The units are extremely customisable, for a start. "If you encounter…laser weaponry which cuts through your conventional armour,” explains GameSpot, "then go back to the lab and research reflective armour”. Makes sense. Plus, when you redesign or upgrade a unit, it'll carry over to the next skirmish battle.
• The armies, of which there are four, are pretty diverse. There’s a strange cult of female warriors, a slightly more conventional band of hard-asses, an army which relies upon walking mechs, and a swarm of organic alien beasties. They're all unique in the way they manage, unlike many other RTS armies which just seem to be graphically-altered clones of each other.

So, in conclusion, it seems that Earth 2160 is a solid RTS with some innovative ideas – and it should be enjoyable as long as you stay away from the singleplayer campaign. Although at the same time, there’s nothing revolutionary about it, even if does step into new territory with some of its concepts. Personally I’m going to stick with Warcraft III.
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[Lazy_Moron]

I borrowed this game from a friend and had a hard time playing it. Not because I didnt like it, but because it has way to many options, I could barely build anything. I hope they include a manuel with this, because I really could of used one. I know, I know why would I look at the manuel. But man I was really confused in this game.

 

[Asuka]

Still thinking if i should pick this game up....

 

[63]

Haven't heard of it until today :| Ah, the wonders of Steam!

 

[nutcrackr]

Where I live the game retails for around $35 USD, who says Steam isn't cutting costs?

 

[russ_uk]

i can get this game cheaper than i can get it from steam , it is in my local stores bargain bin for £4.99 (around $10 i think) so it is not that cheap from steam (sorry if this offends anybody)

 

[Asuka]

It still runs @ 49.99 in NYC

 

[bigburpco]

WTF is this? First thing on Steam News says available for purchase? Okay...

 

[oldagerocker]

Sui, you really should just stick to writing objective news. That was awfully 'crappy' work.

 

[Sui]

Oookay...

 

[RestInPeas]

i can get this game cheaper than i can get it from steam , it is in my local stores bargain bin for £4.99 (around $10 i think) so it is not that cheap from steam (sorry if this offends anybody)

Are you sure it's not just the old Earth 2150 in that bin?

 

[sHaDdoW]

Are you sure it's not just the old Earth 2150 in that bin?

Earth 2150 was ace anyway

 

[SpacehopperHead]

There is a demo available on the Earth 2160 Website. Its abit on the heavy side at 357mb for 2 level but its gives you a good idea of what the games like.

And it's alright, but not amazing. The graphics are good and the campaign seems, as Sui's research suggests, a bit drawn out but still engaging. Probably worth the £14 over Steam.

 

[jet jaguar]

I borrowed this game from a friend and had a hard time playing it. Not because I didnt like it, but because it has way to many options, I could barely build anything. I hope they include a manuel with this, because I really could of used one. I know, I know why would I look at the manuel. But man I was really confused in this game.

I had a horrible experience playing 2150. The tech tree and unit building was so slow and and difficult to level up on I could barely manage a force of a few weak units to fend off an AI rush. It was so frustrating I only tried the game once before putting it back in it's box.

 

[spect3r]

Since when do news posters voice their personal opinion? Isn't that negating the whole point of.. putting it on the news?

Strange.

And I don't see a link to any site.. especially Earth 2160's site..

http://www.earth2160.com/

 

[Sui]

Wait... I'm a news poster? I thought this was just an elaborate forum where me, Sulkdodds and Smash discuss all things Steam-related... :|

 

[nutcrackr]

I agree the small facts about the game and what was "crappy" or not should not be included in this news article. It wasn't iirc with Darwinia yet negative points could have easily been made. Take out the opinions and the views of others, they have metacritic let them use it.

 

[polyguns]

i would like to point out i have made no crits at all regarding this crappy game or posting opinions in news posts.


my problem is its like trying to be funny, but not being funny. if your gonna be funny, be funny, and be crude. use lotsa foul lnguage, especially the F word, thats my favorite word.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/earth2160/review.html?q= Earth 2160

7.2 is not worth anyones time imo. has to be over an 8 to be worth buying if your over 12

 

[Sui]

I like experimenting in newsposts. This time I decided to write a mini-review, to see how it would turn out. I guess nobody liked it, so I won't do it in future

 

[nutcrackr]

I really liked the zombie talk news post. Can you do that for all of the news posts?

 

[dissimulated]

I like experimenting in newsposts. This time I decided to write a mini-review, to see how it would turn out. I guess nobody liked it, so I won't do it in future

Next time you want to write a review, play the game first.

Until then, just be a nice plain pimp for Valve and copy and paste from Steam news.

I'm still wondering when this site will change it's name from halflife2.net now that it's focused on everything released on steam.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Seeing as we cover primarily HL2-related news, never.

Being a HL2 site doesn't mean that we have to do only HL2-related news. It's not like we're suddenly devoting the site to every Steam-released game, is it now? If the non-HL2 news posts bother you that much, just scrollwheel on by.