Machines at War 3 Review

When loading Machines at War 3 up on my PC, I had to first double check I was playing the right game, and then check that I was still in 2013 because I felt like I had been transported back to the 90s, in a good way.

Everything about the game, the scrolling text-based mission text, the 2D graphics with low textures, and corny militaristic scripting, every fibre screams homage to the retro RTS games we grew up on. The whole time I was playing it, I was being incessantly reminded of Command & Conquer, which to me is really the Godfather of the RTS world.

Due to similarities shared with such a renowned and beloved game, it was very difficult to not make the inevitable comparisons that come when any game echoes another from the past. As Command & Conquer is of such top-shelf calibre, Machines at War 3 seems to fall short. It’s like giving someone a glass of Moet after a fond history with Dom Pérignon; whilst the former is by no means a cheap, nasty drink (a Lambrini if you will), it’s still never going to measure up to the Dom.

There are the standard modes included in this game: Campaign, Skirmish and Multiplayer, as should be expected from any respectable RTS. The campaign bases its story around the discovery that several scientists who were working on top secret material have disappeared. Due to the sensitive nature of their work, you are charged with finding them, or what happened to them, before they and their brilliant minds full of classified information fall into the wrong hands.

The missions span across 21 scenarios, each one with a different batch of objectives leading you through the story. Despite the inclusion of a small tutorial within the game, the campaign essentially acts as an extended tutorial for the Skirmish mode, introducing you to the controls a little at a time as well as the many various units at your disposal.

As well as the ground, air-based and naval units we have seen in previous Machines at War games, this third instalment throws infantry into the mix, boasting over 130 different types of troops to make up your army, which can itself be as large as 5000. If you attempt a skirmish before spending ample time in the campaign you may find this rather confusing and I would advise taking some time to familiarise yourself with everything, to maximise the efficiency of your command.

Energy and ore are the only two resources to worry about, making managing them nice and simple. Interestingly enough, you don’t have to collect ore, it just generates from your central hub and can be increased by building mines. Energy is provided by building power cells which fall in the Engineering category of building types. The other two categories are “Buildings” which include factories for troop production, and “Defense” where you can find structures that will shoot down enemies invading your base. Creating these structures and troops eat into your resources, so as with any RTS, you  need to keep an eye on this.

Skirmishes allow you to go up against up to three computer-controlled players and have a nice load of customisable features in order to make the game as interesting or as straightforward as you like. Fancy trying a battle against three people, with a robotic level difficulty (hardest) and only naval units in a desert fortress? Give it a shot! If you’re not sure what difficulty you are ready for, and don’t fancy having your socks bored off with a newbie level game if you’re way above it, then you can opt for the adaptive difficulty level, which will change in accordance to how well you do in the match.

The multiplayer is a skirmish but set online, against human players rather than computer-controlled. When creating a server there is no option to privatise it, so every server is open to anyone to jump in on. At the current time there are very few, if any, players waiting for matches in the lobby so I doubt this would be a problem unless they pick up considerably. There is also no way to distinguish who has started what server so playing with friends is going to be a bit hit and miss, which is a bit of a disappointment.

In general, Machines at War 3 is enjoyable to play, especially if you are a 2D RTS fan, but there are a few things that could do with improving to make it a more realistic experience. For example at one point I had a singular soldier stood behind a wall, shooting through it (of course) at a huge anti-aircraft battery which was completely unable to return fire. My little man obliterated the gun, taking absolutely no damage which just seemed ludicrous.

If you’re a bit stuck unit-wise and want to refresh your memory by checking out the unit index, you might be a bit lost for words. The list is not in alphabetical order, there is no function to type and search and the units are not even grouped in categories, with different types appearing seemingly randomly down the list. You cannot scroll through them and the only way to search is to either click on the last visible unit in the list, which moves it further up allowing you to see more, or to click on the provided arrows which move you down one at a time; particularly time consuming. It just seems like the design wasn’t quite as well thought out as it should have been.

When the time comes to save, on campaign, there is only one save, so you can’t have multiple campaigns running at any given time. Also, once you have started a campaign you cannot start a new one and are stuck at whatever mission you are on. This means that if you’re having a bad day and struggling with that specific scenario, you can’t play an earlier mission to give yourself a break.

Overall, you can see the effort that has gone into this game, the graphics are very well done and achieve the homage to Command & Conquer effortlessly and, whilst the voice acting is the not the best, the dramatic music adds character and atmosphere. Isotope 244 have already stated an interest in improving any flaws, so that bodes well for the future of the game.

It is a fun little game, and RTS fans will find hours of fun within Machines at War 3 but for me, it never really lived up to my high expectations. Nothing about it was particularly exciting or revolutionary and it just felt like a time-filler more than anything else.