Genesis Rising: The Universal Crusade Review

I believe it is all thanks to unusual gameplay mechanics which you wouldn’t find in other real time strategy games.  They work really well and don’t feel like a poorly done experiment because they are tied in with old and trusted genre definitions.  At a first glance, everything feels familiar (except the strange setting): interface and controls require little explanation.  You also have a base, a ship, and a resource collector.  However, that is pretty much it in regards to units and buildings.  Genesis Rising doesn’t have long tech trees, a million units and upgrades, and the various rules and schematics resulting from this.  The only resource in the game is blood, and almost everything is made of it and depends on it, such as the majority of ships and stations you meet.  If their blood supply gets below a certain point, they simply die, and if you wish you can extract any blood remaining in the carcass into your own ships.  This procedure also gains another vital element, the ship’s genes.  They are the main strength of the game, and in essence are all the “units” which you may find in other strategy games.  In Genesis Rising, however, instead of building a ship that can do that, and another ship that can do this, you can actually make a ship that can do everything at once.

Using your own gene laboratory or, as I’ve already mentioned, sucking genes out from defeated ships, you can customize your fighters according to your needs and particular situations arising on the battlefield.  There are a few types of fighter ships available for production, which you can think of as different templates based on which you can make a fighting machine.  The only special or unique attack ship is your mother ship which is able to do some useful things your regular fighter can’t; everything else is a freely configurable blank.  Genes are divided into weapon categories, and each is inserted into an empty slot, at which point a new organ associated with the gene begins growing out of the hull.

This, I think, has two distinct advantages.  First of all, you get rid of the mess of units and buildings which is present in all regular RTS games.  Rather than build five different structures which produce five types of units which need five sorts of resources, which in turn all need to be managed separately on- and off-battle, Genesis has one laboratory which uses only blood to build one ship capable of serving five functions assigned by the player.  The other advantage is the ability to change your gene loadout at any point in time and anywhere on the map.  As a result, you can change your firepower during the course of a battle, or, if you don’t keep en eye on the enemy, he can do the same and you’ll have a whole different type of fight on your hands than what you started with.  The action in Genesis is a lot less cluttered and a lot less chaotic than what I’m used to playing, but it still requires plenty of managing although on a smaller, easier-to-handle scale.  The open and unimpeded view of deep space helps tremendously as well, and it becomes clear that this is a game with a very firm point set on fighting and that alone.

I remember playing Age of Mythology and sitting on my own piece of land, barricading myself with walls and basically building up resources and an army in my isolated base hidden by fog of war as if I was playing alone.  I finally exhausted upgrades and reached the unit cap but was still unsure about starting an offensive so I waited on the defense. Too bad my buddy was doing the same and when we finally met out in the open it was total chaos, and, both of us defeated, we went back and did the same.  Genesis doesn’t let you do this: you see everything, you know everything, and there is simply no point in sitting at your “base,” because there is no base.  All you have is a space station currently assigned to you which is where you get your blood supply from, but enemies can invade and take over it so in truth you are out in the open with nowhere to hide.  It really is all about picking the right genes and using them in the right way, and being able to stay on top.  You still need to have your finances and economy in check, but, unusually, these don’t make up half the game, and along with a number of rules and limitations the game provides enough ways for skillful players to pull ahead.

In a way it streamlines the overloaded nature of normal strategy games, and for players such as me who usually get overwhelmed, Genesis Rising is much more intuitive and to the point.  Thankfully it doesn’t unnecessarily complicate matters with a third dimension, which, given the nature of the gameplay here, would only confuse players without adding tactical depth.  As I’ve said, the game really works because it doesn’t change every rule in the RTS book.  Instead, it keeps the basics all of us are familiar with but it gives us new ways to play.

Unfortunately, the negatives are more serious than I would have liked, but they are not numerous.  The biggest gripe I have is the lack of in-mission saving, and I am certain that this is the wrong game to be missing it.  A platformer or a simple action game where the pace is fast and levels end quickly really only needs end-level saving.  A game like Genesis Rising, which has long loading times, cutscenes, dialogue, and missions that could take hours, being unable to save, at least once, is simply frustrating.  This is especially so considering that important conversations between parties are separately loaded and presented in full 3D using the game’s engine.  I really don’t see the point to it – a simple pop-up during the game would have been more desirable and less time-consuming.  At times I also felt a need for a pause function giving you time to organize genes and ships, at least during the single player missions.  This, however, could have been worse had the unit cap been higher than what it currently is, but this is a game about strategy rather than numbers, so, thankfully, battles can still be coordinated with a fast hand and use of hotkeys.  Other than that, the game is stable and fun, and the campaign is a bit less linear than usual.  In many instances, you can choose your next destination, and during dialogue with various factions you are given the choice to be friendly or hostile, which yields different results during the mission.

There are actually quite a few non-playable alien races that you meet throughout the campaign, and although none is presented in any great detail besides some background info, they are a very diverse bunch and add a bit more excitement to your quest.  Your main goal is to find an artifact which is believed to have created all matter in the universe, and in doing so be granted god-like powers.  This is another game where you play on the side of humans, which, however, are not the typical good-natured saviors for a change.  In fact, it’s the exact opposite, and during the opening cinematic you learn what kind of tyrant you’ll be playing as, in addition to a few other fresh ideas.  All of this, coupled with the interesting setting, really drew me into the game, a thing which I must say doesn’t happen as often as I’d like in recent times.

Judging it solely by screenshots, the game isn’t much of a looker because there is little happening besides a few ships and planets, but in motion you can really see the detail.  Rotating planets, flashes of lightning, and nebulae liven up space, and such animated backgrounds add a lot of atmosphere.  The actual units look really slimy and yet still resemble space ships by having some form and symmetry, and their design seemed to me a bit dramatic which I think was a good move.  The rest of the visuals are in top shape as well, with the blood splatter resulting from a badly beaten ship deserving a special mention since it looks fantastic, and was really unexpected the first time it happened.  I give bonus points for performing flawlessly on the three-year-old review machine, although I would have been disappointed had it been otherwise, knowing how empty the maps are save for units and stations.

Now, it’s all about whether you can tolerate some questionable dialogue and voice acting as well as a few other annoyances, which I must say can be easily addressed with a patch if the developers so desire.  Most of the issues, however, are specific to the single player campaign, so if you are one of those players which immediately log online looking for matches, you should have plenty of fun with that portion of the game.  Yet, despite the issues I mentioned, you certainly won’t be disappointed, as the main quest is challenging and contains a great deal of replay value, not to mention original gameplay that actually works.