Ground Control II: Operation Exodus Review

The thought of never seeing a sequel to one of my all time favorites bothered me for a long time. That is until Massive announced the development of a new installment. My emotions shifted from impatience to anticipation and then to fear, because it’s always hard for any successor of a masterpiece to match the quality of the original. Ground Control wasn’t your typical strategy game, having no base/unit building and no resource management, you only had to rely on intelligent decisions and smart tactics (very smart, thanks to the lack of in-game saves, something that has been fixed in the sequel). The original formula successfully brought the strategy back into the genre in one slick and polished package. I was just a little surprised to learn about the making of a sequel since Ground Control wasn’t a popular game at the time. In fact it made a lot of “most underrated” lists and, as we all know, such titles hardly ever get seen again. While I’m happy it didn’t share the same fate as others, the lack of commercial success contributed to some questionable design decisions for the sequel that not everyone will appreciate.

Let’s start from the very beginning which is a magnificently looking intro movie. Never since Warcraft 3 have I seen anything so brilliantly done. Massive really out did themselves trying to match Blizzard’s quality and they’ve certainly come very close. The first cinematic, being relatively short, doesn’t get into detail about the plot except providing a brief introduction and giving the general idea of what’s to be expected. As Captain Jacob Angelus, NSA Officer, you’re given orders to defend your home planet of Morningstar against Imperial forces. Once past the surface, things become more complex, making for an overall enjoyable and well thought-out storyline. A number of other important characters also play a part in the plot providing good diversity. In-game cut-scenes and more of the juicy looking movies move the two campaigns forward.



There is a standard tutorial which is quite short and not worth the time if you’re a Ground Control veteran. If you’re not, here’s a quick breakdown of the actual gameplay. You start by selecting a mission from the mission tree in a similar fashion to Warcraft 3. Sadly, Ground Control 2 doesn’t feature the cool mission briefings or the unit selection and arrangement process I loved from the original; instead, you begin with a preset number of units used to conquer and hold numerous landing zones throughout the map. The more landing zones means more points, which are used for calling down reinforcements from your drop ship on an already selected zone. What this does is relieve some of the tension associated with the original, when every unit was vital and couldn’t be replaced. Points can be used to build units or upgrade your drop ship, such as increase cargo size, speed, and even firepower. Just be careful, because the larger your army gets, the fewer points you’ll be accumulating. I like the idea because it prevents players from getting an insane amount of units to easily crush opponents, and it also requires smart use of smaller squads and strategy.

All this may seem easy and simple to you until you actually start playing and discover the depth of the gameplay. Weather conditions and terrain geography affect the game mechanics. You are even able to garrison troops in buildings or bunkers which provide better defense and attack positions. Units accumulate experience points so the longer you keep them alive, the stronger they get. Many of them have secondary modes such as NSA’s light infantry assault rifles used against other infantry and guided missiles for getting rid of air and land armor. On the other side, Virons can meld forces of the same type, producing completely new ones. This is all very good, but with the addition of those features Massive has removed the special weapons and abilities you could assign to units in the original (special weapons actually remain, but in a different form), and you’re not awarded medals after missions either. The squad portion of the game has also been eliminated, so this time every unit can be selected and controlled individually. Not a good decision, because it’s a real hassle working with the tiny soldiers (if you play zoomed out like me in order to clearly see everything). This can be resolved by assigning groups the usual ctrl+# way, but what’s the point? The original Ground Control’s squads were made for that, and they worked extremely well.

The interface has been also completely redone, now made to resemble the already familiar ones from popular RTS titles. The slim, convenient GUI of the original has been replaced by one huge rectangle at the bottom of the screen covering most of the view. The first patch, already available from Massive, does offer a more compact version but it doesn’t help much. An option for “standard RTS camera” is also included, offering the known top down view for anyone refusing to try and learn the classic camera controls. I’m afraid to say that the game has lost a portion of its originality and it’s obvious that Massive made some adjustments to attract the regular RTS gamer.

This can be both good and bad. Bad for a Ground Control fanboy like me and good for those that have never played. But these are things that even I can get used to, so looking past them isn’t a big issue. The game does offer plenty of units to play with (though unfortunately the aerodynes are gone, replaced by helidynes), two races (and a third, an NPC race, perhaps hinting an expansion is coming) with long, varied single player campaign. Ground Control 2 equals fun no matter how picky you are since you’re playing the most advanced strategy game engine ever made. The original, after holding the title for four years now, gladly steps aside. Everything from terrain and units to water and sky has been given a solid polygon and texture boost. Words can not describe the beauty of a battle scene, complete with missiles, rifle tracers, explosions, dust, unit tracks, and smoke. It’s truly spectacular, especially when you zoom into the action. What’s even better is the performance – a nice little 1.7GHz Athlon and a Geforce4 Ti will do just fine at high details. The only gripe I have is with the water. While it reflects everything, mobile or not, it is not a pretty sight near the shores. All you see is the border between terrains and liquids, which is an ugly straight line. Age of Mythology featured some great wave effects covering any defects, so it’s a shame this was overlooked after all the hard work put into everything else.

Sound has been given an excellent presentation, but you won’t be as proud with your Audigy as you are with your GeForce. Voiceovers are adequate and the various in-game effects don’t disappoint either, everything sounds decent enough, but it’s nothing to go jumping around for. I specifically enjoyed listening to an artillery barrage passing close by the camera or hearing the steps of an infantry squad marching; I’ve always loved little details like those.

What I didn’t love was the mediocre multiplayer component, which was purely a deathmatch fest with a single game mode. It could be somewhat entertaining but it eventually leads to boredom. Almost all of the action revolves around the victory locations, leaving the space between empty and desolate. The ten maps offered aren’t anything special but the included mission maker gives me some hope.

At the end of the day however, the only thing that really matters is whether or not I had fun playing Ground Control 2: Operation Exodus. Without a doubt. It’s obvious that Massive have made some cosmetic and gameplay changes to make it friendlier towards the casual gamer, while fans of the original will quickly look past those because in its core, Ground Control 2 is still the good old Ground Control all of us loved (and if you still haven’t played it, hang your head in shame, then download the full version from Fileplanet, free).

The good
- Stunning visuals and cinematics
- Good content
- Great tactical gaming
- Attention to detail

The bad
- Multiplayer
- Some animation glitches
- Irresponsive AI at times
- Interface