Customer Reviews

Dark Reign 2

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This game rocks. Other strat games can't touch DR2. The editor is also top notch. I made a map the day after I started the editor for the first time. DR2 is a total joy to play because of the awsome balance Pandemic put into it. The best part is that there isn't a offense that can't be defended well if you think it out. Difficulty is just right if you ask me. You put the AI on easy and you will win fast. Put the AI on hard and you are in for the fight of your life! DR2 is a winner!

...I got this game at a local store. I was expecting something that would only be fun for a couple hours. I was way wrong. This is the most SPECTACULAR strategy game I have ever played. The lighting effects are great. The terrain looks great. The graphics are real 3D (like FPS's.) Some ppeople say the recources run dry to quickly. This is sort of true. In the single player campains there is more than 2 tmes the recources to finish each mission. In the skirmish games you can choose how much money you start out with (one to 1 million!) However I wish that the recources regenerated. The unit blances are some of the best I ever seen. resource gathering is at a good speed not to fast or tooo slow. I have never been a fan of upgrading. However in this game the upgrading(you only upgrade the buildings) did not get boring or seem repetative. Each side has 23 or so units (which is a good number.) Each side has unique units and tactics. The sprawlers can lay andd one of the 4 different kinds of mines anywhere on the battle field. I sugest running this game on a computer with a 1.3 processor just like I am. The graphics are spectacular and so are the huge battles. The main difference between this game and most other games is that you wage FULL SCALE warefare. The are tons of unique strategies that you can use in this game. You can also change views from first personn to thiird person and rotate the camera 90 degrees or 360 degrees. There are lots of things in this game that are not in your average RTs for example Tire tracks(left by units with tank treads) and wheather. There are a good amount of defensive structures and buildings for each side. This game is way better...than any of those other overrated games. The controls are simple put powerful. Each unit has tons of ways that you can use it and can accomplish lots of tasks. The highly varying terrain adds to the tactics that you can use. The naval battles look good. I could say lots more bu t I doubt you would be willing to read on so lemme wrap this up. If you don't have this game then you are missing something very big. Get it. I can promise you will stop doing anything else inorder to play this game. This game is so addictive. After playing this game any other game seems to lack everything. You will stop playing any other game.

There's probably a strategy game for every type of gamer, and as gaming guide for BellaOnline, I've seen quite a few. Dark Reign 2 is gorgeous, and is for the thinking strategist.

The game sets the forces of the JDA against the Sprawlers. Each side has similar units - 'guardians' and 'rumblers' as ground units, trikes, tanks, medics, you name it. The uniqueness for this game isn't in its basic makeup or the thought behind it - strategy games by their nature share a basic manner of working. What really makes the game stand out is its design, and its graphics.

Instead of the old pixel-based systems, where graphics were drawn dot by dot (and therefore looked very fuzzy on high quality monitors), newer games are done with actual objects being drawn. Dungeon Keeper 2 is an example of this. With an object having sides and textures and angles, it will look crisp no matter how high you resolve the screen. Also, objects of this type can easily be modified to react to game events.

Meaning ... you can blow craters in the ground! You can climb up gorgeously rendered mountains, with slight crevices for you to fit through. Your units range themselves along hilltops to fire down at fortifications. The snow falls as your troops sneak along a treeline, concealing themselves within its branches.

What a treat to watch and play!

The general layout for the interface is well done - you probably can't go too wrong with this after all of these years of strategy games. People have pretty much figured out what works and what doesn't work. However, how many strategy games let you zoom in and out and around as much as you wish with the observer camera? Your map shows the general location of troops and bases, and within that map you have complete control of your camera - zoom in close to the action, from floor level. Look high overhead a full assault. Follow along behind your troops as if you were really there!

What general could ask for more - a way to coordinate large groups of troops easily, plus the ability to see the action from a soldier's point of view. It's great!

The sound and day-night cycles are equally as good. The personality of the troops is well done - the Go Go trikes call out, "Yeah, Baby!" when you give them orders, and you're alerted when "The Sun emerges from its sleeping place." The cut scenes help build the atmosphere and get you involved in the various plots going on. This isn't just about killing off the enemy. It's about preserving your way of life, and discovering what has been hidden.

I agree that for the Command & Conquer-style action lover, the excitement simply isn't there. Units chug along. Units get stuck on each other. The pace is much slower, more like chess than a battle scene from "Ran".

I definitely enjoy this game not only as a great game in its own right, but also a good indicator of what strategy games to come will look like, as machine speeds catch up to the ingenuity and creativity of modern day game designers. With the bar raised on display, perhaps all styles of strategy game will shortly look this gorgeous.

Let me start by saying that Dark Reign 2 isn't the only 3D-RTS game out there. There are at least two others - Ground Control and Earth 2150. Both games are getting good reviews, and it looks increasingly as though Dark Reign 2 is the going to be the only 3D-RTS to get some very bad reviews. Why? Part of that is due to bad timing, since Ground Control and Earth 2150 were released first. The other reason is because there are deficencies in gameplay that should've been corrected before they were released.

This game was made by Pandemic, the same people that created Battlezone 2 (BZ2). This was a game that was prone to crashes (especially on NVIDIA videocards) and was infested with all manner of game-crashing bugs. Basically, BZ2 was a game that could've been a classic if it hadn't been for those horrible bugs.

Fortunately, Pandemic have obviously learned from their mistakes. Dark Reign 2 isn't the crash-prone mess that BZ2 was. In fact, it's the only 3D-accelerated game that can be played straight out of the box - no patches required. So the extra months of quality testing were definitely worthwhile.

However, Dark Reign 2 does fall down in one important area - gameplay. The developers have obviously put a lot of effort into the appearance of the game, but failed to pay attention to gameplay. For instance, many of the missions require your units to navigate narrow valleys, and the pathfinding AI isn't up to the challenge. It's ridiculous seeing a squad of scorpion tanks jostle for position in a narrow valley. The poor pathfinding AI really shows in the last two missions, which take place in a large (and very beautiful looking city). I had to bring a scaver (which is a repair bot) to a particular location. Instead of making a beeline for that location, the unit careered over the entire map...and then got blown up by enemy units.

The other deficiency is in the very short single player campaign. The Sprawler campaign only has ten missions, whereas most strategy games give each side at least 15 missions. I suspect that either Pandemic is relying on players to create their own missions, or they're going to release an expansion pack. Nevertheless, that's no excuse for creating such a short single player game.

And finally, my least favourite aspect of Dark Reign 2 is, oddly enough...the graphics. This is purely a matter of personal taste. I've noticed that Pandemic give their objects a rounded soft-focus look that I'm not too comfortable with. I've never really liked the polygonal look of most objects in 3D-accelerated games...even Quake 3 has the same appearance (curved surfaces notwithstanding).

Let's not forget that DR2 is still a real-time strategy (RTS) game. And there are plenty of classic RTS's that it will be compared to. The original Dark Reign is an obvious choice. So is the now-classic Starcraft, which is the true benchmark that any Science-fiction RTS must aspire to. Starcraft had an excellent storyline, but the unit control was too primitive. Dark Reign 2 has the opposite problem - a poorly thought out single-player storyline but excellent unit controls.

In conclusion, Dark Reign 2 could've been a classic. It's the only game I've bought in the past two years that can be played straight-out-of-the-box, which even Diablo 2 can't lay claim to. And it has an excellent graphics engine. But it's the pathfinding AI and the too-brief single player game that really lets it down. Dark Reign 2 is, unfortunately, no Starcraft. But that shouldn't stop PC gamers from giving this one a fair go.

Matt Dunphy and the amazon.com reviewer obviously don't play online multiplayer games (nor do they understand the RTS genre very well). For an RTS game, DR is very good at the one thing online gamers care about -- online multiplayer. The single player missions are terrible -- if you want single player, stick with Starcraft and you'll be pleased. If nothing less than fluid online games of 3 v 3 will keep you happy bring on DR2. The balance is good (too early to say great) and the net code is very solid. Games involving over 10 people are anything but rare on WON.net. Lots of customization for community made maps and "mods." Not the fastest paced RTS around, but definitely faster than Total Annihilation and Tiberium Sun -- on par with Starcraft.

Bottom line -- its a good buy for now and could be the last solid RTS game for a long time. Much better than Earth 2150. Ground control is a different game (real time tactical rather than strategy), but is a better choice if you enjoyed Myth more than Starcraft. My $.02

So this game is really well-done. I'll say that first, unequivocally. The 3-D rendering rocks. The characters are well-defined and well-balanced. The scale and atmosphere is a brooding-film noir-post modern epoch that would make Huxley jealous.

But it's just not that fun to play. I had a blast with Dark Reign, but I can't really describe what's missing here. I think it's a lot slower (the base takes forever to build), and for all the balance of units, combat tends to feel lopsided. Or maybe I'm just lousy at this version, with all the 3-D, since the new terrain shifts the tactics around from the original.

Worth getting, even if you're disappointed with what seems like lousy graphics now (remember this game pre-dates NVIDIA 4 chips).

I was honestly surprised when I first played this game. It isn't nearly as hard as its predecessor, Dark Reign: The Future of War, yet it still has its own challenges to overcome.
Since it is a prequel (in the Dark Reign storyline), it builds on the great storyline presented in the first game. The 3-D graphics add to rather than subtract from the practicality of the gameplay, but still have some room for improvement. The graphics and game itself run smoothly for me, even though I run Vista.
In my opinion, this game is well worth the money I paid for it, and I don't regret my purchase at all.

I had played this game years ago when it first came out, but since had moved and lost my CD. For a while now I had the urge to play again. There are not many games out there that allow such a simple thing as building fences or walls around your base, yet that is the main reason I fall back to this game from time to time.

I was surprised to hear about Dark Reign 2. The original, while one of my personal favorite games, did quite poorly in stores and was a flop compared to direct competition such as Starcraft and Total Annhinilation. Keeping these qualms in mind, I was pleased to notice that Activision was funding another game in the series, and that it would have a full 3D engine. I bought the game the day it came out, rushed it home, and installed it. I was very impressed for the first few hours. The 3D engine was most impressive, the gameplay good, and the missions fun. However, I noticed that the team had taken OUT some options from Fark Reign: where was the settings for your unit's tenacity, their agressiveness? This is where things started taking a turn for the worse.

I also realised that the missions started to become rather repetitive. Although some are the 'survive with a limited number of units' type, most are the 'kill everything' variety, perhaps with some objective put in for good measure...however, the only way to get to these objectives is to kill everybody in between you and them! The graphics are good, but not as amazing as Ground Control- also, I noticed some flagrant false advertising on the back of the box--look closely, and you will see each explosion pictured there is fully 3D and has particles flying out in every direction. In the game, the explosions are lo-res sprites. I do like the music, however, and it runs well at 800x600, full details, on my P3-450 with Geforce 2.

If you liked Dark Reign, try the demo. If you like that, consider buying the game. There was so much more they could've done with this.

This game is awesome, the realease is'nt until jusly but I played beta on this game and everything is great, good lighing, effects and unit and building design. The only problem is that the camera angles got get a little tricky at times and you need to change your view ALOT, if you want to be successful. But don't listen to me buy this game cause its AWESOME.