Total Annihilation

by Macsoft

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001W0J6
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,805 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #10 in Video Games > Mac Games > Strategy > Real-Time
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: Mac | Edition: Gold

Amazon.com Review

Ever since Total Annihilation hit the PC world back in '97, gushing gamers have fallen all over themselves to heap praise on this amazing real-time strategy game. In classic understatement, PC Games called TA "the Greatest Game of All Time." Without a doubt, this title is an RTS standard, even years after its release. So that's why we Mac folk can still count our blessings with the late '99 release of Total Annihilation Gold, a pack that includes the basic game, plus the Battle Tactics suite of missions (a sort of strategy-clinic/quick-play add-on) and the TA: Core Contingency (a set of 75 new units and 25 new missions).

While Total Annihilation may not have the back-story and sophisticated solo campaign play of its competitors, the game blows them away in nearly every other category. Combat is kick-ass and lightning quick, even on a good 604e, thanks to TA's 3-D engine, which uses polygons in favor of bitmaps to allow tons of players and units to mix it up without the usual slowdowns--you don't even need to invest in 3-D hardware to get this boost. The game just gets better when you add on stupendous graphics, an astounding number of units between the Arm and the Core (over 250 in the base game), a thoughtfully designed resource-management system that rewards aggressive play and allows for amazing comebacks (way better than the "oh, you lost that mine, you lost the game" fate of Warcraft and its ilk), and even an award-winning score performed by a chorus and a 75-piece orchestra.

TA Gold gives you a rocking good start with the base game, Battle Tactics, and the Core Contingency, and is a well-equipped introduction to this RTS classic for the Mac crowd. About the only strike against this otherwise exceptional port is that Mac and PC players still can't duke it out in multiplayer, but that's just an unfortunate quibble with a title this solid. --Paul Hughes

Pros:

• Just a fantastic RTS game finally ported to the Mac
• Superior 3-D engine
• Excellent game design, along with tons of units and scenarios

Cons:

• Lackluster campaign play
• No network games with Wintel opponents

Amazon.com Product Description

A real-time strategy game of epic proportions, Total Annihilation brings true 3-D to the world of Macintosh strategy. Choose to battle as the Arm or the Core, building kBots, tanks, ships, and aircraft to accomplish your goals.

If you're just getting started in real-time strategy gaming, start out with Total Annihilation: Battle Tactics. Here you'll find 100 quick scenarios that use select units and provide the opportunity to learn several basic and a few not-so-basic strategies.

With Total Annihilation: The Core Contingency, expand the Total Annihilation experience with new units, new worlds, new weapons, and new strategies.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Starcraft N00bs! Prepare for Annihilation!, October 1, 2004

By 

Kyle Slayzar (Bismarck, ND) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Total Annihilation Gold (Mac) (CD-ROM)

I have been playing TA for several years now and despite technological advances in the realm of PC gaming, TA still has yet to be surpassed in several fields, primarily in expandability.

TA has several elements that several RTS games did not have at the time, and still do not have, or rarely have. Here are a few.
1: Realistic ballistics in projectiles and counter-tactics thereof. You can dodge the weapons, in Starcraft it becomes a battle of attrition as it does in several other RTS games. Not to mention you can set up support fire and indirect fire from either fire teams or artillery. The artillery can actually fire for effect and you can even lead a target into a shot, something you never seen in games.
2: Complete expandability. You can create not just your own maps and campaigns, but units and weapons, which completely turn the tide and tactics of war. It becomes realistic in the way of real war where it becomes a technology race, you build one weapon and they build a counter for it and so forth. I have my units modified to be actual military units like the F14, the British Aircraft Carrier Arc Royale, XM-29 Joint Fighers, B52s and so forth.
3: Actual recon and patrol. If you know how to use your stealth units right, you can actually set up patrols and recon pickets that can sneak behind enemy lines. The difference between this and the Starcraft Ghosts is that in Starcraft, you can just walk up to anything and almost not be spotted... that's no fun. In TA you actually have to plot routes and what not to sneak behind enemy lines and gather terrain intel. Hell, I have U2 and SR71 spyplanes do aerial recon from high altitudes.
3: Balanced units. In Starcraft, a single marine can take out a battlecruiser... that's stupid. In TA, starships can spell certain doom if you don't handle them right, there are doomsday machines, however, they are usually quite balanced when it comes to how to build them and so forth.

The only downside is that people can make super silly doomsday weapons that can be build in seconds. Just watch out for those and TA will be one hell of an experience.

Oh yeah, the soundtrack is INCREDIBLE! I've never heard a soundtrack so beautifully made as this one.

Get TA! It's worth it!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cavedog's finest achievement so far., November 4, 2000

By 

"dirtpile" (Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Annihilation Gold (Mac) (CD-ROM)

When this title came out a few years ago, it was among the best at that time. Years after its release, it's still one of the better games around.

The game's graphics are good - 3D environments, terrains etc - but what makes Annihilation so good is its gameplay. There is a huge variety of units available and with the expansion packs (included in this product) amount to over 200 units.

Basically, what you have to do in this game is to accumulate resources and churn out units and overpower your enemy who's trying to do the same, although in the campaigns there are different goals.

Resource gathering is slightly different than in other real time strategy games. Instead of building harvesters and collecting resources, you now build a structure which gives you an infinite amount of a resource (either metal or energy). However, the rate at which the resource is generated usually exceeds the rate at which you spend, eg. a metal extractor on a rich metal deposit will give you around 3.0 metals per second forever, but contantly building units will use up much more than 3 metals per second, so unlimited resource does not mean that you can build infinite units.

Annihilation's huge number of units will most likely keep you playing this for quite a while. I've been playing this game on and off for 3 years and still have not gotten tired of it. If your're not quite sure whether this game is for you, you can always try out the demo, but it's better to save the download time and just buy this straight away.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gameplay comes first., October 6, 2002

By 

Alex Trenchard (Winchester, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Annihilation Gold (Mac) (CD-ROM)

The reason Total Annihilation was so utterly superior to all competition at the time of its release, and remains one of my facourite games today, it because of the resource model. Yes, it has enormous scope and variety. Yes, it really does require a little bit of three dimensional tactical thought. But most of all, it has really very good gameplay.

Like a good book or good film, this game absorbs you, creating a total and willing suspension of disbelief. The resources, energy and metal are utterly plausible requirements for a military campaign - no glowing tiberium or vespene gas here. The energy comes from equally plausible sources: solar power, wind power, geothermal, tidal, and fusion power plants will litter your bases. Construction of these buildings is well thought out. Not for us, the C&C model of 'pay everything now, receive in 6 minutes time'. Rather, buildings cost a fixed amount, but the rate at which this amount is removed from your treasury is dependant on the number of builders you assign to the project. This policy of combining building attempts extends to units. It is not uncommon to have four of five construction vehicles gathered around a factory-type building, adding their power. Even the technology involved is justified in the glossary at the back of the manual, wherein scientific explanations for how it is possible to fire plasma shells are given.

The continuous accumulation model, where the number of collectors you have affects the rate at which you gain a resource, is another great strength. Rather than just a number of resource units to consider, here you also have rate of gain and rate of spending. For example, in a mission, you might find yourself with 3000 energy, gaining at a rate of +42 per second, but losing at a rate of -81 per second. A quick calculation tells you that your suppies will be running out very shortly, so you shut down a few minor facilities like your radar towers and tell the repair teams patrolling your base to stand down. Quickly, your finances will be back on the rise.

What finally makes Total Annihilation stand head and shoulders above the competition is the total attention to detail. See that little robot unsling his rifle from across his shoulder? See the individual recoil on the tank's gun barrels? Notice the fact that they have not the usual 8 facings, but infinitely many? All of it just adds to the effect.

And it is good.

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