By Kieron Gillen on January 2nd, 2008 at 11:56 am.
We probably don’t pay enough attention to the GNU projects, but Rllmuk brought it to my attention that a team are cheerily developing from the now-openly-sourceable remains of one the great lost RTS games of the nineties: Warzone 2100.
The current version, 2.0.8, seems to include operative campaign and multiplayer (though the next release, which has been delayed from December into early 2008 promises full online compatibility between all its supported formats). Returning to the game after so long away brings back a fair few memories – as far as I’m concerned, it was the first real 3D RTS and its lack of sales success a complete mystery. In fact, its novelty in those areas may even be part of its failure – people were bewildered by the 3D power being thrown around, as well as its novel (pre-Earth 2150) unit-assembling functionality. In fact, its ever-expanding maps look even more prescient in world of Supreme Commander. Still worth playing and probably the greatest game to ever come from the City of Bath. Except, possibly, Zeewolf.
02/01/2008 at 12:51 Fat Zombie says:
Yeah! Go Warzone 2100!
If I remember correctly, WZ2100 was the first ever PC game I ever played, back on our family’s first computer. I fell in love with the unit customisation feature: I am tempted to download this for nostalgia’s sake. Thanks, RPS!
02/01/2008 at 12:58 Kieron Gillen says:
I’ve only played the first level, but it’s still fun. A couple of interface oddities, but it’s cute.
KG
02/01/2008 at 13:36 Retro says:
I hated hated hated the fact that all missions were timed (but thankfully this could be disabled using cheat codes).
02/01/2008 at 14:02 SwiftRanger says:
Too bad that the Conflict-franchise is taking up all the time of Pivotal Games (most ex-Pumpkin Studios peeps work there). A couple of years ago I read a comment of Alex McLean in an interview that he would love to make a Warzone 2100 sequel but Conflict’s success proved to be a poisoned gift back then (and apparently still is).
02/01/2008 at 14:10 Narvi says:
I loved Warzone, and spent ages playing this, but after the pathfinding annoyed me for the eighty-fourth time I gave up.
02/01/2008 at 18:48 Pod says:
Warzone was great; I borrowed my friends copy and spent a lot of time on this as a kid. We also ‘multiplayed’ each other and we often won, I recall. Despite these fond memories I find that I’m ANGRY that you think it’s better than Zeewolf!
03/01/2008 at 11:06 KindredPhantom says:
Warzone 2100 is the only RTS i have played and liked.
I still have this for the old PSone. It is a shame that they don’t have the original cut scenes, still it as a great and fun game.
03/01/2008 at 18:28 Butler says:
Returning to the game after so long away brings back a fair few memories – as far as I’m concerned, it was the first real 3D RTS
Sorry to be a pedant, but I believe Total Annihilation was the first full 3D RTS, which arrived two years prior to Warzone. You could also guess that TA was one reason Warzone didn’t sell very well, StarCraft is another.
03/01/2008 at 21:52 Mike says:
I never ‘got’ Warzone. The unit-customisation seemed too forced (as with many games where player choice is involved, most options available to you are so awful that the real ‘choices’ are few – Alpha Centauri, anyone?) and the setting was a bit… bland. This was the age of the Kitsch RTS, where Soviets had extraordinary facial hair and things like KKND were considered tame and ordinary.
Who still has KKND? Now there was an awesome RTS. Generic as hell, but bags of charm.
05/04/2008 at 20:14 SwiftRanger says:
Oh yeah, KKnD manual by itself was worth the purchase for the jokes alone. Don’t mention the sequel though.
07/08/2008 at 08:57 Gap Gen says:
I liked the fact that my winning (or rather only, at the end) strategy was to build hundreds of cheap fire planes, and then firebomb everything.