Tempest Rising Review (≡ STRYDHYZR ≡)
I will shelf this game for now. As much as it closely resembles the CNC games (and I really like CNC/Starcraft games) something about it is off, and I can name a few.
1. The lack of originality. The story is a direct copy of CNC Tiberian Series, they only replaced the Tiberium with the Tempest, the GDI with GDF, and the NOD with DYN(asty), even the Hand of NOD is in the game. I will not be surprised if the upcoming third faction is an alien faction.
2. The use of AI for voices, and it is very clear. The briefing cinematic sounds off and they know this because they made the briefing cinematic optional (They made it up to you if you want to watch the briefing).
3. The skirmish is lacking content and the ability to expand. The game only have 9 maps, 3/4ths of it are 2 player maps and the other quarter are 4 player maps. The skirmish need more maps, and bigger maps that can support 6/8/10 or even 12 players. The AIs are also cheating the Skirmish games, either they're cheating the economy, or maybe it is related to point #5 below.
4. It is extremely hard to distinguish the infantry units when you put them together. I can't tell which one are the riflemen, and which ones are the rocket infantry. Starcraft II did not have this problem. Infantry needs a redesign, or at least make their collisions larger.
5. The balance is broken and heavily favors the DYN faction over the GDF. The overdrive power plant needs to go, and the Machine (tank) Factory should not be unlocked right at the beginning for the DYN faction.
6. The AI is partially broken, my units are being attacked and sometimes they are not automatically fighting back (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, this is really frustrating).
On the positive side they did fix the stuttering issue of the BETA last year, and the graphics looks great (Unreal Engine game), and they did respect the regional pricing, but that's all the positive I can say at the moment.
I hope they fix these issues because it has a potential to become a perfect alternative to CNC games.