	Earth 2160
	Developer: Reality Pump Publisher: Deep Silver Release Date: Out Now Players: 1-8	Words By:
Earth 2160 is the latest in the popular Earth series of games. The planet Earth collapsed in 2150 so 3 different factions decided to terraform 'the red planet' (duh - that'll be Mars then, not some strange world inhabited by Liverpool/Man United fans) in the hope of rebuilding the human race back to how it was on Earth. There are four different factions, ED (Eurasian Dynasty), LC (Lunar Corporation), UCS (United Civilized States) and the Aliens. Each faction has their individual units, base styles and other unique features. Now seeing as this is an RTS you'll be dealing with the usual features, gathering resources, building up your base’s defences and unit production buildings and then going to kick some butt. The resources are gathered by flying machines that fly to the source (water, metal or silicon) and then send back it to your base so then you can spend it on shiny new units. For the base building you'll be able to choose from 13 basic buildings ranging from complex power stations to basic walls, you'll also have some pretty nifty turrets to defend your base with. Before you go to kick butt you might want to take a look at the research screen. Earth 2160 features a lot of technology to research and following the trend of previous Earth titles you can build your own units. So let’s say you've researched rockets and heavy armour, you can then build a heavy rocket tank but it might go a little slow, so research a better engine then add it on. It's a neat feature. Each faction has its own single player campaign with 7 missions. Single players can also enjoy the skirmish game mode which lets you choose any faction and map and battle against the computer AI. You'll also be able to enjoy a multiplayer game with up to 8 players. Graphically Earth 2160 is definitely a looker. The first thing you notice is the shader effects that look like they've been taken straight out of Doom 3, everything is bumpy and shiny! You'll also notice the excellent shadows and lighting, along with day to night changes and weather effects that look really nice – oh, and lovely reflective water (which we all love), as long as your computer is up to it that is – You’re going to need a 1.5Ghz CPU, 512Mb RAM and a decent 128Mb graphics card. The sound is decent enough, with good voiceovers and some atmospheric music. All the explosions and ambient noises sound good. Only problem is the completely dodgy Russian rap music that crops up - eeeuuuww. So overall Earth 2160 is a decent RTS with some nice features and great looks. But there just wasn't anything that grabbed me and kept me interested to play it to death like some previous RTS games I could mention. However, if you're looking for a futuristic RTS fix this might be the game for you.

Best Bits
- Looks great.
- 4 factions
- The unit builder

Worst Bits
- Russian rap music!?
- Nothing to grab you


by: SteMacD