Sturmtrupp Mars Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

C&C meets Starship Troopers in this action strategy blockbuster.

I didn't want to play this game. Really. I had a look at the instructions quickly and there were lots of buildings and powerups to fathom. I read about the different modes, one with missions one on freeplay. And then I realised this was a Handy Games game. The people who brought us Townsmen and Pig racing.

So I knew that if I started getting into it, I wouldn't be able to stop. However, we feel that here at MGFs we have a duty to let you all know which games are worth spending your money on. Unfortunately this is.

You see my fears were completely accurate once I began to play the game. Sure, there's a lot to take in at first but the game is fairly intuitive, and the basic premise is simple. You have to build things to defend a colony on Mars from a whole host of giant bugs that came straight out of Starship Troopers (including the Mother Bugs as well).

Luckily for me, the graphics are reasonably small so the disgusting details can be left a bit more to the imagination. Although the graphics are not small enough that you can't differentiate between buildings or types of enemies. In fact, in terms of level of detail I would say they are just about right. I played on a 6680 so only got the reddish Mars backdrop and not the snow covered plains that's in our animated gif (eh?!?).

As with the Townsmen type of games, this is about building and upgrading, except here the action is much more frantic and the game is much more simple. You don't have to worry about trying to setup a sustainable economy, you have to worry about staying alive.

There are four main structures you have to protect. The main command centre, the Research Lab, the Energy centre and the Comms centre. The level of defence you employ increases as the game goes on and upgrades are made. There are plenty of defensive towers spitting energy and fire, and these can each be upgraded for 3 levels. Then there are other buildings to employ, a lighthouse to attract the vermin (they are bugs after all), minefields to blow them up and even satellites to check out the terrain.

In addition to the plethora of buildings, you can research technology into shields, armour, attack range and attack strength. But wait, there's more, you can also pay for specific power ups for your battle, such as invincibility, quick building repair, a cloud of poison gas and the like. These are used once and then you have to pay to attain them again. A nice feature is that if you don't use them, they will carry over to the next level.

This all seems like a lot to take in, but believe me it's not. A lot of the subtleties of the Townsmen series are gone, but there is intense action to replace it. The bugs can attack from any one of four directions (and later on from all four at the same time) so you have to be alert. Once the battle is in progress, killing the bugs will give you cash to upgrade buildings and perform repairs. You better do this quickly before the next wave of bugs hits, and after a few survival attempts, the final wave with a powerful bug will hit you. Survive this and then you get to go to the next level.

What's also great is that your upgrades stay from level to level. If you keep your main buildings intact, then they start the next mission at the level they were before, so you don't need to spend money on upgrading them again. Lose a building but finish the mission and you will have to build it again in the next mission.

Personally, this game was completely enthralling. Before long, I was mounting a defense based on a tried and tested strategy, always looking to exploit spare cash to make upgrades and see what kind of damage my new armaments could do. You can't be slack though and the map has to be used to see where you are getting attacked from so you can perform in battle repairs and new constructions.

This was a perfect blend of action and strategy, the action was manic and the strategy satisfying enough for a C&C buff like me. They even had the old worms from C&C in the last few levels, which brought back some memories.

The game is going to get a gold award from me, but it just missed out on ice cold for a couple of reasons. When you finish the mission mode, you can't keep playing to progress enough to see all the technology you didn't have a chance to develop. This would have been nice as I focussed on a few things specifically to make it through the game. Secondly, while there is a second mode, it's a random generation battlefield where you have to survive for as long as you can. You don't start with much money so to build up to the levels I got to in mission mode would have taken ages. It would have been nice to have this set at different levels of progression in the game (could have been unlocked) so you get to experience the full arsenal if you want. Lastly, the sound effects could have been heavily improved, as they seemed fairly sparse and sporadic, although the music was decent.

Don't let the above gripes (which are minor quibbles really) stop you from checking out this brilliant game. I played it through solidly for about 4 days and I'm sure you will too once you get into it. It's fully deserving of our gold award, and has caused me to write far too much (including a strategy guide on our hints tab). A must have!!