Story
In the year 2327, pirate groups menace the Centauri system, raiding farms and killing people. Strike Force Centauri and other similar units must intercept and eliminate these groups wherever and whenever possible.An in-game computer database explains the history of the Centauri system, its clans, and other information. It explains minute details about the economies and societal structure of nations.
Dotted throughout the game are Full Motion Video sequences. These enhance the game and give the characters personality. The quality is in the B-Movie range even compared to other similar games released in the 90s. Unfortunately, there aren't enough video sequences. It seems like there should be more of them. Plot points and threads are introduced and never reach a definitive conclusion. It's almost as if the developers wanted a larger story, but cut everything down to fit on a single disc. Even worse, DOSBox sometimes skips the movies entirely (restarting DOSBox after each mission seems to help avoid it). The game even crashed repeatedly before Operation Goblin could even begin (fixed by correctly configuring sound settings to use SoundBlaster's IRQ and whatnot).
Combat
Missions take place in the first-person point of view. The player controls a mechanized suit armed with weapons and devices to defeat the enemy. These weapons and items include lasers and rockets as well as spy drones, electromagnetic dampeners, and medical kits. The player gives commands to squad members such as scouting an area, protecting a location, destroying a bridge, or retreating to an evacuation point. The artificial intelligence on the squad members is pretty good, but the player needs to take care to give appropriate weapons for the mission (squad members will use auto-turrets to defend an area, but won't deploy them offensively; grenade launchers carry a risk of friendly fire).Sometimes there are numerous tactics to win a mission, but others, especially timed missions, require precise planning and foreknowledge of what events occur in said mission. Performing well earns the player medals. Players must retry failed missions until achieving a minimum set of objectives.
Team members can not be killed during a mission since they evacuate whenever damage is critical. However, wounded team members may not be available for a mission or two unless the story requires their presence. Story and mission progression are linear, so missing out on a needed specialist can make the subsequent mission significantly more difficult.
Overall the combat is both fun and challenging, requiring the player to quickly react to changes in the enemy formation or mission parameters. The trick is to give the right set of equipment to squad members along with proper tactics to defeat an all-too-often numerically superior foe. A small bit of luck is handy as well.
Conclusion
Terra Nova is an enjoyable military simulator though there aren't enough missions or story sequences for my tastes. There weren't enough missions to experiment with every weapon or tactic. There weren't enough story sequences to give a sense of completion; the villain never receives their comeuppance. I finished the game in about five hours, though that may not include aborted mission attempts. |
| Five and a half hours on standard difficulty. It may not include aborted missions. |
Perhaps combining the real-time combat of Terra Nova with X-COM's base management, enemy interception, and strategic overlook would create an even better game. The developers already created fairly large maps to represent planetary surfaces. The game engine could randomly generate terrain for this hypothetical hybrid game. Non-story missions would extend the game's length and give the player an opportunity to experiment with weapons and tactics.
