Reviews

Well my review will start out with the first thing you see once you run the game for the first time. The Intro: well, I just have to say that the intro is one of the best intros in technology and overall quality I have ever seen. You get the opinion that you are going into a high-quality game when you see that beauty of an intro. The briefings are informative and funny at the same time. While they still contain movie-like quality like you would see in a Westwood game briefing. So you won’t feel like that was a good intro now onto crappy briefings.

The main campaign consists of a non-linear structure consisting of over 50 missions and 3 sides. The missions are very fun most of the time. And no matter how difficult a mission may seem, it is never impossible. This organization of missions will make you keep on playing until you are finished with the game. And even after that the multiplayer and solo play (a.k.a. skirmish) features will make the game keep going on.

The map editor lets you make your own high-quality maps in maybe half an hour at the most. Another interesting feature is the unit editor where you can change stats on a kknd2 unit so that you can use it in solo play or multiplayer (or in the campaign if you are willing to cheat).

The gameplay is very clean and easy. For example another feature is called smart-select. Basically when you are “rubber-band” selecting units you won’t accidentally select structures tankers or any non-combat units. For all you StarCraft players out there smart select would work that you would not select any SCVs. Then there is also the unit building. This is by far the easiest form of unit building I have ever seen. Basically there is a side bar where you can select how many you want units to build up. Also referring to unit building is that you can select where units will move the second they are finished from construction.

The resources works in an interesting way: you build up these things called mobile derricks or the other sides equivalents. Then you put them on an oil puddle. Then you build a structure where the oil gets collected and tanker units move from the derrick to the station constantly creating resource units. Or the alternative is that when you don’t have oil handy you can build structures which generate resource units at a constant rate all the time. The tech tree is fairly easy to climb rather than complicated tech-trees in most other games. You simply need a structure which makes upgrades to other structures using resource units. Then an upgraded structure performs better, has more options, or it gains special features.

The graphics in the game are well done. The detail of the units to the special effects of an explosion all give the eye candy any modern RTS player could ask for. The sounds in the game are pretty good. Though the lagging point in the sounds is that the units don’t have too many responses. Although as they veteran they do change comments. That brings up another point. The units as they experience more combat they will take less damage. Gain accuracy otherwise inflicting more damage. Or gain special abilities like self-healing. The music mixes well with the game. Especially since each side in kknd2 has its own soundtrack.

The three sides have quite a diversity: each side has units with different weapons, strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and looks. Also each side has different types of Constructibles. This diversity is pretty diverse but all in all equal. Each time you beat an individual species campaign you get a cool looking movie scene too. So in conclusion I think KKND2 deserves a 9.3 out of 10 for good graphics, Proof of work, and all around fun.

- KKNDMaster