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• gamedeal user

  Mar 21, 2022

  Ground Control 2 is an RTS game from 2004 that isn't as well remembered as some of its peers from that time period, but perhaps it should be. I've got some fond memories of this game from back in the day and I wasp pleased to see that those memories hold up well, having just finished the campaign again. The first thing that sets this game apart from other RTS games of the time is the presentation. The game has a fully 3D camera that not only allows you to view the game world from any angle, but also allows you to zoom all the way in to look at your units up close, and the visuals actually hold up quite well if you do. You see this more with modern day titles like Total War and Wargame but for the time it was pretty novel. The unit models have impressive detail considering the game's age, and the game environments are really nice to look at. Again, all of this is relative to the game's age, but the game also runs very easily even on low-end systems and punches way above its technical weight. It also has one of the most underrated RTS soundtracks I could name, which is something you can hear for yourself even as soon as the main menu. The game's set in the distant future, after man's gone interstellar. It's set a long time after the events of the first Ground Control game, but the events of GC2 only play loosely into that from what I can gather, I've not actually played GC1 yet. The bad guys of the game, the Terran empire, are trying to subjugate a nation made up of previously-lost colonies called the Northern Star Alliance, and have beaten them back to their last planet, Morningstar Prime. You step into the shoes of Captain Jacob Angelus, a newly-promoted NSA commander, in an effort to fight the Terrans off. The conflict is complicated further when the Terrans enlist the aid of the alien Virons to up the ante (this might have been a spoiler but the game has the Virons right there on the campaign menu.) There are three campaign chapters to clear, set sequentially: a brief tutorial campaign to teach you the basics, an NSA campaign, and then a Viron campaign to round things off. The story is overall surprisingly good for a more obscure game like this. There are some twists and turns in the plot all the way until the end, enough to make things interesting at least. The characters lean heavily into cliche but they're memorable all the same - they have some extremely cheesy voice acting but honestly it's all part of the charm and I wouldn't have it any other way. The game also has some pretty nice-looking CG cutscenes, which are further enhanced by use of the game's great soundtrack. So how about the gameplay? It kind of straddles the line between more real-time tactics games and traditional RTS. You only have one resource, which is Acquisition Points, or AP, and don't build bases. You get more AP by killing enemies, or by capturing Victory Points to receive a steady trickle of income, though the more units you have, the less AP you receive. There are also larger circular points on the map - these are Landing Zones, where you can spend your AP and receive reinforcements via dropship. You can also switch a toggle that'll cause your dropship to hang around for a while after dropping off your troops - it's armed and pretty heavily armoured, which lets it serve as some powerful temporary air support. The roster of units for each faction isn't especially large, but every NSA and Viron unit has a secondary mode you can toggle to on the fly. For instance, the NSA's Liberator Terradyne, their core tank unit, uses an anti-armour cannon as its default weapon, but can switch to an anti-infantry machine gun. The Virons' Assault Clanguard, their basic infantry, cannot fire in its secondary mode, but rapidly regenerates. Some secondary modes have more utility than others, but they're worth taking into account when you use your units. It gives you some nice micro potential too. To give an example, the NSA basic infantry switches between being mobile and using a machine gun, and being static and firing anti-armour rockets with a long reload time. You can advance with machine guns, switch to rockets to get off a huge volley of damage, and then instead of standing still and waiting to reload, switch back to primary mode to move into a better position and get off more machine gun damage before switching back again for another big hit. The game feels a bit more like a real battlefield than some other RTSes, with terrain, line of sight, armour facing and other realistic elements playing a big part - the game even has a limited degree of dynamic weather effects that impact vision and firing ranges; That approach carries over into the kind of roles each unit type fulfills. For instance, infantry are very cost efficient when deployed right - when garrisoned in buildings or forests they're very hard to kill. However, they're very slow moving, so you'll need to make use of APC units if you want to make best use, plus they're vulnerable in the open. Artillery in this game has enormous range and high destructive potential, firing up in this huge arc that's very visually impressive but allows mobile units to easily get out of the way, although they're devastating against pinned-down enemies and defensive strong points. NSA units are mostly standard fare, with the expected roster of infantry and military vehicles with some slight sci-fi touches. The Virons use organic technology that looks very insectoid and are a little more exotic, especially through the use of their main gimmick, melding. Two identical units can merge together to create a new unit - for instance, two Engineer Centuroids (an APC / healer unit) can merge to create a Mortar Centruroid (artillery.) You can unmeld melded units into their component units too, though a melded unit can't be melded again. This allows you a lot of flexibility when playing Virons, although as with secondary modes not all melded units are all that useful - I almost never want to use Infector or Mortar Clanguards, which are the melded forms of the much more useful Assault and Missile Clanguards respectively. Your units are also very vulnerable when melding or unmelding too so you need to be careful about doing it on the fly. The game does have some flaws. While the story is good, it ends on - well not quite a cliffhanger, but a blatant sequel hook that was and never will be fulfilled - Massive moved on to bigger and better things, they make the Division now. While the NSA campaign progression is pretty nice, the early stages of the Viron campaign are really rough - it hits you with a bunch of challenging and annoying missions in a row and only gives you a limited roster of infantry and light vehicles to do the job. I also noticed some strange behaviour from the AI in some missions, most notably when they'd pick exactly one kind of unit to reinforce with and then bring in literally nothing else until the end of the mission. The most absurd instance of this for me was when the AI decided to make nothing but a huge conga line of engineers that repaired one another as they bum rushed my victory points and LZ. There are two especially notable flaws, however. Firstly, the Terrans are totally non-playable. They're the bad guys in the story, so no campaign makes sense, but you can't even play them in skirmish. They have some cool stuff like hover tanks and combat mechs so this is a missed opportunity. Second, the game's multiplayer no longer works, even after being rereleased on Steam. Exactly how many people would still be playing today I don't know, but it seems like it'd be a good game for multiplayer so this is still somewhat of a bummer. However, the campaign alone is easily worth the very low asking price. You can but this bundled with Ground Control 1 for a really low price, even when it's not on sale. I'd definitely encourage anyone to pick this up and enjoy a forgotten and underrated gem of an RTS.
• Lupercal

  Aug 2, 2023

  Monetized, non-functioning abandonware. Do not buy. The game simply doesn't launch on a modern system and there are no official patches/solutions. There are some dervishes and soothsayers on the forums advising to either disconnect your headset or install old codecs to get the game to run but even those measures don't help launching the game. I tried seeking help via the official rebellion support, which admirably assisted me for a few weeks, but ultimately had no solution for the issue at hand.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 8, 2015

  Oh boy, I've been waiting long for this one to be released on Steam. It's been on steamdb for more than a year! Anyways, Ground Control II is an RTS game made by Massive Ent. (who made World in Conflict afterwards) and initially released in 2004. The key feature of the game is that you don't build bases here, you earn points by killing enemy troops and capturing control points and call in reinforcements to the landing zones you captured. The game doesn't have a lot of units and only two playable factions, but every unit has an alternative mode that can drastically change its capabilities (a standard NSA trooper can turn into a heavy rocket trooper that is very effective against vehicles, but can't move); two identical Viron (the second faction) units can meld together to form a unique third unit (that has an alternative mode as well). So the game offers a lot of freedom as to how you use your soldiers. The highlight of the game for me has always been the campaign. I would go as far as to say that it is at least on par with campaign of Startcraft II. It has cool cinematics, very neat sci-fi aesthetic and surpisingly good story. I am a casual RTS player, so this game is one of my favourites because of it. Not to mention that the game still looks gorgeous. I remember how astonished I was as a kid by sky reflection in the water. The music is very good and extremely fitting as well. One thing needs to be mentioned however, ONLINE MULTIPLAYER IS DEAD. You can still play locally though. As for this version of the game, it works fine on a modern system, but has no improvements over original release (not even Steam features like cards and achievements, which is a shame). That being said, for 5$ it's a steal. Buy it, have a blast with campaign (it's pretty long) and it would be well worth it already.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 9, 2015

  Man Finaly is this on Steam Ground Control series are my favourite no base RTS. You have a spawn point and cann buy any units, from ground troopers till air craft. I really liked this game. So let us rejoin in old good glory. Even if Ground Control 2 is pretty old, 2004 It still the most best looking game ever produced. By the way the Terran Empire Mod work here, just download from here the mod, put it in the game folder and start GC2 Reviron 3 - NSA v Terran or GC2 Reversal 3 - Terran v Viron and Campaign So you can play the awesome third Mecha/Walker and Hovercraft faction, The Terran Empire. http://www.moddb.com/mods/gc2-reversal-mod/downloads/reversal-mod-3-repack They do have Additional maps by the way there. http://www.moddb.com/mods/gc2-reversal-mod/addons/gc2-custom-map-pack
• gamedeal user

  Jul 9, 2015

  Now, if you enjoyed Ground Control 1 and love RTS/Tactical games, you cannot miss this one. Graphics are amazingly better than the previous installments, storytelling is much more captivating, gameplay is challenging, fun and rewarding. It feels good when you beat a mission. It feels even better when you finish the game, and it makes you want a sequel. I'm still waiting for Ground Control 3. :P
• gamedeal user

  Aug 31, 2015

  Incredible game and I haven't found an RTS like it to date. Would love to play some MP again, but need someone with more computer smarts to do so than I have. Add me if you fancy some MP and can make it happen. Gutted there has been no support for MP.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 8, 2015

  This was the best childhood game of my life. Controls are easy to pick up and understand, Not too many unit choices though. Then again, I wouldn't want to have to remember the abilities of too many units. Storyline is good, with a little plot twist. Battle scenarios are not based on a scissors-paper-stone kind of fight. Eg. Infantry units are supposed to get beaten by tanks, but their secondary ability (once activated) allows then to even the odds abit. I did enjoy playing as a 12 year old and I still enjoy this game from time to time! Get it now before the sale ends! Definitely worth your money.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 2, 2016

  10years ,I waitting for 10years!!!!!!!!!
• gamedeal user

  Apr 14, 2016

  I don't need to play a second of the game on Steam, never mind the 5 minutes in order to post a review as I've owned on CD-Rom since it was new & it is a truly outstanding RTS. It made the C&C franchise look like the tired, worn out beast that it was & was a match for it's contemporary; Rome: Total War every step of the way on graphics, right down to looking in the eyes of individual troops. Throw in a simple resource system, truly beautiful environments & a really atmospheric story line that from minute 1 you're convinced is destined for tragedy & defeat for you & your people... In fact, I got really attached to the characters throughout, something a lot of story-based games struggle to do, never mind a strategy game! The game play stands up to close inspection as well; whether you're defensive or aggressive, infantryman or tank-man, there are units to suit all styles. You even get to control an alien species who can combine two of the same unit to create a totally new one. It's even reversible, so offers real tactical flexibility. The only downside is that you still can't play as the 'evil' faction in the multiplayer, despite the game offering just as much detail & info about the units as your own. Basically, it's a truly superb RTS & all fans of strategy games should own this fabulous addition to the genre.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 22, 2017

  A good game on its own, this RTS is 'streamlined' compared to original Ground Control and is very loosely tied to its story. It's nearly a different universe. Alien warrior race portrayed here is almost too cheesy. I recommend the game anyway. Check out Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak if you like GC!