Microsoft and Relic Entertainments feature strange beings with the genetically enhanced real-time strategy title Impossible Creatures. If the very idea of taking different animal species and mixing them doesn't appeal to you, then you should take those creatures and send them into battle. It's not the best real-time strategy game.
The War of the Impossible Creatures
Impossible creatures - you lead an army of your own creation. You must build this army using the Sigma technology, which allows the genetic combination of two different animal species. You mix and match pieces to create around 40.000 different units in total, although many of these units are so close together that you can't tell the difference.
rex chance
Impossible Creatures follows the exploits of Rex Chance, a slightly Indiana Jones-esque war correspondent and adventurer who sets out to find his long-lost father after receiving a text from him detailing his whereabouts. It turns out that he was conducting genetic research on a thousand-mile-long chain of islands off the coast of Chile on behalf of a certain Upton Julius. Upon arrival, however, Rex quickly discovers that all is not well on Isla Veritas as he is being attacked by ant wolves. In fact, Upton did some very bad things to Julius' father and to the research project. With the help of a woman named Lucy Willing, a friend of Rex's long-lost father, he escapes and begins his journey of discovery and revenge.
In the year 1937
The story takes place in 1937. Everything is done with this adventurous style, from the slick futuristic '30s technology to the way the screenplay was written and the characters behave. Rex is out for revenge and Lucy just wants to save her project. Both make good heroes and the same goes for the various villain characters. They're an amusing bunch, from the brutish jock Whitey Hooten to the appropriately creepy mad scientist Otis Ganglion. They are all beautifully done with style and character and great voices. The story progresses with the help of each of these characters and their hilarious cutscenes as you battle your way to mastermind Upton Julius and discover that there's more to Rex than meets the eye.
The single player campaign
The single player campaign is fun and creative for the most part, with a variety of objectives per map to keep you on your toes and interested in what's happening. At the beginning of the journey you don't have any creatures in your army, so you'll have to work fast and collect some DNA from the native fauna on the different islands along the way. Each time you tag one of these creatures Rex, you have an animal's genetic blueprint to use during the single player campaign.
The units
The big difference between regular RTS and Impossible Creatures is the way units are handled. Most real-time strategy games give you a selection of units that are balanced to complement and work against each other and provide specific abilities that are exclusive to them. Instead, Relic has created a system where players have the ability to create their own units for battle, using the genetic blueprints of 50 farm animals to create hybrids. While this is a cool idea and creates an abundance of different units, it also means that the game isn't nearly as focused as a standard real-time strategy game would be, making it difficult to compare the balancing to the great strategy titles of all time .
The breeding animals
Each breeding animal has different attributes such as speed and toughness, hunting mentality and regenerative abilities to pack. Certain parts of these animals also contain special abilities. So let's say you take an electric eel and an eagle and put them together. If you don't give him the eagle's wings, he can't fly. If you don't give him the eel's head, he won't be able to shoot electricity at enemies. The trick here is to balance what you want.
The multiplayer
In multiplayer, fighters fight with ready-made armies. Some of these have been prepared and saved by Relic, but the real fun will be creating your own to suit your specific playstyle and tactics. The crazy thing about multiplayer battles is that you don't know what creatures you're going to fight until you actually see them in combat. You may have units that can crush your opponents, or they may be able to take advantage of that one weak link in your army.
create creatures
Actually creating the creatures is a lot of fun for both the comedic and strategic value, and the UI is fantastic. You must first select two creatures from the list, which can be sorted by attributes and abilities, so you can easily find the creatures you want. Once you have the creatures you want to shuffle, they will appear at the top of the screen on either side. In the middle is the hybrid, which changes as you make changes to it. You make these changes either by selecting body parts by pressing icons on either side of the hybrid, or by pressing buttons for the special abilities available to each of the creatures.
special ability
When you hit the special ability you want, the corresponding part will be automatically replaced, so you don't have to search for it. This works for everything from attacks to special abilities. Bottom center is a list of attribute numbers for speed, health, defense, and so on. These all change with each piece you toggle on and off, so you can see the difference you're making in the stats.
creature cost
You can also see how much the changes add to or subtract from your creature's cost. Seeing the disproportionate creatures appear on your computer screen is a thrill. Most of them go very well together, with only a few combinations resulting in extremely bizarre kinks in the model. It's a great system and one you should pat yourself on the back for.
research levels
The only problem is that some of the creatures are just useless and the first research levels are easy to get and the defense against weak creatures is strong enough that the many lower level creatures are completely left out in many fights. It also seems like some certain animals are far more useful than others. For example, most of your armies in single player when it comes to third and fourth level creatures are made up entirely of Hummer hybrids because they're so much better than anything else. While it was fun to watch your unstoppable Le Grande Crustacean army, especially in the hilarious way they run across the floor, it's too bad they were the obvious choice to pair other abilities with.
flying units
The same applies to flying units. They're just so weak it's sad. Very little use can be found for them, as comparable ranged ground units, in terms of cost and research level, can destroy them with little effort and anti-aircraft turrets can take almost anything from the sky. Pelican hybrids would have made interesting flying creatures.
The abilities
The fact of the matter is, abilities like fly and stealth or dig can be countered so quickly and easily at all levels that it's almost pointless trying to do anything sneaky either. There are plenty of readily available and affordable brands for these skills. In fact, most of your level 1 or 2 creatures have part wolves or coyotes inside them, both of which have keen senses used to discover hidden creatures.
your army
Once you have an army that you like, you can use the army analyzer, which will allow you to see its strengths and weaknesses. It will tell you everything from not enough strong melee units to not enough level 2 creatures. It's a great help for aspiring commanders who are a little unsure about what they're doing.
The graphic
Once you've assembled your army and fought in-game, a visual feast awaits. It's a lot of fun watching your freaks run around spewing lightning, kicking, biting, clawing and whatever else they do. The grounds and units are all very well done with beautiful colors and style. Visual effects are beautiful.
The sound
Sound on the other hand when animals are attacked is quite mixed. Your helper constantly warns you that your creatures are being attacked. Even if you look to control the creatures. Turning off the alerts also means that the alerts for buildings being attacked are turned off, so you'll have to look out for the icon that indicates something is happening. So some of your buildings will be destroyed if you're not careful. Unit acknowledgments for the human characters are also pretty weak. Since there are only a few human characters, Relic didn't add much variety to what they say. The creatures don't use many different sounds. However, if you overcome this shortcoming, you'll find great voice work in the cutscenes and wonderful music throughout.
The control
The actual controls of the game are pretty nifty with a nice GUI and basic RTS commands. Controlling the 3D camera should be easy enough for everyone, even those who have never played any of these games before. The AI didn't do anything that surprising or special, but different AI use different tactics. You get some of the trickle attacks, AI that builds up and then tries to crush you with a huge force, constant nagging attacks to keep you busy, and some that try to expand quickly in skirmish mode.
The unit AI
Actual unit AI isn't always that great. Most of the time you'll pick targets you would have, but every once in a while they'll just stop attacking or attack a building themselves while creatures and defenses hit it. They'll always take the shortest route to a point, but sometimes that means running in a long straight line, just waiting to be torn apart by lurking enemies, or bunching up and running around pathetically in chokepoints.
Conclusion
Although not the best real time strategy game, Impossible Creatrures is a good, fun and very creative game. If you're looking for a new twist on an old genre, this might be what you need to rekindle your interest. If you're brand new to the genre, this is a pretty interesting place to start. The creature creation process is almost enough to recommend this on its own, but combined with a fun single player mode and an interesting Magic the Gathering-style multiplayer strategy for building an army, it's a crazy experience that most game fans will enjoy . Coupled with the promise of many mods due to Relic's mod developer network and open engine, this could get bigger than it is now. For the sheer style and creativity alone, it's worth at least taking a look.