Gameplay

The story starts off far in the future, long after the events in the first Ground Control. Massive Entertainment clearly spent a lot of time developing the back story that explains the events leading up to Ground Control II - many pages in the manual are devoted to explaining the situation. We just wish they'd spend that kind of effort for the story in the game itself. It's riddled with clichés, bad dialogue and worst of all, is poorly presented.

Suspension of disbelief routinely flies out the window. In one of the earlier, better missions in the game, the player is sent off on a special task with a dozen infantry and some light terradynes - the most basic units in the game. Now, not to spoil anything, but it turns out that this piddling force of no more than 20 units apparently was the core of a defensive army. Don't get me wrong, I'm no military expert, but it strikes me that when the absence of a score of the most basic units in an army is cause for concern, it's time to import a French combat manual. Your war is finished.

Ground Control II has a lot of basics going for it. The terrain is not just beautiful but it's also useful. Buildings and trees provide cover for infantry and of course there are the natural advantages to higher ground. Units also have armor ratings, generally stronger up front, weaker on the sides and pathetic in the rear. All units have a second ability; light infantry switch from rifles to rocket launchers in order to take on mechanical units, the heavy tank will deploy itself as a mini-fortress with cover for other units, etc.

However, sometimes, these mode changes are unnecessary and forced on the player. The sniper is the perfect example - in order to shoot, he needs to have his mode switched. Since he can't move while in shooting mode, one would think the game could automatically switch him to shooting mode whenever he's not moving.

The second race, the Virons, are somewhat unique. They combine themselves to make different, usually better units. In the end though, they're really not all that dissimilar to the human units. There's still a heavy tank, a light tank, an artillery unit, etc. The differences between the two races are more like those between the Chinese and Americans in C&C Generals than between Terrans and Zerg in StarCraft.