Interface

How to play the game

The TA:K interface sticks with the medieval theme admirably. The loading screen is particularly clever; instead of a boring progress bar, you're treated to a stained glass window being filled in with color as the game loads. Unfortunately you are left admiring this window for quite a while unless you've got a supercharged gaming rig, but I'll be getting to that criticism a bit later.

Desecrating the temple

Take out that tower

The basic mechanics of how you play the game have changed little, if at all. Total Annihilation veterans will immediately feel at home. The solid core of an already excellent control interface is intact, including the key ability to hold down SHIFT and intuitively queue any set of commands for any building or unit. A few slight tweaks have been made, but only hardcore TA players would notice. Like any good RTS, everything is boiled down to point and click, with keyboard hotkeys as well.

One of the bad guys

Spells in TA? No way

Finally, a matchmaker

The multiplayer interface finally includes a free multiplayer matching service hosted by Cavedog, called Boneyards. This is equivalent to Blizzard's Battle.net service. Although not quite as polished, and still in a late beta stage, it's very easy to get started with a few clicks and most of the amenities you would expect are present. One notable addition to this paradigm is the larger online campaign modes; you can choose to fight as part of a larger ongoing struggle, so your individual match results will count towards the goals of your element, and are tracked over weeks and months.