OK, there was a stupid joke
that I heard a while back. “What do you get when you cross an elephant and a
rhino” … the answer? “Elephino”. Get it? Well, Relic entertainment kind of took
it one step further in producing Impossible Creatures, where an elephino is more
than a bad joke … it’s a destructive killing machine amongst an infinite list of
other weird mutations that you can come up with.
Impossible Creatures
revolves around the story of Rex Chance during the 1930’s. Rex gets a letter
from his father who has been missing for some time asking him to come to a
remote chain of islands in the pacific. Rex, intent on finding his father to see
what happened and where he had been hops on a plane and heads out to the
location. Instead of finding his dear old dad, he instead stumbles on a mean
individual and some creatures that resemble huge scorpions with wolf like
features. This seems to be the end of our hero, when a flying locomotive piloted
by another character named Lucy Willing comes from out of nowhere and rescues
Rex from his death. Thus begins the story, as you and Lucy traverse a series of
islands to end the reign of the psycho that you ran into and his army, and get
some answers as well.
Anyone who has played an RTS
title in the past will be familiar with the overall game concept. Collect
resources (coal and electricity) to create new laborers, build new structures,
and create armies to fight for you. Everything is a simple mouse point and click
style like other RTS titles, but Relic did a couple of things differently which
give it just a little bit of its own unique twist. For starters, the only
resource that you really have to worry about going out to get is coal.
Electricity is derived from towers that your henchmen build, so if more
electricity is needed, just build a few more towers or build a generator over a
natural geyser rather than have to go searching for it.
Another unique feature to
Impossible Creatures is the overall presentation of the game. It doesn’t seem to
rely on building quite as much as it does combat. Oh sure, it retains an overall
RTS feel to it, but the developers really wanted you to focus on building armies
of weird creatures rather than play a “god sim”, and it shows in a seemingly
faster paced gameplay than some other titles out there. There are a lot of
different things to build, like sonar defense towers, amplifier towers, or
barricades and such, but many aren’t 100% necessary in winning or losing. The
map will show you exactly where you need to go for the most part by a flashing
blip, mission objectives are usually “get to here or here”, and the secondary
ones are usually DNA collecting for your monster army. Let me explain that one a
little more …
Building an army of
impossible creatures is surprisingly simple, and surprisingly fun and addictive
as well. Each island that you go to as you progress through the game has a
various assortment of beasts walking around in the woods or across the
landscape, and Rex’s main job is to collect DNA from them. Once this is done,
you can utilize your lab to research what you have collected and begin building
your army. For example, if you collect DNA from a porcupine and a skunk, you can
utilize the traits of these two animals to build a mutant in the creature
chamber.
The creature chamber is
where all of your gene splicing comes into play. When you select two creatures
that you have collected DNA from and researched, say our porcupine and skunk
again, a new form appears on the screen usually named something like “Porcukunk”.
You can then alter any part of the beast that you want, from bodies to heads to
limbs to tails to get the look and ultimately the most powerful combination that
you want to achieve. Each creature has its own attack, defense, speed, and
special attack that can be used depending on what part of the creature you use
and where you put it. In addition, each creature also has some different plusses
or minuses to it in other areas, such as flight, swimming, herding or pack
hunting which can give it better movement or attack/defend bonuses for being
around other creatures of the same kind.
OK, for example, if I
combine my porcupine and skunk again, I might decide to use the body of the
porcupine, since it can utilize a “quill attack” and throw sharp quills across
the screen, the tail of the skunk for a “stink cloud” attack, the head of the
porcupine for a better bite attack, and the legs of the skunk for a better speed
value. What I come up with looks bizarre, and becomes the first part of my army.
As you find bigger and tougher creatures later on in the game, you can then
start researching at higher levels and start combining some really huge and
really devastating beasts. Things like giraffe bodies with the heads of whales
for herding defense bonuses, a sonar attack, and good speed, or large ant bodies
with the heads of sharks to burrow into the ground and snag unsuspecting
opponents who walk overhead in a feeding frenzy fashion. The end result is one
heck of a fast paced game of severe combat, good strategy tactics, and an
endless way of splicing animals together.
OK, Impossible Creatures has
a fast paced and fun single player mode, and we online freaks also get a treat
with this one as well. The online multiplayer game is also a blast to play, and
really provides some great fun. You can play in arenas with anywhere from 2 to 6
other players, and do everything from a frenzied deathmatch to team battles
which will have the ground thundering with the hooves, fins, and paws of 6
different armies going at it for ultimate conquest.
Now, there are only a couple
of things that I can see that would get in the way of someone really enjoying
this game. The first one is the faster paced gameplay, which in my opinion is a
big plus. I have a couple of fellow gaming friends of mine, however, who enjoy a
style more similar to Age of Mythology or Cultures 2 where a large part of the
game is spent building big cities, then a big army, then looking for conquest.
The maps also don’t seem to reveal as much as a lot of other RTS titles out
there, and line of sight seems very limited. In many other titles, moving
through an area will at least keep it there for you to see what may be going on,
but in this title, after you move through an area it completely blacks out again
so you never really know what may be waiting.
The second issue here is the
fact that despite its unique overall presentation, the core element of the game
is the same as any other RTS title out there, and has a “been there done that”
kind of feeling to it. In all fairness though, whether you are a fan of RTS
games, FPS titles like Unreal Tournament or Quake III, or RPG’s like Arcanum or
Diablo, they all have the same kind of overall thing to them also.
Graphically, Impossible
Creatures looks fantastic. The environments are a little less detailed at times
than some other games from a landscaping perspective, but the colors are bold
and bright, and little things like dust clouds from a herd of galloping
“porculions” and sea foam crashing on the shore add to the feel. Also, you can
zoom all the way into the creatures or character’s faces, and doing so shows no
pixilation or decline in overall graphic presentation.
The sound in Impossible
Creatures is also good, even if the repeated one liners of Rex Chance or Lucy
saying “I’m on it” or “for science” every time you ask them to move somewhere
can get a little repetitive. The creatures each have their own little particular
noises also, depending on what head you place on them, and the sounds of battle
are pretty ferocious at times and sound good. The dialogue in the game is also
well written, even if a tad silly or scripted at times, and the music has an
interesting range to it. The opening title screen has this really cool swing
tune that pops up and will have you tapping your foot to it, while the in game
music tends to revolve more around a tribal drum theme which kind of blends into
the background after a while.
Overall, Impossible
Creatures is a really fun and addicting title, despite the fact that it’s pretty
similar to other titles in the same genre if you strip it down to the core. RTS
fans and online multiplayer fans should have a great time with it, and even if
you have “been there done that” before, the sheer unique and bizarre storyline
mixed with a fast paced combat style game makes it a lot of fun to play … and
never a dull moment. Charles Darwin, Steve Irwin, and Catdog would be pleased,
and you will be too when you pop in Impossible Creatures.
Gameplay: 8.2
Everything in
this game is very simple to operate, and very easy to figure out due to a scaled
down menu and point and click instructions. It also focuses more on combat
rather than building, which makes it simple to learn even if you don’t go
through the tutorial all the way to the end. Gamers who like title like Cultures
2 or bigger “god sim” games may not be quite as excited about the faster paced
gameplay as people like me, but won’t be too disappointed due to the solid RTS
backbone that it has. It also has over 60 creatures to find and experiment with,
which makes building armies additive and offers a good amount of replayability.
Graphics: 8.5
Impossible
Creatures boasts some really colorful graphics, and the movements of the
creatures and characters are fluid, fast, and smooth. Also, zooming into the
landscape shows no faults in graphics deteriorating or getting worse. The
landscapes don’t seem quite as busy as some other games, but they aren’t bad by
any stretch of the imagination either.
Sound: 8.0
Great opening
track! The in game music isn’t bad, but the swing thing for the time era is
great, and I would have loved to have more as the game went on. The character
voices are well acted, sometimes silly or a tad scripted, and at times made
humorous by some mild innuendos. The characters themselves get a little
repetitive in the game, but nothing that gets aggravating or any more annoying
than other RTS titles which have a similar “repetitive comment” thing going on.
Difficulty: Medium
There are
definitely some do overs along the way while trying to find the best way to
go about completing
missions, but the game progresses at a pace which is easy for anyone to learn
and get into, and won’t get complicated until you are ready for it as it adds
more buildings on or harder creatures to find, research, or battle with. The
interface is effective, but easy to learn.
Concept: 8.5
OK, the game is
very similar to games of the same style, but the endless amount of monsters that
you can create and the unique twist to the fighting, the special abilities, and
strategies of using your creatures definitely deserves recognition. In addition,
not having to focus as much on building ALL the time was a nice change of pace
and I definitely tip my hat to Relic Entertainment on doing something a little
different here.
Multiplayer: 8.9
This is an
absolute blast. Play in arenas with up to six other opponents for ultimate
supremacy using a selection of creatures from one of the various characters in
the game. There are also a few maps to play on and some good opportunity for 3
on 3, 2 vs. 2 vs. 2, or all out deathmatch domination tournaments with friends
from around the country.
Overall: 8.5
Overall, this was
a surprisingly solid RTS game which shows off what it can do against the
Warcrafts or Age of Empires titles out there. While the faster paced combat
style may not be for everyone, it definitely won’t take away from anything or
disappoint either. If you are a fan of RTS titles, this should be a good title
to offer some fun and scientific gene splicing action for you. Also, kids who
love animals will have a ball designing weird specimens of their own, and the
easy interface should allow them to pick it up and play it without too many
problems. Good job again to Relic on this one.
