Dark Planet: Battle for Natrolis Demo

StarCraft is definitely an icon of the real-time strategy genre, given the fact that it is still played all over the world and it is one of the most popular cyber-sports ever. Many other games tried to copy its success and borrow many of the same mechanics, but not a lot of them made it. However, some came pretty close and they managed to enjoy quite a bit of glory, although these titles also added a few of their own ingredients to the mix.

Dark Planet: Battle for Natrolis is a classic real-time strategy game featuring a fierce war between three factions, all of which use different technologies and resources to gain the advantage. Hence, as long as you are a fan of the genre, you should find exactly what you are looking for in this title, although you should also be prepared for some bad choices when it comes to interface and gameplay mechanics.

As far as the story is concerned, it doesn’t go too deep and it basically resumes to a power struggle between the factions. Speaking of which, these are called Sorin, Colonists, and Dreil. While the Colonists are obviously humans, sporting mechs and various other crude, yet efficient robotic units, the Dreil are slimy aliens that come in great numbers, just like you-know-who. On the other hand, the Sorin are a tad more unique, although not by much.

Gameplay-wise, it’s business as usual in the real-time strategy genre. Hence, the old formula should work wonders here as well, which means that it’s all about resources, more buildings, and more units. The resources come in four varieties, but not every race needs all of them, which is quite the interesting gimmick. The units are varied but balanced, which is commendable to see in an RTS.

From a technical point of view, the game looks decent, although it has nothing memorable to stick with you over the years. Sure, the environments are nice and quite detailed in most cases, but the mood is almost non-existent and none of the characters makes an impression on you. The same goes for the sound, which is there, but you wouldn’t notice if someone turned it off.

In the end, Dark Planet: Battle for Natrolis had the right idea going for a while, but it seems like it got lost in translation during the development process. However, the races are interesting and the gameplay can be fun, as long as you can get over the atrocious interface.