Total Annihilation Demo

Many of the successful real-time strategy mechanics present in today’s video games are taken for granted, but they had to be introduced at some point. While your mind instantly make the leap to names like Starcraft or Command & Conquer, there are plenty of other games that revolutionized the genre before them, or at least introduced the concepts that sit at the foundation of every successful RTS released since then.

Total Annihilation can be considered one of the most influential real-time strategy games ever released, since it managed to popularize a lot of ingenious gameplay mechanics, while also getting the rest of the formula right. Thanks to a solid story and a fascinating universe to keep invested into the action, as well as the addictive base-building mechanics and the countless strategic options put at your disposal, the game can be enjoyed even today.

Story-wise, the plot talks about an ultra-advanced human race that almost fused with a powerful artificial intelligence machine of their own creation, which has helped them populate the galaxy and achieve universal peace. However, things get a bit strange when the A.I. asks the people to transfer their conscious into the machine itself and leave their bodies, which is why some refused to do so and created a so-called resistance force. Thus, the main conflict between the rebels and the A.I. goes on for millennia, with plenty of losses on both sides.

The three main concepts behind every RTS title might sound a bit too mundane, but they were quite new at the time and there were plenty of changes and improvements to make them much more intuitive and useful. Thus, you start off with a Commander unit, which is able to build your base and must be kept alive throughout the match. The resources come in the form of a constant stream and you must keep a balance between spending and producing them, although metal can also be recovered from fallen units.

There are plenty of tactical options at your disposal, starting with radar-jamming units to stay hidden from the enemy, to good-old ambushes and surprise attacks to impede their production. Naturally, the interface is extremely intuitive and useful, not to mention the fact that the graphics were way ahead of their time and beautifully integrated to emulate fully three-dimensional environments.

All things considered, Total Annihilation wrote a few chapters in history all by itself, while also encouraging other developers to follow the model and put a little imagination into their video games. Moreover, the mechanics are still relevant today and you can definitely enjoy a few matches, without getting the impression that you are playing something that is almost two decades old.