Relics most
recent production, Impossible Creatures, definitely deserves praise for
its novel ideas and fresh take on army building within a real-time
strategy title. The big gimmick behind this game is to create strange
new animals to fight for you by melding the characteristics of two
different creatures. This system, along with a lighthearted story, is
the crown jewel of Impossible Creatures, which unfortunately lacks any
other highpoints to speak of. All in all this title proves entertaining
for only a short time.
As mentioned
before, the story provides quite a bit of entertainment to accompany the
campaign mode. It takes place around the early twentieth century. Rex
Chance, the antagonist, bears more than a passing resemblance to an old
whip-cracking hero from the old Temple oDoom we loved to root for from
the same time period. Things get into motion when Rex receives a letter
from his long lost father whod been hidden away conducting some weird
science in the South Pacific. Rexs father has deemed that now is the
time for him to share his research with his son in case something were
to happen to the old doctor. Up until that point Rex had been unaware
that his father was even alive so he rushes down to the islands to meet
the old man. Upon his arrival, though, all he finds is an abandoned
factory of some sort and a nasty welcoming committee. Hes attacked by
some half scorpion, half lion looking monster thats eager to make a
meal of our poor hero. At this point you come face to face with the
creatures master, a man named Upton Julius. This guy is certifiable and
wants to use the technology, Sigma, Rexs father had been working on to
breed super predators in his unholy bid for power. He has no love for
Rex and just as his pets are about to end our heros short career a
woman named Lucy Willing comes to the rescue in her hovering steam
engine. She explains that your father is in trouble and that you need to
take control of Sigma and create some hybrids of your own to combat
Julius. At this point you begin the single-player mode campaign.
This campaign
mode is probably where youll be spending the most of your time due to
the intensive story, which will keep you playing. Since youre not very
close to exceptionally large landmasses, youll be doing a lot of island
hopping as you pursue the insidious Upton Julius and his cronies.
Tampering with the genetic makeup the wildlife, while fun, will take
some work on your part in the story mode. Rex must explore his
surroundings to find what inhabits the island and shoot it with his
tranquilizer gun so he can collect a DNA sample. Only then will that
animals genes be at your disposal. The story will keep you on your toes
as well because Rex and Lucy will usually have several objectives
needing to be carried out. These range anywhere from protecting the
local natives to finding special resources for Lucys technology.
The game also
provides a tutorial mode, which is unnecessary if youve already begun
the campaign mode. As you play through the story the various facets will
be explained albeit certain camera controls that are found in the
tutorial. Other than the creature melding, which Ill explain later, the
remaining strategy aspects of Impossible Creatures seem awfully dull. If
you have any experience in base building from other strategy titles
youll be fully equipped to take on this game. Construction and resource
gathering border on mindless tasks youll wish someone else would take
off your hands.
Visually,
Impossible Creatures falls somewhere in between. Certainly the graphics
are by no means badly done. They just fail to leave any sort of a
lasting impression. There are a few little touches here and there,
though, like the wave effects on the beaches. Perhaps Im just a bit
nostalgic and think that purely 3-D strategy games are a mistake.
Besides exceptions like Warcraft III and perhaps a couple others, I have
yet to see their merit. Trust me. I want to be a believer, but
Impossible Creatures fails to sell me. Audibly it gets the job done with
several voiceovers and animal sound bytes. The music also helps the
story move along with some good adventure tunes.
So why give this
game your time? The answer to that question is wrapped up the novel
creature melding system, Sigma. Wish you had a soldier that was as fast
as a cheetah, but a bit more heavily armored, or even an airborne
chimpanzee? Players can settle this by hitting the creature management
button on the in-game interface. Relic really did do a good job of
making this potentially intimidating system quite user-friendly.
Accessing the creature combiner tab will bring up a list of all the
available animals at the time. Find two that you want to experiment with
and the fun begins. At this point youll be given a view of what your
potential creature could look like accompanied by statistics like
health, defense, and speed. Interestingly each of the stats is affected
by which parts of each animal you choose to use. For example say youre
combining a cheetah and porcupine. Using the cheetahs legs will give
your creature a speed boost, while keeping the porcupines body would
enhance its defense. The possibilities are quite open ended along with
all the quirky looking animals youll produce. At this point Impossible
Creatures really shines. All good things must come to an end, though.
Life outside the creature combiner is pretty boring.
Actual battle is
lackluster at best. After youre convinced youve built a killing
machine your life is reduced to watching two weird looking animals smack
each other till one falls over. Of course therell be more than two in
pitched battles, but that doesnt smooth anything over. Certain animals
do have special abilities, but they are of little consequence in the
middle of battle. Apart from offensive and defensive stances, actual
control over your army is lacking especially with the absence of any
battle formations. This coupled with the other dull aspects of base
building and resource gathering make for a bit of a disappointment.
In the end I find
it difficult to recommend Impossible Creatures wholeheartedly. While it
makes for some very entertaining episodes, the game lacks any real
staying power. The campaign mode is somewhat satisfying, but beyond that
youll be hard pressed to stick around after youve had your fill of
making goofy looking hybrids. Ill admit the ideas behind this title are
fresh and promising, but it would have been much more satisfying to see
the developers cover all their bases. Finding a place in your wallet for
Impossible Creatures is tough with Warcraft III and Age of Mythology
under our belt and Rise of Nations and Command and Conquer: Generals on
the horizon.