Why bring this game to the PC?
When I predicted Storm Rise, a new real-time strategy title from Creative Assembly, I was hopeful. The game, which is set in a dystopian future with a lot of destroyed towns and stormy skies to enjoy, was designed from scratch for consoles. Play preview build, I was fascinated by Whip Select control system (which I will explain in detail later) and battlefield camera, but a number of bugs and frame rate jitters kept me from enjoying the full experience. Unfortunately, these issues were not limited to the preview build. Storm Rise has a lot of good ideas and is a truly valiant attempt to make RTS work without a keyboard and mouse, but the game's technical problems, combined with some really frustrating control constraints ultimately makes Storm Rise a disappointing entry in the genre at best.And then, of course, I found out the game was coming to the PC, so I put this very important question: why? This game was designed for consoles. We already know that RTS games work on PC - it is here that they have always worked. But still, Storm Rise awkwardly waddles into the PC universe and somehow manage to become an even more embarrassing disaster than it was on consoles.
If my thoughts written above does not scare you away, I will expand on the game site. Rise Storm will take place in a world torn apart by massive fire storms. After a disastrous technological event known only as the event, pockets of humanity was forced underground in cryogenic sleep in a desperate attempt to survive. The people remaining on the surface began to evolve over the many years thanks to their exposure to the storms, and they ultimately were powerful creatures known as Sai. Now that the initial threads of humanity - Echelon - has awakened from their deep slumber, the two forces have begun to collide. You fill the shoes of Commander Aiden Geary, manager of Echelon Special Forces and a strange player in these troubled times.
After a somewhat complex but still powerful opening cinematic, the story of Storm Rise suddenly taking a dive as characters are strongly established, plot points are loosely chained together and the whole affair becomes almost incomprehensible. It really is a shame that the game could not have kept its wits about it from start to finish, because I am all about the post-apocalyptic scene.
With regard to gameplay, Rise Storm is far from a traditional RTS. It is not so much about building a base and overview armies as it is to jump from node to node with small groups of soldiers. All the action takes place down on the battlefield, as opposed to from a bird's eye view. When you are in control of a device, the camera sits just above your head and you can move your cursor around from his perspective. This way you can tell it where to go and what to attack. To select another device you use console-specific Whip Choose system to jump from one device to another. By holding the right mouse button and move the mouse in a certain direction, you can highlight a single icon on the screen and let go of the button to switch to that unit's perspective.
This leads one of the biggest problems I will continue to repeat this entire article. Storm Rise does not work on a PC. Whip Select was developed using a control stick in the mind, then use a mouse instead is a joke.
Besides controls your second obligation Storm Rise to manage predefined resource nodes on each card to be captured first and then converted into shielded turrets and refineries. The main strategic element in Storm Rise is figure out how to go about holding these nodes as they are an important aspect of resource gathering and some can even be used as spawn points for new units. But besides node control, oversight entities are, what you do most of the Storm Rise.
But you do not need to command a unit at a time, of course. You can group up to three units together and you can also issue Indirect commands by moving the cursor over a friendly unit's icon, press a button and drag the resulting pointer to a new destination. These techniques, along with the Whip Select system is great in theory for a console game, but just does not make sense for the PC.
Verification of a massive army against impossible Storm Rise. Sometimes you need large forces overwhelm the enemy but try to stick between groups difficult. Although the mapping of various groups to the number keys do little to alleviate the frustration. By the time you have built up an army, the screen is completely littered with icons and keep accurate track of your units is a disaster. Storm Rise works much better when you work with fewer conflicts. These limitations are exacerbated by the unit AI, path and plain ol 'mistake. When units fight each other in Storm Rise, things rarely think of the screen. I saw as many soldiers in my command would suddenly drop dead when no visible enemy fire was incoming or they will just run in the opposite direction and get stuck in the environmental objects (or themselves). At one point, I commanded a sniper unit to take out an enemy turret. My thoughts: "These snipers have better range than the assault cannon tower. They should be able to take it out, no problem." Reality: the snipers joyfully bounded directly to turret and got completely destroyed. Awesome.
Another good example is when I had my group of control animals (heavy weapons Gunners) digging in to defend my own node. They suddenly became caught in an animation loop, they set up their guns, then decided against it and put them away ... only to put them up again. Later in the war, when I tried to put them back in a neutral position so that they could move to a new location, I found that they were stuck in place and could not unstick it. Score another for crazy errors.
Then of course there is the fact that the game runs poorly on PS3, 360 and above PC. The frame rate suffers terrible and the game can often handle many units on screen at once without Stutt ring. When your forces collide with the enemy in an epic confrontation, expecting that the game actually froze for a moment before picking back up where it left off. Or maybe it'll just crash completely, which is what happened to me once on the PS3 version. If you have the graphics settings turned up on the PC version, expect to see a slideshow. Honestly.
Finally, if you're interested in checking some multiplayer action, not hold your breath. As I write this article, only about 10 players have been officially ranked the online Leaderboards. There will be many people to play against and who has an RTS without the community behind it just is not good. Multiplayer will not be a realistic option in PC Storm Rise soil.
Concluding remarks
It is a shame that Storm Rise may suffer from so many issues, including ineffective controls group and poor unit AI. Choose the whip system was a good idea for consoles and the basic premise behind Rise Storm's gameplay is appetizing, but the whole project just does not come together. But really, why would you bring this game over to the PC landscape and not even let players use a 360 pad? There are so many incredible RTS game on PC - Storm Rise is not one of them. Avoid it at all costs.
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