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3 years old and still the best!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 24
Date: March 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

You've probably heard of (or even played) other strategy games like Starcraft or Command & Conquer, and they were great fun, so why should you get this one? Because after playing Total Annihilation (TA for short), you'll never go back. (120 unique full-3D units battling among acid lakes and abandoned cities intrigue you? Read on.)

The story isn't really important here (basically, you fight as Arm or Core to rid the galaxy of the other guys in a 4000-year blood feud), but the giant robots, tanks, etc. allow for some spectacular explosions and heavy weaponry. A nuke's explosion annihilates everything on an 800x600 screen, unless your opponent has missile defenses, which are vulnerable to a strategic bomber strike, unless your opponent has flak cannons... and that's just the beginning!

TA's most important feature is its impeccable balance and rush defense. Instead of starting with a single construction unit, you have your persona, the Commander, the most powerful weapon on the battlefield. Your Commander can take down nearly anything the opponent sends at you for ten minutes by himself, meaning no early-game rushes will win you the game. And once you can defend yourself, you'll see that neither of the sides has the upper hand. There are no game-breaking units, because everything has a delicate speed/power/cost balance; during the course of a typical game you will use over two dozen unique units!

TA also stands out for its amazing realism. Warfare among the trees can start forest fires, which damage units around them and spread according to the same wind speed and direction which turns your turbines at varying speeds. Explosions produce shrapnel which arcs realistically and damages units hit by it. Every weapon has an area of effect, and shells often miss fast-moving enemy units and crash into hillsides or even your own troops! Aircraft act like real planes: bombers can take out several targets at once, but then have to swoop around for another pass, fighters do barrel rolls to avoid enemy fire, and seaplanes run along the surface until they have the speed to get airborne.

For seasoned strategy veterans, you'll be happy to know TA has over TEN DOZEN unique units. That's more units for each side than all the races in Starcraft have combined! Instead of researching new technology, just build a different factory to access a new slate of units! Your options include two levels each of vehicles, robots, aircraft and ships; free downloads on the company website give you everything from hovercraft to minelayers to resurrector units to underwater fusion plants.

The maps in TA are bigger than any of the competitions (up to 63 by 63 screen lengths), allowing for full-scale, 4-6-hour epic battles. Players routinely run into the 500 unit limit! To control all this, the interface is amazingly easy: just hold Shift to queue up unlimited orders for anything, from factories to infantry to construction units. Want your guy to repair this building, move to that area, build a radar tower, and then patrol the area? Would you believe five clicks? (Not just waypoints, but a starting target, repair order, and patrol route direct from the factory!)

In conclusion, there has never been a better time to pick up the "best game of all time" (PC Gamer magazine). For ten bucks, you can find more fresh gaming experience than you can in the forty bucks you'd pay for the latest two-dimensional Warcraft knockoff with 30 guys that all look the same. And when you're ready, you can check out the still-active fan following (over 300 players every day on the MSN Gaming Zone).

My favorite game of all time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: October 05, 2000
Author: Amazon User

A friend of my bought a game at a store and returned it because his computer couldn't handle the requirements. So he returned it but couldn't get money back, so he got this game. After having for a month, he finally started to play it and that was it. In the end, another friend and myself started getting together three times a week playing this game for over 2 years straight against each other. I have probably played over 10,000 battles. And you can download free units and maps over the internet. Very cool. The game is very fast paced with many buildings, units, and other weapons. I still play this game to this day as do my friends. I recommend this game to everyone and I hope that they make the sequel.

Carpal tunnel Commander

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: June 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is tremendous long-term fun and enjoyment! Both its simplicity and depth draws you in. Tactics and strategy are paramount. SimCity infrastructure and systematic, medium to long-range planning is necessary for building units and other machines. However, this doesn't do squat for you if you don't have the close-in combat tactics - and the finer understanding which land, air, sea unit (or combination) will get you results. The 3rd-person point-of-view is best when commanding hundreds of units and war-making capabilities.

The graphics and sound score is killer. You've got to watch some of the explosions - they are cool! You can't get this type of super incendiary stuff from WarCraft. Add on units, maps, and scenarios are readily available on the Cavedog site.

I've played 3vs1, 2vs2, and 1vs1 on various networks (from NY, OH, and CA combatants) and had no major problems. This people versus people completely changes your strategy and tactics - making the game that much more high-value. My only minor peave is that you need more than the standard 10 quick-team assignments for those intense campaigns.

Regardless, I've been playing for 1+ years - and still love it.

Good Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: May 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Man this game is awesome. I've had it for two years so far. The campaigns are good, but skirmish mode is simply the best. I love blowing everything away with my long range cannons, raising a massive air force, and building huge navies. The commander is ultra cool with his D-Gun, which blows away anything in its path. The only complaint is that the AI is really bad in the naval department. It doesn't build mass hordes of ships like it does land units. Skirmish mode is really one of the best in any RTS though. For the low price you really can't go wrong buying this classic. Oh and the music. The music is the best score I have ever heard from any computer game. And believe me I've played many games. It's a great orchestra set that really draws you in. Man I'd pay just so I could play the music in my CD player.

Well-written with GREAT replayability

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Even though this game is getting old, it still runs perfectlyon my Windows 98SE PC and my Windows 2000 PC. The graphics wereamazing for its day, and are still VERY good. The 3D terrain is VERY well done too. You can play at higher resolutions (I usually use 1280x1024) to see more of the map; I wish more games had this feature! There are TONS of free units and maps available on the web (see http://tauniverse.com/upstartdesigngroup and click on the "TAUIP" button for more units), making this the most replayable game I've ever owned. Even the AI has been extended by gamers! It's amazing how much effort regular gamers are still putting into this game (new maps, new units, new AIs, new utilities, etc.)! It's a MUST-HAVE! END

Be-all, end-all

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I adore TA. So I'm going to try to focus on the bad points tobe objective, but I doubt I'll be able to. First, the graphics aredated. The game came out 5 years ago, and so that's to be expected. However, since it's a top-down strat game, it's 2-D anyway, and the visuals, while not crisp per se, are good. Next, some of the maps are a little annoying, or predictable, or redundant. However, since Cavedog released Battle Tactics and Core Contingency, and there are more available on the web, there are certainly enough to make any fan happy. Third, I suppose people would ask why they should buy such an outdated game, especially when I've said you have to buy the add-ons to make the experience complete. The Commander pack(the base game, plus the two add-ons, plus a huge strat guide, for the minimal price and you get literally hours of enjoyment! And all you have to do is find one other TA addict and you've got many times that much fun in multiplayer, since that's where the game really shines. The game is old enough that most any system can handle it with ease, and with Cavedog's addition of extra units and many user-created maps and units available on the web, the game is a no-brainer. Go! Scrape the change out of your couch and snap up the game!

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

TA is one of my all time favorite games. It is old, the graphics aren't very good, and it's somewhat two dimensional but it is an amazing game. The economy is simple, yet satisfying; the military part of the game (definitely the more comprehensive of the two) is AMAZING. This is one of the only games where it is futuristic but still makes sense. There are plenty of units for the two nations, arm and core, and I find that this game has the most variety out of all the strategy computer games I have ever played. The campaigns are great. The skirmish on the game is also good, although I find computers, given the time, will rise up and may tend to be a little too hard. I find that this game is a great way to spend $8.00, and you may find yourself coming back to this game again and again and find that it never really does get boring (I've been playing this game for about 6 or 7 years) and it is extremely fun, especially in multiplayer. Get this game.

Not a lot i CAN say

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: May 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

All i can say is this.. read through these Hints... the reviews do not lie in this case.
I Bought this game a long time ago.. when it first came out.

The Cd was lost over time.. i Downloaded the online pack of units that added over 200 units to the already 150 in the game. then i had the expansions which added another 150.. that makes (you guessed it) 500 units! ohh but its not all about the units.. the story, despite what people may say.. IS interesting.. if youre interested in science fiction Stories.. and I even wrote a novel about the story myself!

The game went missing a while back, and im buyng the game again, something ive NEVER dne to lost cd's... Starcraft is a great game, but it cant whoop this mamajamma :-P

Buy it, you will want to immediately buy the expansion packs, which i suggest you buy with the game already!

There ARE no substitutions.. No other Strategy game will EVER be enough to fill youre appitite after this one.. i Promise you

I'm still playing this game to this day

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

After playing Command&Conquer, Warcraft 2, Diablo 2, this is the one game I still play every now and then. I think when it was first released it was way ahead of its time. It still looks great even when compaired to the games coming out today. Sure the AI needed some work, but that was solved later using the patches. Downloadable units from the net, I wish there were more, such as big [space]ships capable of interpanetary warfare with big guns (something better than Conquest Frontier). I enjoyed this as multiplayer game rather than the campaign game. If they decide to come up with TA2, I'm buying it.

One of the best games ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Total Annihilation, though now an older game, was one of the best Real Time Strategy games ever made. I still play this game, and recommend it to anyone that would like to see what RTS games are all about. I hear talk that TA II will be coming out sometime in the next year. I hope they can live up to this game - its going to be hard to follow.

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