Perimeter 2: New Earth for PC Reviews by Gamers

Way back in 2004, when the PC game world was buzzing in anticipation of games like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, Codemasters and 1C published an intriguing RTS called Perimeter that flew under the radar of many gamers. Perimeter was jam-packed with all sorts of cool ideas that bucked the traditional RTS formula; instead of trying to crush the enemy, you were simply trying to shape a landscape, an experience that looked very cool thanks to voxel technology that created incredibly original and dynamic worlds. While the game garnered respectable reviews, a common criticism was that it was a bit too complex and difficult for its own good. Unfortunately, it seems like the series has taken a huge step backward in an attempt to address those issues in Perimeter II: New Earth.



The first game dealt with the exodus of humanity from Earth, after the discovery of technology that allowed travel between dimensions. The problem was that this unleashed some kind of powerful, unstoppable foe called the Scourge that could assume the shape of our worst fears, as it was affected by our thoughts. Instead of blasting off into space, Battlestar Galactica-style, humanity locked itself into floating cities and then began jumping through different dimensions. Each dimension had a world that was shaped by human thoughts (there was even a pizza world), and the goal was to create a networked energy grid that allowed the floating city to move to the next dimensional portal. Along the way, you had to battle the Scourge using developed technologies and build units and defenses. The high-concept nature of the story drew comparisons to Solaris, the great work of Polish science fiction that dealt with similar themes.



In Perimeter II, humanity has finally found a New Earth and settled it, but the bad news is that somewhere along the long journey it split into two warring factions, the Exodus and the Harkback. The thing is that they've become opposites of one another, right down to the terrain they prefer. The Exodus can only build on land, while the Harkback can only build on water. Thus, depending on the side you play as, you're looking to either raise the land or sink it. And despite being able to travel through dimensional space, it seems these factions have structures so fragile that if they get wet or if they're raised out of water they take damage. There you have the central crux of the game; you're trying to either stay dry or keep wet in each battle.



You do this by building energy cores that can either raise land or immerse it. However, a major feature of the first game has been done away with, as you no longer have to make sure that these energy cores network together to form a grid. That means you could plunk one down anywhere and it provides power for all those structures around it, but it makes Perimeter II feel much more like a generic RTS. In fact, gone is the idea of shepherding a huge floating city across the landscape; instead, you're back to the familiar RTS basics of building a base, researching technologies, and trying to wipe out the other team before they can wipe you out, which is a retreat from what made the first game stand out.



It seems like a lot of the cool ideas have been stripped out. Take for instance military units. In Perimeter, your units were fluid, in that they were a bit like the liquid terminator in Terminator 2. You might have a bunch of tiny units, but they could melt together and transform into fewer, but more powerful units. The amount of flexibility was considerable, and it let you adapt your strategies on the fly. Here, you can only build certain units with certain factories, but they can't merge together; they can merely transform between air and land states.



Perimeter II does add some powerful abilities that are customizable depending if you can discover and dig up special crystals from the ground. These abilities let you detonate a nuclear-type explosion that sends shock waves through the ground (a neat effect thanks to the voxel terrain) to cloaking your units to make them invisible. These abilities are upgradable, as well, so they can become overpowering. In fact, they are overpowering; I beat one mission in about ninety seconds by simply dropping an upgraded nuke on the enemy base. However, even the nuke missions can still be frustrating, even on easy difficulty. Once entrenched, the enemy can be as tough to kill as cockroaches; as soon as you destroy them, they begin to rebuild immediately. You have to pound them over and over and over again to fully knock them out. It gets tedious fast, and the AI doesn't really adapt well. It's just tough to kill.



Compounding this are other issues. The controls feel clumsy and the graphics have regressed; the once intricate and original structure designs have been replaced by blocky structures. The voxel-based environments are a lot more bland and generic. Yes, the original Perimeter had frame rate issues running on machines at the time, but there's no reason why a modern system couldn't handle it today. Even the interface design has gone backward; it's as barebones as can be. Then there's the story, which is told through electronically filtered voiceovers that could best be described as word salad. What was once high concept sci-fi feels like the tedious meanderings of a bunch of crazy people. And, finally, the multiplayer lacks a server browser, so unless you know the direct IP of someone else in the world who plays this game online (and good luck with that), you're out of luck.

©2009-02-20, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved