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| A caravan of mounted units | Some beautiful scenery |
When the game begins you’ll find that you have been transported to a prehistoric fantasy world. Unsure of what’s going on or where you are, you must proceed with caution through this hostile environment. In this strange land you’ll encounter 3 different playable tribes and must eventually choose which tribe you will join. The tribes have unique abilities, units and fighting styles, allowing you to choose the one that best fits your playing style.
You’ll encounter a wide variety of ferocious enemies, with over 50 different animals, including over 40 different dinosaurs. These giant beasts will defiantly provide some eye candy, and will result in much more epic battles than most RTS fans are used to. Units will also mount these creatures, allowing you to make a powerful army filled with a lot of variety.
ParaWorld features a handy Army Controller. This is a tool that displays all of your current unit and allows you to manage them with ease. It takes away a lot of the hassle of having to micro-manage. For example, you can select a unit in the Army Controller, then click another unit. This will automatically send the unit directly to the position of the other. Another great thing about the Army Controller is that it allows you to select multiple units and still take advantage of their unique abilities.
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| Don’t get burned | Marching into battle |
By defeating enemies you will collect skulls. These skulls add sort of an RPG element to the game, allowing you to spend them in order to promote units. Promoting a unit will upgrade its stats and restore its HP. For example, if you upgrade one of your workers, it will then work faster and harvest more materials. The game will also feature seven playable heroes with special abilities. However, they’ve made a point to keep the heroes from being totally dominant and removing the strategy from the game.
The world in ParaWorld is stunning and unique. The camera allows players to move right in and see the smallest details, and rather than blank out the surrounding environment, the designers choose to keep it open so that you could admire the beauty. There are also different climate zones with different weather effects and realistic passage of time effects. At night you may encounter different dinosaurs, or you can sneak back to their lair and catch them as they sleep! As I said earlier, the dinosaurs will provide a lot of eye candy. Just take a look at the screenshots and see for yourself.
For fans of multi-player games, ParaWorld features several different customizable multi-player modes of play. You can have up to 8 players in such modes as deathmatch, team deathmatch, defender and more.
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| A tribal village | Battling a giant beast |
While there were plenty of RTS titles at E3 2006, ParaWorld managed to stand out. The beautiful prehistoric atmosphere combined with the ease of gameplay that the Army Controller promises to provide, make this a game I’m definitely anxious to see.
