Ground Control II: Multi Player Demo 8.25/10

Ground Control II: Multi Player Demo 8.25/10
Posted :: Jun 22, 2004 by Impact

Ground Control II: Multiplayer Demo
Release Date: Today! (June 22, 2004)
Publisher: Vivendi Universal
Producer: Massive Entertainment
Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS)

Ground Control II is a real time strategy game that takes into account such things as terrain height advantages, forest defense bonuses, and vehicle weak points. Infantry can also capture buildings and use them for added cover when firing upon enemies strolling by in the open. Massive Entertainment also did a wonderful job making Ground Control II easy and comfortable to play by allowing players to use hotkeys, formations, and unit groups of up to 16 units. They also made use of the Alt key to bring up all units’ health bars to keep track of which units (friend and foe alike) are weak and need of repairs.

We reviewed the Single Player Demo a while back, it can be found here. Vivendi has since released the multiplayer demo, and is releasing the full game in stores today. There isn't much to say about the multi player demo that wasn't already mentioned in the single player review. It is essentially the exact same game, but played online. You can join games through a gamespy based in-game interface (much like starcraft, or other RTS games), and then select a team, race, and chat with others in the game. Once inside the game, gameplay is the same as the single player demo. Your team tries to capture Victory Locations and Landing Zones from the enemy. You can air-lift in units by using AP (aquisition points). AP are always being gained, but they go up faster when you destroy enemy units, or capture extra Landing Zones and Victory Locations.

I was slightly worried about lag, every game on the internet now has the potential to lag, and make the game less fun. I was upset to find in the first 2 games I played had some noticable lag. Units would jump, or speed around after staying still for a few seconds. I haven't noticed any lag since my 2nd game however (I've played about 6-7). Multi Player games can take anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes. Most games I played lasted around 30 min on average.

Expect to lose your first few games by a pretty good margin. The new race takes a while to learn and understand how to use. There are about 15 different types of units for each race, and each has a different specialization. If you have not played the single player demo, I suggest you play that first to understand the basics before jumping in and playing online.

The mutli player demo includes 2 races, 3 maps, and supports up to 8 players. The full game is also released today, it might be worth picking up. Thumbs up from Impact!