Spartan_234
09-10-2006, 09:55 PM
Right when I officially declared WWII Combat: Iwo Jima as the worst game ever made, I take a look at Terrawars: New York Invasion, a new, god-awful budget-priced game from newcoming developer Ladyluck Games. Why so many games have taken the throne for "worst game ever" this year is far beyond me, as I just recently replayed all the good games from the last couple of years (just to make sure I wasn't going crazy or anything) and found them all to be just as great as they ever were. Terrawars is without a doubt the worst game to ever see the light of day, and I'll be damned if there's ever an upcoming game that manages to be worse than this one. Honestly, Terrawars is the electronic equivalent of a huge chunk of alien crap.
Before I get started on how utterly "Terra-ble" this game is, I think I should go ahead and describe the storyline. To be honest, it's the most retarded storyline I have ever heard in a videogame. You're a medical student named John Armstrong, and medical students like you get extensive training in the Army National Guard...but why? The storyline would've been merely bad if you played as a generic Marine or whatever, but this comes off as a really embarassing attempt to break away from the standard-issue storyline of "you're a Space Marine and you must stop these aliens before they take over the Earth". Anyways, aliens have taken over New York City, with no backstory as to where they came from or why they came here, and you must stop the aliens before they destroy New York City. Who wants to bet that Uwe Boll will hire the person who wrote this storyline?
The biggest selling point of Terrawars is not anything innovative about the game, but rather, the fact that it runs on PCs from up to ten years ago. No, I'm not joking. Terrawars shows this selling point with eye-damaging graphics that seem like they came straight out of the days of DOS. Poor lighting, detail-challenged environments, severe collision detection problems, and an extremely ugly fog that limits the draw distance in outdoor levels make Terrawars the absolute worst-looking game my eyes will ever see. The audio is even worse. There's no music, the sound effects are really weak and randomly assigned, and the voice acting is atrocious.
The abysmal production values in Terrawars could've been forgiven if the gameplay was any fun. Sadly, the production values are easily the best part of the game. Buckle and tighten your seatbelts, folks, 'cause this is going to be a really bumpy ride...
1. If New York City was really this unattractive and poorly designed, then its population wouldn't be this high right now. Heck, I was in New York City in the early 90's, and from what I remember, it looked way better than how it's depicted in Terrawars. Indoor environments feel vacant and uninspired, even compared to actual office buildings and such.
2. Gameplay is extremely linear and scripted. Invisible walls always prevent you from going "where you're not supposed to be going", and the aliens have absolutely no AI. They always follow the exact same path every single time you play, and sometimes just stand in a fixed position.
3. In a completely unintuitive attempt to remedy the lack of actual AI, the enemy constantly gains unfair advantages over you. You'll constantly be outnumbered, and no matter where they shoot, or where they actually are, their shots always hit you! WTF were the developers smoking?!? Reloading weapons also takes way too long, and you get fatigued way too quickly, even when you're walking at a slow crawl.
4. Awful collision detection further adds to the already extreme frustration of this game. Some enemies can take a single shot before dying, while others take a nearly infinite punishment, no matter what if you shoot them in the head or not. Enemies are also capable of moving and shooting through walls and cover (even though you can't), and you'll miss some jumps in the platforming sequences due to the fact that you can fall through some platforms.
5. The shooting mechanics are awful. The weapons are no fun to use, and generally don't act much different from one another (aside from the obvious differences). For instance, since the assault rifle already has pinpoint accuracy, there's absolutely no reason to use the sniper rifle. Also, since there's no limit to the amount of ammo you can carry, you'll often find yourself with absolutely ridiculous amounts of ammo and grenades.
6. Platform sequences are made extremely frustrating due to awful collision detection (see above) and imprecise controls.
7. The developers were so lazy, some textures and sounds were taken straight from the No One Lives Forever games!
It's not like this game would've been any good if it were released ten years ago, anyways. The gameplay in Terrawars is absolutely god-awful regardless of the time and age it's developed in, and since gameplay is what matters the most in any game, Terrawars still would've been the worst game ever made if it were released 10 years ago. Besides, Star Wars: Dark Forces and [/i]Duke Nukem 3D[/i] were released in that same era, and the production values of both titles are far superior to those in Terrawars. As if it isn't clear up to this point: Avoid this game at all costs, even if it's free!!!
Before I get started on how utterly "Terra-ble" this game is, I think I should go ahead and describe the storyline. To be honest, it's the most retarded storyline I have ever heard in a videogame. You're a medical student named John Armstrong, and medical students like you get extensive training in the Army National Guard...but why? The storyline would've been merely bad if you played as a generic Marine or whatever, but this comes off as a really embarassing attempt to break away from the standard-issue storyline of "you're a Space Marine and you must stop these aliens before they take over the Earth". Anyways, aliens have taken over New York City, with no backstory as to where they came from or why they came here, and you must stop the aliens before they destroy New York City. Who wants to bet that Uwe Boll will hire the person who wrote this storyline?
The biggest selling point of Terrawars is not anything innovative about the game, but rather, the fact that it runs on PCs from up to ten years ago. No, I'm not joking. Terrawars shows this selling point with eye-damaging graphics that seem like they came straight out of the days of DOS. Poor lighting, detail-challenged environments, severe collision detection problems, and an extremely ugly fog that limits the draw distance in outdoor levels make Terrawars the absolute worst-looking game my eyes will ever see. The audio is even worse. There's no music, the sound effects are really weak and randomly assigned, and the voice acting is atrocious.
The abysmal production values in Terrawars could've been forgiven if the gameplay was any fun. Sadly, the production values are easily the best part of the game. Buckle and tighten your seatbelts, folks, 'cause this is going to be a really bumpy ride...
1. If New York City was really this unattractive and poorly designed, then its population wouldn't be this high right now. Heck, I was in New York City in the early 90's, and from what I remember, it looked way better than how it's depicted in Terrawars. Indoor environments feel vacant and uninspired, even compared to actual office buildings and such.
2. Gameplay is extremely linear and scripted. Invisible walls always prevent you from going "where you're not supposed to be going", and the aliens have absolutely no AI. They always follow the exact same path every single time you play, and sometimes just stand in a fixed position.
3. In a completely unintuitive attempt to remedy the lack of actual AI, the enemy constantly gains unfair advantages over you. You'll constantly be outnumbered, and no matter where they shoot, or where they actually are, their shots always hit you! WTF were the developers smoking?!? Reloading weapons also takes way too long, and you get fatigued way too quickly, even when you're walking at a slow crawl.
4. Awful collision detection further adds to the already extreme frustration of this game. Some enemies can take a single shot before dying, while others take a nearly infinite punishment, no matter what if you shoot them in the head or not. Enemies are also capable of moving and shooting through walls and cover (even though you can't), and you'll miss some jumps in the platforming sequences due to the fact that you can fall through some platforms.
5. The shooting mechanics are awful. The weapons are no fun to use, and generally don't act much different from one another (aside from the obvious differences). For instance, since the assault rifle already has pinpoint accuracy, there's absolutely no reason to use the sniper rifle. Also, since there's no limit to the amount of ammo you can carry, you'll often find yourself with absolutely ridiculous amounts of ammo and grenades.
6. Platform sequences are made extremely frustrating due to awful collision detection (see above) and imprecise controls.
7. The developers were so lazy, some textures and sounds were taken straight from the No One Lives Forever games!
It's not like this game would've been any good if it were released ten years ago, anyways. The gameplay in Terrawars is absolutely god-awful regardless of the time and age it's developed in, and since gameplay is what matters the most in any game, Terrawars still would've been the worst game ever made if it were released 10 years ago. Besides, Star Wars: Dark Forces and [/i]Duke Nukem 3D[/i] were released in that same era, and the production values of both titles are far superior to those in Terrawars. As if it isn't clear up to this point: Avoid this game at all costs, even if it's free!!!