End of Nations rolls into my list of games to watch
End of Nations recently concluded its fourth closed beta and I was fortunate enough to be able to participate. For those that are not familiar with the game, End of Nations is an upcoming free to play online multiplayer real-time strategy (RTS) game from Trion Worlds. Players are put in control of a squad of units on a map and given an objective to complete. Sometimes the objective is to destroy an enemy held structure, other times it’s to gather a specific number of resources, and sometimes it’s merely to survive an onslaught of enemy units. I have had a fondness for the RTS genre for many years, but End of Nations provided a new experience for me.
Let’s strategize
As I said, I have a good deal of experience with the RTS genre in the form of games like Dune 2 (and the later remake, Dune 2000), the Command & Conquer series, and the various Warcraft and Starcraft games. However, it had been years since I had played a new one and the opportunity to jump into the End of Nations demo just could not be passed up. Outside of seeing it briefly at PAX Prime, I really hadn’t done any research on the title, but signed up for the beta on the Trion Worlds webpage anyway. I was quite surprised to find that base building is not an element in the game, but it’s something that I got over pretty quickly. I’m told by my colleagues that I had apparently missed out on a similar mechanic in the Warhammer 40K games. It was the first of many surprises in store for me.
Customize and conquer
Squad (called a company) building is actually a real treat for me. I enjoy endlessly tweaking groups to offer either a good, rounded approach to crushing the opposing forces or a highly focused attack strategy when the mistake of sending specialized forces against me happens. There are five types of units in End of Nations (heavy vehicle, light vehicle, infantry, flying, and structure) and your units will deal damage differently to those types. So there is plenty of experimentation to be had building your companies. You can build multiple companies (groups of units), but only one can be active on the field at a time and it requires time to swap between them. Each unit comes with a value assigned to it and your level will determine the maximum value that can be placed in a given company, so there’s a mechanic keeping you from just filling a company with your strongest units.
In between matches you will also be able to customize your various units. Customizing ranges from paint jobs to applying mod items to individual units (as opposed to unit types) to improve their health, firepower, etc. Mods can be purchased or acquired through playing matches. Leveling up also grants points that can be put toward researching new or improved units between matches in order to improve the effectiveness of your company. I hadn’t encountered this level of customization in an RTS before and I found myself spending a lot of time in the garage area working on improving the units in my companies.
Now we go to war
The battles are, of course, the digital payoff that people are looking for in this style of game. However, I don’t do PvP. Seriously, I’ve said it before, but I am horrible at PvP and find myself just getting angry even if I’m winning. Since I’m not the kind of person that enjoys being angry, I had a bit of a problem playing most of the missions available in the beta. However, there was a co-op mission that I played repeatedly and enjoyed to no end. Control of the company is easy to learn even if you skip the tutorial mission and the graphics are gorgeous. Playing co-op to gather enough resources to sustain your forces before being inevitably forced from the map by an indestructible giant battleship/tank hybrid was exactly the kind of experience I wanted out of this beta.
Overall, I enjoyed End of Nations, but I long for a single-player campaign mode to dive into and rip into enemies guilt and anger free. Failing that, more co-op missions would be excellent. I even tried the Deep Hammer map which is a ridiculously huge 12v12 skirmish to gain control of a central point. Regardless, I’m a huge fan of the crazy level of customization and the company building mechanics. Getting to control another unit on the field is a perfect reward for battling and leveling up. If you enjoy the genre, this title is one you should consider kicking the tank treads of.
