評論

• gamedeal user

  Jun 16, 2014

  While I have never played the original Carrier Command, I have played games of similar genre, specifically "Hostile Waters", Carrier Command: Gaea Mission (CCGM), a remake of the original Carrier Command, tried to add some new elements, but ended up a confusing mess. At its heart, CCGM is a real-time strategy game where you conquer islands with your land and air units, taking direct control if you have to, or leave AI to accomplish your orders. An enemy carrier is doing the same. However, CCGM added a few segments where you have to play first person shooter. You sometimes have to control a vehicle directly as well... which makes you wonder "why am I risking my own neck? I'm the captain!" The developers, Bohemia, added some backstory where the UEC is fighting against the APA (apparently mostly Chinese), and UEC is losing, due to lack of water, so they decided to colonize this "Taurus" planet, take its water back to Earth, but obviously APA is there to stop them, and apparently they got there first. You, Lt Myrik, is ordered to land and hopefully make your way to an old carrier, reactivate it, and use it to help you reconquer the islands in the "Dead Zone". The problem with the game is while the starting islands (first 4 or so) do introduce the game to the RTS player, the really important part of the game, such as setting up defenses of the island, so it can survive assaults while you're out island hopping, is left virtually unexplained. You're simply told that you can convert the islands to 'defensive' by building a "defensive module" and rebuilding the command center, but that was too vague. And it doesn't explain how to actually IMPROVE the island's defense rating, which ranges from weak all the way up to "deadly". The ship itself also needs fuel which is also used for damage control / repairs. And the only way you can get fuel to carrier is through fuel packs sent via the cargo barge (submarine) which can also bring you various other goodies from your "stockpile" island where all the stuff your manufacturing went. Transport capacity is limited, and it takes time moving from stockpile to you (and back). The more islands you conquer, the faster your resources accumulate or the faster your manufacturing goes depending on what type of island you got. Pathfinding is a major problem in this game. The AI units have a tough time pathfinding in groups, which makes the game at times, comical. Often you have to assume direct control to push the unit beyond the chokepoint, then the AI does a decent job of pathfinding, but it can't manuever around other friendly ground units. The atrocious pathfinding means you have to micromanage each vehicle for fuel, ammo, and repair, rather than give simple orders like "group fuel" or "group ammo" and see the units take turns by themselves. The vehicles can often even get lost by themselves, often with hilarious results, not to mention some odd physics. Send a vehicle to go from one end of island to another, and it may end up falling off a bridge, or making a 360 turn when a simple left or right turn would do, or get stuck on some rocks. Once, one of my Walrus managed to turn turtle (upside down) in the middle of the ocean on the way to the island. Somehow that makes it move BACKWARDS instead of forwards. (Huh?) Yet another funny is with the hook. Tried to retrieve a Walrus that ran out of fuel with the hook. Had to be flown manually, and I got too low and the Walrus is dragging in the waves... but I was flying with nose straight into the water, and my VTOL engines were pointing 45 degrees down into the water, yet I'm still moving across the water... dragging the Walrus along. Somehow the hook is still attached. Hahaha. The game tries to mix up the bits by giving you many First-person shooter segments. You need to actually jump out of the vehicle and use your personal weapons, such as assault rifle, laser, and later plasma rifle. Usually, you go into the enemy base and do your various bits of sabotage, raid computer terminals, and so on and so forth. There are a few segments where you have to jog across the whole island. You mainly face battledroids and a few soldiers, but occasionally, turrets and vehicle (but you usually bypass them. The bases are pretty easy as you do have a personal shield and as long as you don't take too many hits at once your shield powers up again much like HALO. However, some bases have regenerating enemies (until you shut that down) and you have to watch out for exploding barrels (which can kill you). Those segments are just... weird, out of place, even. The end of the game, well, that gets ridiculous really fast. Spoiler ahead. [spoiler] To accomplish the end game, you need to... 1) Conquer 2 out of 4 volcanic power plant islands that is supplying the big enemy bastion with shields that damages everything nearby. You need to check all four islands though. 2) Once you've disabled the shield, then you can start the invasion proper, but you're in an FPS segment, where you can take direct control of one of several Walruses, and the others will follow along as AI. You can jump out and change to a different vehicle. You have to secure 7 different "zones" on the island shooting all the bad guys. Fortunately, you do get a "repair walrus" to tag along and repair your squad if you conquer the first zone. 3) Once you secure the final zone (don't run into the forcefield!) you have to drive up to the research center where you get the control software of the torpedo, and you enjoy a cutscene where the enemy carrier goes to the bottom, but the bad guy is getting away in a Manta (flyer) so you jump in a Manta and follow him too. 4) The bad guy's Manta has a shield... yours does not. However, you do have a super gatling. You have to chase him amidst enemy defenses (all of them trying to shoot you down), without crashing your flyer into the hills or whatever, while you try to overload his shields, then shoot him. 5) Once you got him down to 20%, a timer starts. He goes one particular path, then heads for his submarine pen where he will escape. You have to kill him (shields and all) before he gets to the pen. 6) The game then turns into a "rail shooter" where you're the gunner and the AI drives, and you have to shoot enemies all along your path... UNTIL the next segment... when your vehicle's toast, but you survived. Then it's... 7) Yep, back to first person shooter. Fight your way across the bridge, down a mountain pass, to the submarine pen, for the final cutscene. [/spoiler] The game is also quite happy to crash here and there. I'm on a pretty standard setup and the game crashed many times, losing a hour or two of progress each time. Most of the time autosave works, but sometimes, the game just crashed when it tries to load a cutscene. All in all, I should be playing Hostile Waters (which is now available)
• gamedeal user

  Sep 9, 2014

  The the path following AI of the Walruses really is every bit as awful as people say, and the anti carrier torpedo (not a pivotal weapon) detonates on launch still attached to your Manta blowing it out of the sky. Pretty awful bugs not to fix. Very sad as they probably never will given the age of this game. But despite that the game is actually very playable if you accept that you have to nurse maid your Walruses along, keeping them together until the last minute so that you can deliver them into engagement as a unit. Once middle/near field targets are assinged their idiosyncratic movement problems cease to be relevant (even or perhaps especially if the targets are moving). Admitedly the game would be faster paced if you could just plot a route and leave the Walruses to it, with less intervention. But the other aspects of this unique game combination, namely that of commanding a carrier and its compliment of remote drones, and the combinations of loadout, and logistical elements is unquie and exciting. (Unless you count it's illustrious and highly succesful ancestry going back to the Atari ST and Amiga.) The first 'personell' combat is not up to much but it's not the main point of this game, just an interesting interlude to help tell the story campaign. You really can't go wrong at the sale price. If you are listening Bohemia... please try again with a remake/relaunch. I'm sure if you got it right which you are definately capable of doing, this could be a viable and easy hit. Most of the work is already done. Just execute the AI properly (you've done it since for other games I am sure), and flesh out the load outs and missions.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 12, 2014

  Pros: - Love the look, graphics are neat (if a bit 2005), great atmospherics and an overall joy to look at - vehicles are well-designed too; not too gimicky and far-out future-feel, it's all nicely balanced. - The whole concept of controlling your units from the carrier, but being able to control and individual unit when needed, is fantastic! Definitely needs a polish, but the core mechanic is down - and it's a joy to mess around with! Cons: - The AI in particular drives me up (and into) the f**king wall! Losing missions because your blonde-driver Walruses can't drive 10m forwards and shoot the enemy, without backing up 50m, turning around three times, getting stuck in a wall, and being slammed into by my other Walruses... Shit gets old REAL quick. - The infantry feel of the game is just horrid - shitty guns, movement feels too fast, and still glitches in random places, slowing you down and making progress difficult. It doesn't even feel unfinished - it feels broken. Conclusion: Would not recommend. Too incomplete, and AI kills the mood completely.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 29, 2014

  A game that mixes the rts and fps genres and fails at both. Having finished the game, I would not recommend this even on sale. Pros -looks nice -good unit customization Cons -terrible ground unit pathfinding -controls are awful -unit and item production takes forever, even when all islands are devoted to resources and production -your ai unit's targeting abilities are very hit or miss depending upon its loadout -the little bit of story and character interaction there is leaves much to be desired -the soundtrack is around 25 minutes, and frankly doesn't come close to cutting it, considering the campaign can last 15+ hours
• gamedeal user

  Apr 14, 2015

  Pros: +Graphics are nice +Music is good +The concept of the game was a nice idea Cons: -The execution for said concept is lackluster -Very poor AI pathfinding -Wonky controls -UI Issues -AI takes control over units when command was never given -Long wait time (may not be an issue to others, but waiting for a stockpile to be built and exceeds 15 'real life' minutes is a bit excessive) Conclusion: The game has potential, but there are a lot of bugs that would make buying a lemon (vehicle) less of a headache. I really liked the graphics, music, and the general concept of the game - being a FPS/RTS game. Problem was too many bugs to even get passed half way through the campaign. The campaign was interesting, but because I can't stand how many issues I've had to deal with, I had to uninstall the game. One issue was the Barque would just linger in the water and never reach your Carrier if you were low on fuel. Others have said that mods are out there to help the game out, but I shouldn't have to download a mod to fix a lot of the issues that should've been fixed since day one on release. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a console port - being released on XBOX 360 and what not. If you're interested in Carrier Command: Gaea Mission, I'd say read other reviews, watch some videos, or even try out a demo (if they have it) before purchasing this game.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 22, 2015

  Good, enjoyable game. The voice acting and cutscenes in general are very bad, but that's not why you're gonna play this game: you're gonna play this game cause you like the combination of multiple levels of strategy: resource management, logistics, choosing your battles, and fighting them to the level of individual shots fired here and there, and how they fit into the big picture. It reminded me of games like Battlezone (1998). Few games combine first person vehicle combat and real time strategy. Carrier Command has its flaws, don't get me wrong, but it's lovely.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 18, 2013

  since 2012 this game has had issues which now have been mostly ironed out.The current state of this game is awesome for the the stratedgy player who has patience and TIME yes TIME its a real time game from the 80's revamped into a 2012 classic regen.still a few little bugs but seems nothing to even write about,the patches have made the game better in many aspects adding new things from the origional 2012 release and more importently fixing set command waypoint faults where vehicles and aircraft alike get a little silly and frustrate,.Well "they fixed it" .......So if you like carrier command and stayed away because of bad AI and bugs well fear not its all good now so give a old regen 80's classic a whirl .weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee i think its great now .
• gamedeal user

  Sep 29, 2013

  One word: AVOID. This is a game utterly ruined by the unbelievably stupid AI used to "control" your units when you aren't in direct control yourself. The pathfinding is terrible, the combat logic is nonexistent - I regularly found my units being picked apart by enemies they weren't even returning fire at, despite having clear lines of sight) The crying shame is THIS HAS BEEN DONE SO MUCH BETTER BEFORE BY "HOSTILE WATERS" : A GAME OUT IN 2001! Just take that in for a second - a game over a decade old, does a better job of this on almost every front. Use THIS game engine and give us the HD re-release of Hostile Waters i've been dying to see, that would have been a much better use of the man hours used to make this abomination. If you haven't already played Hostile Waters, go get that instead - it's probably harder to get running on modern systems but aside from graphically it's a much _MUCH_ better game.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 14, 2017

  I'm not far in at all, but I feel I've seen enough to say that if you are INCREDIBLY patient with mindlessly bad pathfinding AI then this game will appeal, however if you aren't then this is absolutely a game to pass on. I begrudingly say it's worth trying out because the idea is great, but the shonky AI is a gamebreaker in the most literal sense. tldr: Don't forget Steams refund policy exists and you risk losing a few hours of your free time at worst.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 1, 2019

  As someone old enough to have played and loved the orginal on the Amiga this remake makes me sad. The island environments are pretty enough but this game has some serious issues, and in other area's the graphics are bland and uninteresting (cutscenes and the FPS parts). The game also makes use of a 'film grain' effect with no option to disable it which is annoying. Also save regularly, I only played through the campaign but it must've crashed to desktop over a dozen times in the 40+ hours played. Biggest Gripes are - The aforementioned cutscenes are on the whole horrible, the voice acting is wooden and they somehow feel devoid of any atmosphere or effort. Then there's the FPS parts of the game, why these were tacked on I don't understand as they are on the whole horrible. Its like the last ten years never happened. Boring indoor environments, useless enemies that mostly stand still and just fire on sight and they completely break the flow of the game. Finally there's the biggest issue, the game's AI. The pathfindng is mentioned many times in other reviews, but it truely is awful. For a game based on controlling multiple units with AI this really does ruin the game. So much so that half of the game consist's of baby sitting the Walrus units in a vain attempt to help them get to where you want them. Cross that ravine you order, the one with the big bridge over it. Okay says the AI and then promptly does a 17 point turn and drives off the edge completely ignoring the bridge. And so it goes on... I so wanted to like this game that I persevered, that said I don't feel its worth the effort and I can't recommend it, there's many other games more deserving.