Product Description

Ground Control 2: Operation Exodus takes place during the year 2741 AD, roughly 300 years after the events in the original game, and has a strong focus on tactical battles and action-packed combat. The democratic and freedom caring Northern Star Alliance (NSA) is being hard pressed by the warmongering Terran Empire. The war has recently entered a new stage; a brutal and deadly ground war, as the Empire has managed to land their first troopships on the last NSA controlled planet, Morningstar Prime. Captain Jacob Angelus, a battle-hardened officer in the NSA armed forces, finds himself becoming the central figure in the war against the Terran Empire. The situation is desperate, but for the NSA destiny is at hand; its only hope lies in an ancient legend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7653 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sierra
• Released on: 2004-06-25
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows Me
• Number of items: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
With a bit of luck Ground Control II represents a return to form for the real-time strategy genre, after it tragically burned itself out after an all too short stint as the world’s most popular game genre. Like many a celebrity before it the games became bloated by its own success and so complicated that only hardcore fans could actually be bothered to play them and although Ground Control II does little that is new it does at least do it in a way that normal people can understand and enjoy.

The first thing the game does to make itself more accessible to the average gamer is get rid of all that boring resource management business. Here everything is about controlling troops and getting stuck into as many sci-fi battles as you can, not worrying about whether your peons are mining enough gold. New units are assigned as you gain "acquisition points" during a mission and are then brought directly to the battlefield on huge dropships, again making sure you can concentrate on making war instead of faffing around with factories.

Because of the emphasis on combat you have a lot more control over your troops than usual, with the ability to switch formations and use cover and elevation to improve your position. Apart from improved graphics there’s virtually nothing here that that hasn’t been seen before, including in the original Ground Control, but the focus on user friendly controls and straight combat means that it should appeal to a significantly wider audience. --David Jenkins

Customer Reviews

It's pretty but .....
Visually Ground Control is very good, but the 3D graphics get in the way of unit control. If you click on part of the map where there happens to be a valley for example, you fall into it and have to waste time lifting yourself out in order to see what is happening. Clicking on units to give them orders can be hit and miss at times too which is a shame because the game offers different options for each.
The light show the game gives you as you get into a firefight is pretty and enemy AI is OK but you cannot build anything. I'll give the game another week but I'm not optimistic.

The most enjoyable RTS for the PC in years.
Recently I had abandoned all hope of seeing a captivating RTS. Haegemonia, Homeworld 2 were good, but they lacked something..Warcraft 3 lacked a lot in my opinion. Once I played Ground Control 2 I realised what they lacked: an interesting story, a pleasant gameplay and enjoyable to play campaign.

Ground Control 2 (GC2 from now on) uses a system different than the majority of RTS use, although it isn't the first game to use that system. In this game there are no bases to be built, the units cannot be upgraded (except the Dropship). You can only order units which are transported to a specific location on the map, a landing zone, by a dropship. By controlling landing zones and Victory locations (key locations on the map) you acquire Acquisition Points, which are what you use to order more troops. There's a large variety of different units, and what is more interesting all the units have primary and secondary modes, between you can switch on the battlefield (and to finish the game you will do that often!). There are only 2 sides who you can play as: the Northern Star Alliance and the Virons. The two races are balanced very well, unlike in some recent RTSs. The campaign can be very slightly repetetive, but is very fun, and I played the game almost every night for weeks to finish it.

The graphics are stunning and it works fine on my GeForce FX5200 and on a friend's Radeon 9000. The battlefield, the soldiers, the athmosphere, all very detailed. Music is excellent too.. The problem I had this game is the sound. You will very soon get annoyed by hearing "Sarge does what Sarge does best" 3 times in a row froma certain unit. Even though every unit has different sounds and voice there isn;t a large range of them like in Starcraft for example, and I have to admit it can get extremely annoying!

The Story of the game is nothing special to be honest, but still interesting enough for me to want to complete the game.

I haven't had a chance to try out the multiplayer yet, but I don't doubt it will also be great fun.

It is sad that this game will probably not be a hit like Command & Conquer series (thank you, EA, for runing those), Star-, WarCraft or Homeworld. It is far more fun and deserves far more attention than it got.

Half delivers..
Ground Control 2, may look good, but it lacks in a lot of areas, the missions in the game don't really keep your interest, you go from point a to point b, and blast anything that gets in your way, some missions you go with a sneak in and out scenario.

The game is let down in a huge way, by its lack of longevity, meaning you will quickly get bored with it, as there is not a lot you can do with this game, you have control over vehicles, and troops by click and point, call a drop ship and that's it.

Control it by click and point where you want to move your items too, disappointing that you cannot drive or use vehicles, it's basically the same as Battle Zone2, but without the bases or the 1st person view inside cockpits and people, and Battle Zone is a relevant comparison, because that too is a Ground Control game, that did it correctly.

I cannot believe this game was £34.99, when it came out, it's actually a £17 game, because of the simplicity of the game, graphics is not the basis of game play, it's a visual enhancement.

They sadly did not take advantage of there new graphics, such a shame, when you play this game you view it from the top slightly looking forward to the horizon, you very really pan around with the camera when you are in battle, because its simply impossible to do so, it may as well be a 2d game with 3d objects for this reason.

If Ground Control was truly a Ground Control game, you would have been able to get right deep into the heart of the action, and control people and vehicles by 1st person, as well as from above to control multiple groups.