The 90s is the fastest growing era of real-time strategy games (RTS), the allocation of various resources in real-time strategy games, the rapidly changing wonderful battles, all the time testing the player's coordination ability and strategic ability, such games can not only be man-machine confrontation, but also everyone confrontation, this novel game mode immediately attracted countless players. The popularity of real-time strategy games soon attracted the attention of major game manufacturers, so a variety of wonderful real-time strategy games on the market have appeared: "Dune", "Command & Conquer", "Red Alert", "Warcraft", "Dungeon Keeper", "Age of Empires", "Jedi Storm", "Sweeping Thousand Armies", "StarCraft" and other classic games are immortal works of that era.
Red alert
StarCraft
At that time, it was an era of games blooming, wonderful games emerged, domestic games began to slowly sprout, launched some very good games, such as: the legend of Sword and Fairy, the legend of Jin Yongqun, Xuanyuan Sword Gaiden Maple Dance, etc., but unfortunately these games belong to fairy RPG games. When we are playing foreign RTS masterpieces such as Red Alert and Age of Empires, looking at the English interface full of screens, we always think: when will we play our own local RTS game masterpieces. Presumably this is also the dream of every Chinese player, but the "Blood Lion" incident in 1997 directly extinguished the hopes of Chinese players for domestic RTS games, and after this incident, players' expectations for domestic RTS games became a big joke.
However, the turning point occurred in 1998, a domestic real-time strategy game "Ironclad Storm" launched by Target Software, top-level CG animation, innovative resource collection mode, highly free custom unit functions, high-level game graphics and music sound effects, etc., all of which made this game show the quality that domestic games of the same period did not have. As soon as the game was launched, it was immediately praised by many players, all of whom believed that it was time for domestic games to carry forward.
Classic game: Ironclad Storm poster
The story of the game is set in the future 32nd century, the Earth Federal Government sent a group of pioneers to the planet Adonia, built a colony here and sent a governor to govern, after a century of the third governor, the people of Adonia could not bear its tyrannical rule and formed a civil organization: the Fire Eagle Legion, ready to overthrow the governor and implement self-government. At this time, the Earth Federal Government was also very dissatisfied with the current Governor's governance and decided to send a new general to lead the Federation forces to replace the Governor. However, the current governor of the colony refused to sit still and led his own imperial guard to maintain his rule, so the three forces on the planet Adonia began a war.
The forces of three different beliefs
Whether a game can be played or not, the first thing to look at is of course the picture, and the CG animation effect of Ironclad Storm is quite good, and it can be said that it is not at all inferior to the level of those foreign game masterpieces at that time. The title screen also has a unique design, with a strong mecha style, which can be described as full of sincerity. The scenes, buildings, units, and combat effects in the game also look very fine, plus the wonderful Chinese dubbing and beautiful background music, it is hard to believe that this is a domestic game, and the production level of Ironclad Storm easily throws other domestic games a few streets, which is incomparable to other domestic games.
Beautiful game CG animation that does not lose to the masterpiece
Design-inspired title screen
Detailed terrain design and moving unit screen
There are three different factions designed in Ironclad Storm, each race has its own unique secret weapon, but unfortunately, in addition to the architectural style, the mobile unit design style of each faction is only a few different, the other content is almost identical, it would be better if there were three completely different styles.
Fire Eagle Legion architectural style
Imperial Guard architectural style
Federal Forces architectural style
There is only one resource in the game: money, and the collection method is also very special, requiring the player to occupy the settlement on the map to produce, and the mobile unit can be occupied after entering the settlement, this design is a bit similar to the oil well of Red Alert 2, you must know that Red Alert 2 can be released in 2000. However, these settlements can be upgraded, and the upgraded settlements will generate money a little faster. However, these settlements are easily snatched away by enemies, so how to hold them is a difficult part of the game.
Occupying a settlement automatically increases money
Upgrading settlements can speed up monetary output
The construction of the base in the Ironclad Storm is also different, the buildings ignore the distance from the base and can be built in any location. The construction worker in the game is called: Fatty, when the player designates a building on the map, the Fat Man will carry the required materials from the base to the destination for construction, usually to make multiple round-trips to build successfully, this construction method is very special, so the distance between the base and the building determines the construction speed, of course, with the upgrade of the Fat Man, more materials can be brought at a time, and the player can also designate multiple Fat Man to build a facility at the same time.
Builder: Fat
In terms of gameplay, the mobile units of Ironclad Storm are basically mecha, so this game has one of the biggest features: that is, free combination of mecha. Usually real-time strategy games are to build barracks, workshops, airports and other facilities, you can create a variety of different mobile units, these units are preset, the player can not change anything except upgrades. However, in Ironclad Storm, the mech is divided into five modules: Weapon, Power, Carrier, Armor, and Measurement. Weapons include machine guns, missiles, flame weapons, laser weapons, etc., the power refers to the core engine of the mecha, the higher the engine, the greater the horsepower, the faster it runs. Carrying refers to the way the mecha moves, which is equivalent to the chassis, and has legs, wheels, tracks, air cushions, etc. Armor and Measurement are upgrades to armor and field of view, respectively. Through these different parts, players can freely combine many unique mecha, such as walking on legs, running on wheels, amphibious and so on, this design has to be said to be very eye-catching, can be described as a stroke of God.
Upgrade weapon technology
Upgrade power technology
Upgrade delivery technology
Different mechs are produced in the factory through free combinations
The mecha in Ironclad Storm is fast, so it feels like the game is fast-paced, and with Chinese voiceover, the battle is very feeling. Another remarkable point is that the mecha can fire at enemies while moving, which is still very advanced compared to real-time strategy games of the same period, such as the red alert of the fire at that time, and the combat unit cannot fire while moving.
Battle screen
Although the picture performance of the ironclad storm is good compared with domestic games, but in 98, foreign boutiques gathered, "Age of Empires", "StarCraft" and other masterpieces have stronger picture expression, ironclad storm in front of these masterpieces, it is not so brilliant, the only highlight is that you can customize the idea of mecha, in the case of a mix and match of various possibilities, the picture actually has no sense of violation and vicious bugs, which also reflects the skill of the producer. However, the biggest feature of real-time strategy games should be excellent tactical use and faction balance, which was perfectly interpreted by StarCraft, which was released in the same year, and the ironclad storm also gradually withdrew from the player's field of vision under the brilliance of StarCraft.
StarCraft is more balanced and tactically used
Overall, in the face of foreign masterpieces, although the ironclad storm seems to be somewhat inadequate and immature, but its excellent creativity, good art skills, exquisite music and sound effects can be called the pinnacle of domestic RTS games, if carefully crafted, a little luckier, maybe the target software may be China's "Blizzard". Unfortunately, due to the market situation in the later period and some other reasons, domestic games have not been popular today, and I have to admit that this is an eternal pain in the hearts of Chinese players. Dear friends, have you played the game Ironclad Storm and what do you think of it?
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