There are such games, noticing the release of which is quite a task. For example, just recently I had no idea about the existence of Gray Goo, but today, by a miraculous coincidence, I’m playing the creation of Petroglyph Games.
It’s unclear, of course, why the game from the legendary founders of Westwood Games went virtually unnoticed, but the fact remains: ask anyone you know what they know about Gray Goo and they will only raise an eyebrow in surprise: “Gray slime? The first time I've heard. What is this, some kind of indie horror?
In fact, Gray Goo presents a classic Sci-Fi RTS about people, more or less civilized aliens and a TERRIBLE THREAT FROM SPACE, WHICH YOU CAN ONLY DEFEAT BY JOINING YOUR FORCES. But first things first.
Well forgotten old
Let's be honest: Petroglyph Games, despite its rich experience and legendary past, have not created a single truly notable game in the twenty-first century. Take at least the same one Star Wars: Empire at War, which came out in 2006: a passable but completely unexceptional game that no one would have noticed if not for the treasured two words “Star Wars” in the title.
Judge for yourself: boring battles, a lackluster campaign and a very low pace of the game, which made you sleepy, did their dirty work. Perhaps the only thing remarkable about it was the very Death Star, with the help of which it was possible to smash an entire planet into atoms with one’s own hands. Actually, after this moment the game could have been safely deleted, because, frankly speaking, there was nothing more to watch.
All this super-duper technological “just-like-in-the-movie” graphics turned out to be, to put it mildly, not so technologically advanced...
Okay, “Empire at War” is a project of the past, and perhaps Petroglyph Games analyzed their mistakes long and hard in order to release the impeccable RTS in 2015, which everyone has been waiting for a long time? Whatever the case.
If you had shown me this screenshot before I played Gray Goo and asked what game it was from, I would have confidently answered: “From the second StarCraft.” Unfortunately, the game lacks its own recognizable style.
After all, Gray Goo is a completely classic RTS, in which there is nothing new: you build a base, extract Tiberium energy from the nearest well, build as many units as possible and send them to the other end of the map in search of the enemy.
Are there enough units? Great, congratulations, the enemy is defeated, the mission is completed! Are there not enough units? Well, excuse me, all your troops are defeated - if you please, build new ones or start the mission from the beginning.
You can still resort to some tactical tricks: in the screenshot above, my brave warriors are hidden in the forest. Now, if enemy troops pass by, I will have the opportunity to deliver a surprise blow to the enemy. True, this feature is sometimes very annoying, because if your troops enter the forest and see enemy units there, there is a chance that they will “freeze” for a few seconds and destroy them. The pathfinding algorithm itself is quite strange and poorly debugged.
However, it would be hard to call the new (relatively) game by Petroglyph Games some kind of low-budget indie craft, just look at the spectacular CGI videos that are shown in front of each new mission in the campaign!
Filming live actors in videos is not fashionable now, and therefore in Gray Goo the video inserts consist entirely of computer graphics, which isn't so bad.
Unfortunately, the beautiful cutscenes are the only thing that makes the campaign worth playing, since the story is clearly not Gray Goo's strongest point. In short, the beginning last game Petroglyph Games goes something like this: representatives of the Beta alien race decide to conduct an experiment to create a wormhole, which predictably goes awry, while earthlings roam the open spaces in search of gray goo, and that same gray goo devours everything in its path, like the tyranids from Warhammer 40,000.
And the single missions themselves, admittedly, do not sparkle with originality: find, protect, destroy, and so on in the spirit of “ old school" True, it’s unclear who might be interested in such a guest from the past now, but oh well.
Gray Goo's interface is similar to C&C - only the construction screen is now not on the right (as before), but on the bottom.
Gray slime and everything, everything, everything
In total, there are three sides in the game - alien Beta, classic people and the same “Grey Slime” from the title. If with the first two everything is more or less clear and you can’t expect anything very special from them, then we should dwell on the third in more detail.
Base construction for Beta and people looks something like this: in the following way– there is a main building to which the player is free to add extensions. For example, in order to produce ordinary units, you need to build a factory, and in order to produce equipment, you need a so-called “Tank Annex”.
However, you should not think that aliens and people are completely identical and there are no differences between them. The former are more mobile and can build a new base wherever they wish, while Homo Sapiens from the future it is required to lay special power cables to the next construction site.
Gray goo are nanobots created by humans that have gone out of control and now pose a serious threat (hello, " Space Rangers 2"!). They are interesting primarily because the mucus does not have a base as such, but it does have a uterus (similar, by the way, to a huge, gray viceroid, if you still remember those), which, in order to reproduce units, must be located in an energy source.
After a certain amount of resources has been absorbed, with one click (that is, instantly, you won’t have to wait for construction as is the case with other races), the queen will split into two parts, and from the second the units of your choice will “hatch”.
You can endlessly look at three things: fire, water and how the gray goo is divided into units.
All this, of course, is good and wonderful, but the maximum that the “Gu” race is capable of is to keep the player at the screen longer in order to study the ominous biorobots in more detail, and nothing more.
Alas, in order to make Gray Goo as iconic and memorable as Command & Conquer, you need more than a huge, gray slug that moves around the game map and devours everything in its path.
Conclusion
In modern realities, the RTS genre feels very uncomfortable for one reason only - there is practically no room for improvisation and imagination. All that a player can do in the vast majority of games of this genre is to rebuild a base, build a dozen units, highlight them with a large green frame and send them to hell to the other end of the map in search of an enemy.
Yes, Command & Conquer was also like that, but it was pulled out by an interesting, memorable setting, the success of which even the people from Westwood Games themselves, as their recent Gray Goo showed, are not able to replicate.
No, don’t think about it - I’m not predicting the decline of the RTS genre or anything like that, it’s just that now few people are interested in real-time strategies because of their lack of ideas and monotony.
Here we can cite as an example one very famous global strategy, which was released in 2010, but still manages to be popular - Sid Meier's Civilization V. Perhaps these genres should be combined, after which we will get that very ideal strategy, oh that players all over the world dream of? Who knows, who knows...
Verdict: Gray Goo is a typical “old school” strategy that will be of interest only to those who are still fans of the old C&C and believe that “ before the game were better."
Rating: 6.5 (“Not bad”).
Ruslan Gubaidullin
- Testing current systems in Gray Goo, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
Testing twenty-one video cards and four processors in several operating modes at 1920 x 1080 resolution. - Discussion of the game on the website portal.
One of the most beautiful RTS in the history of the genre. It's a shame that in other respects it is secondary to the core and any player who ate the dog at one time Command & Conquer or Starcraft, will very quickly lose interest in the new creation Petroglyph Games(a team, by the way, that created a wonderful in all respects Star Wars: Empire at War).
Begins Gray Goo promising. The authors did a great job on the visual part, which has an extremely positive effect on first impressions. Stylish menus, stunningly beautiful loading screens, characters worked out to the smallest detail... Everything is done in the highest level. The same applies to cinematic videos that introduce us to the universe. By the way, about her: action Gray Goo takes place on a distant planet called the Ninth Ecosystem, where at some point things become crowded, and conflict breaks out between the factions inhabiting it. There are only three sides: people, the Beta race and the mysterious microrobots The Goo. Each of them traditionally has its own army and a set of unique technologies, which turn out to be far from being as diverse as it seems at first. It gets ridiculous: the structures of people and Beta differ only appearance, performing essentially the same functions. New units are unlocked gradually, over fifteen missions - five for each faction.
It is noticeable that the authors tried to somewhat diversify routine missions with various small additional tasks. However, this doesn’t make much sense. Any battle in Gray Goo It follows one scenario: we collect resources, develop, and wipe out the enemy from the face of the earth. No surprises. It is enough to follow one simple scheme, and victory will come to you. Despite this, in Gray Goo enough and positive points. Take, for example, the already mentioned interface. The game is very easy to learn and, unlike its peers in the genre, does not require you to spend several hours learning basic rules. Interesting idea also is the use of the planet's flora in skirmishes with the enemy. The dense forests of Ecosystem Nine, for example, can easily shelter your fighters in their embrace, allowing you to deliver an unexpected blow to the enemy.
***
It should be noted that Gray Goo is primarily focused on multiplayer, because the campaign here is too short and faceless to justify the considerable cost of the game. Fans of fierce online hacks, unfortunately, will also be disappointed; in a world where it already exists Starcraft, in order to play in the online strategy field, you need more than just Nice picture. Alas, nothing else Gray Goo oppose the giant from Blizzard it simply can't.
Game profile:
Full name: Gray Goo
Developer: Petroglyph Games
Publisher: Gray Box
Platform: PC
Genre: Strategy
- A classic real-time strategy with a good budget - according to modern times this in itself is remarkable | beautiful rendered scenes and briefings
- The gameplay is secondary and mediocre in literally everything | boring building and unit design | multiplayer is already dead
GameWay verdict: 5 /10
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Gray Goo, that is, “gray goo,” is a hypothetical scenario of a man-made end of the world - self-replicating nanorobots, due to a malfunction or mutation, get out of control and recycle the entire planet into themselves. The originator of the term, Eric Drexler, explained it this way: “Although masses of uncontrollable replicators need not be either gray or slime-like, the term 'grey goo' emphasizes that replicators capable of destroying life may not be as inspiring as a single species of burdock. . They may be 'superior' in an evolutionary sense, but that does not necessarily make them valuable."
The game Gray Goo from Petroglyph studio vividly reminded me of this saying. Not in the sense, of course, that this real-time strategy has some kind of evolutionary superiority - on the contrary, at its core it looks like a strange and cumbersome artifact of another era, a kind of dinosaur that suddenly materialized in the middle of a post-industrial landscape. It’s more about: “Not as inspiring as the only type of burdock” - alas, but we must admit that playing Gray Goo, for a person at least slightly passionate about RTS and knowing the genre, is not much more interesting than watching burdock grow.
The fact is that this strategy offers completely lame gameplay, which does not have any advantages or outstanding features that would set it apart from other games in the genre. Gray Goo's communication with the player can be described as follows: This is a light unit, it shoots, this is a tank, it takes a hit and shoots a little harder, this is an artillery mount, it shoots far and hurts, this is an air defense installation, it will protect others from attacks from air - and now, dear player, show how you can gather these types of equipment into huge crowds and point them at the enemy. Are you really having a lot of fun? - No? Well then, build at an expensive price a huge super-unit that is Very Strong! - satisfied? No? I don’t understand what else you need!
At least something original, damn it! Honestly, it’s impossible to even count how many times we’ve seen similar variations on the C&C theme. The fact that this was made at a time when it was somehow no longer accepted to release such things, and even from the people who once made the C&C series itself (the backbone of the Petroglyph studio at its founding were people from Westwood), and who never tire of reminding us of this - does not change the situation. Who cares about past merits, if ten years ago, when post-Soviet space an industry of its own was blooming; a bunch of strategies of this level were released right here every year.
Playing Gray Goo is as interesting as in its time in some “Ancient Wars: Sparta”, “Alexander: Age of Heroes” or Maelstrom. The level of play is approximately the same, and this is doubly offensive, because just seven years ago Petroglyph released Universe at War: Earth Assault - a strategy that is far from ideal, but interesting primarily due to its uniqueness and originality. Alas, the failure of MMORTS End of Nations seems to have crippled this company...
The scale of failure becomes especially clear when you try to play Gray Goo online. Already now it is almost impossible. The lobby is always empty. Searching for a ranked game that took more than ten minutes? Yes, easily! And there is no guarantee that anything will be found. My personal wait record is 45 minutes... on a Friday evening... two weeks after the game was released... And this is not the limit - at the 46th minute I simply turned off further search.
If there's one thing that's not clear about Gray Goo, it's the surprisingly supportive reaction to it from the gaming press. It was the solid “eights” and the summary ala: “Grey Goo did not disgrace the honor of the glorious C&C series” that got me interested in this game and made it possible to buy it. Alas, all that remains to be noted is the amazing superficiality of fellow journalists. You can write this after playing Gray Goo for about four hours. Like many almost perfect games, it manages to hide its huge shortcomings for a short time, charming the player with an abundance of insignificant details. A little later, all the dullness and banality game material becomes absolutely obvious... - but, apparently, few of the critics reached this very distant “later”.
Well, apparently in these matters it is better to trust the players... and the eternally empty online lobbies of the game, which not so long ago occupied prominent places in the sales leaders, speak for themselves.
Goo will survive... Goo will expand... Goo will face increasing silence
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It is worth admitting that from the moment of its announcement the author of these lines was skeptical about the game. From the very first day, studio representatives Petroglyph enthusiastically talked about how their creation would breathe new life into the real-time strategy genre, and in general, will become an analogue of the Savior from the world of computer games. And the formal grounds for this were none other than the people who once created and (the backbone of the studio are veterans of the gaming industry) are destined to rewrite its rules anew. But here’s the problem: everything they showed and told looked more like an attempt to “mix up” theirs with the Gray Slime instead of the Zergs. Looking ahead, let's say that most of fears were not justified, but Petroglyph we really managed to create a self-sufficient product that brings several new ideas to the genre.
The first thing that pleasantly surprises immediately after launch is the visual performance. And all its aspects. The videos are beautiful (they, of course, do not reach the scale, but they look very decent), briefings before tasks are given by cute faces, and what is especially gratifying is that the “beautifulness” does not disappear anywhere after loading the game map. The game succeeds not due to its technology or beautiful art separately, but due to their competent combination. Good design of units, buildings and environments is supported by clever use of visual effects, high-quality models and clear textures. And how animated it all is! The author of these lines had to restart the mission several times due to the fact that he was carried away by contemplating the construction process of the next plant or the holograms flickering above the Human headquarters. Babble, and that’s all.
The story campaign in the game is the same for all three factions, so getting to know them proceeds strictly according to the developers’ plan. And this introduction is very exciting: if you first started to go through the single-player campaign, leaving multiplayer and battles with AI for later (and this is exactly what we recommend doing), then you are guaranteed several “wow” moments. When you start playing as a Beta (flat-faced multi-armed creatures scurrying away from Silence), you have absolutely no idea what’s going on with representatives of other races. Human units and their base operate according to some completely different principles from those inherent in the faction under your control. And Goo doesn’t have a base at all, but this jelly happily devours your troops and buildings. And an understanding of what is really happening will not appear until you have time to play for each faction.
Here are the radically different factions: Foundation stone the entire gameplay concept of Gray Goo. Humans, Goo and Beta don't just have a different set of units with their own strengths and weaknesses- They have different philosophies of combat. Beta can build outposts and erect walls with towers for units. People are deprived of the opportunity to constantly expand their possessions, but they defend well what they have with automatic turrets and can teleport troops to any point on the map. Goo does not have a base, but Mother Gu has units that absorb resources, produce troops and their own kind. Humans and Betas have aircraft that Goo does not. But the latter have units capable of moving through the mountains... This list can be continued for a very long time.
Simply put, the classic RTS concept of “rock-paper-scissors” is squared, and maybe even cubed. And the most surprising thing here is that the developers managed to balance the factions at the time of release so that there are no clear favorites and outsiders. When participating in multiplayer battles, the player can safely choose the faction that he likes, and the outcome of the battle will depend on his skill, and not on the fact that “Goo is bent.” We won’t speculate about the e-sports future of the project (this area is very conservative), but the multiplayer potential is very good.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of shortcomings that spoil general impression. Firstly, this is the development of tasks and maps in the single-player campaign. If in the same way each mission is unique, poses new tasks for the player and at the very least echoes the plot that is presented between battles, then in Gray Goo everything is much more prosaic. All the creators of the game had enough imagination for was missions like “defend-attack” and “capture-destroy.” And everything would be fine if it happened on interesting maps. But no: half of the locations here actually feel like they’re concocted on the basis of symmetrical multiplayer maps, and the rest are kind of sadly predictable. And also climatic zones, in which the game takes place, as much as one and a half. No scorched deserts or arctic snows for you - only forests and swamps with forests.
Ugly stupid units. If in all other strategies the first position in terms of inappropriate behavior is traditionally occupied by harvesters, then here they are like independent units practically absent and do not cause any trouble. But all combat units are completely devoid of common sense and on their own can only die resignedly under enemy fire. For example, an armored Goo unit, which has no weapons and is designed to divert enemy fire, will NEVER come forward to take this same fire. He will stand on the sidelines while those he is called to protect take damage and die in batches. So you have to constantly drive all the troops manually, until a slightly more sane enemy AI kills half of your charges with one stunted artillery mount. The problem, of course, is not new for the genre, but in 2015 one could at least try to solve it.
But, despite the previous couple of paragraphs, filled with resentment and indignation, it is worth recognizing that Petroglyph it really worked out
Shake up the genre and breathe some fresh ideas into it. This can hardly be called a real revolution, but Gray Goo is quite worthy of the status of the founder of a new successful series that will give impetus to the next round of RTS evolution.
As the genre's inspiring savior in computer games. But the main problem of the game is that all attempts to create and show something new were more like “their” Starcraft, where instead of Zerg slime they were going to make gray slime. Going a little ahead, let's say that all the concerns about it were false, so the studio actually made a game that introduced several new ideas into this genre.
The first thing that catches your eye when you launch the game is its visual design. At the same time, all aspects are completely in the game. The game videos are incredibly beautiful, even if they are not on the scale of Starcraft, and before each task there is a small interesting briefing along with some cute alien face. And what’s more, after starting the game and entering the map, this beauty is not lost at all! Here a competent combination of beautiful art and technology has merged very succinctly. That's why, this beauty resulted in both the design of units and the design of the surrounding world. Added to all this are visual effects that also look high quality. We don’t forget about the textures, which look very clear, and together with the made models, everything is completely irresistible. I just want to restart the task every time to enjoy the contemplation of the construction process, because the animation is simply at its best.
The storyline is quite standard for a representative of the strategy genre: three large factions began to fight among themselves for survival and for control of the planet. Naturally, there are also some cool plot twists. The story that will be told to you in the game is certainly not original, but it is written at such a level that it will not disgust you. The most interesting and important thing is that in the process storyline players are presented with each of the three existing factions.
The storyline “spreads” completely across all three factions, so it is one. You will move strictly according to plan and gradually learn the details of each of the three factions. The learning process will be quite exciting. If you started playing a single-player company (which we immediately advise you to do), then you will undoubtedly encounter some “wow” moments. Once you start playing as Beta, you won't really understand what's going on with the other factions. The buildings and units of people work according to some new principles, but Goo does not have its own base at all, so they are some kind of slugs that will happily devour all your troops.
The most interesting thing about the game is that each faction has its own unique gameplay concept. Beta, People and Goo don't just have different types units that have their own weak and strengths- they have different methods of combat from each other. Beta have the ability to build outposts, and on them towers with units. People cannot widely expand their possessions, but they are very good in defense thanks to turrets and teleportation. But for Goo, everything is completely different: they do not have a base, but they have Mother Gu - a unit that absorbs not only resources, but also creates troops. Another example: Beta, together with Humans, have aviation, which Goo does not have, but for that Goo have units that are able to move through the mountains. A list like this could go on for a long time.
In general, the standard RTS concept in the game is now presented as a square, and maybe even a cube. But even here there is no minus, because the developers still managed to balance all three factions among themselves, so you will not see any obvious outsiders or favorites. In a multiplayer battle, the player has the right to choose any faction and victory will depend only on his skill. Yes, of course, you shouldn’t build an e-sports future for the game, but it has quite a lot of potential.
But still, it has some shortcomings that somewhat spoil the entire impression of the game. To begin with, it is worth noting the development of buildings and maps in the company. If each task was unique, then everything is too old or something. In general, all that the creators of the game had enough imagination for was “attack and defend”, “destroy and capture”. And this would be a minor problem if all the actions took place on some unique maps! There are no deserts, snow-covered arctic meadows, forests, swamps - nothing in general.
Another problem is that Goo units are incredibly stupid. They are so independent here that they can only simply die under enemy fire. For example, Goo's armored unit, which must take all the fire upon itself, will never voluntarily come forward to take all the enemy's fire upon itself. He will always stand on the sidelines while those he is supposed to protect die like flies. This is precisely why you have to constantly drive all units to key points and do all the work assigned to them for them.
Results
Despite all the disadvantages of the game, it is worth recognizing that the studio
