Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde
Finally! A console RTS truly done right.
Published: January 12, 2004
For whatever reason, consoles haven't really had a decent real-time strategy game that could come close to hanging with the PC big boys. From the Empires games from Ensemble Studios to the Crafts from Blizzard Studios, PC RTS fans have had a major game release to chew on almost every year consistently for some time now. Console gamers, notoriously action-heavy, haven't had it so lucky.
Perhaps it was because no developer thought it would be worth the effort. Perhaps it was just because there wasn't enough real talent devoted to getting a console RTS up and running. Hell, maybe it was because the timing just wasn't right. Whatever the reason, Jaleco has taken a big chance and kicked out easily the best RTS console gamers have seen yet. Best of all, it's pretty damned fun -- if only in that pleasant distraction sort of way rather than anything as engrossing and relentlessly addictive as Starcraft.
What separates Goblin Commander from the glut of mediocre console RTS efforts is doubtlessly the way the developers took into the account the console controller. Rather than trying to duplicate the already simplistic mouse and keyboard shortcut setup employed on the PC for years, they simplified the overall control scheme and took clever advantage of the number of easily mappable buttons on the PS2 (at least twelve easily accessible ones and four more if you include start, select and the buttons under the analog sticks). When combined with an intuitive interface, the wealth of shortcuts makes issuing orders wonderfully easy, overcoming one of the first stumbling blocks most console RTS efforts trip over and never really recover from.
Goblin Commander offers about as much story as you're going to get from an RTS game. It's not quite on the level of some of Blizzard's efforts, but there was a conscious effort to include some semblance of a story. The problem is it essentially boils down to little more than a foil for the slow conquest of different clans of goblins. The leader of a particular clan appears shortly after you warp into their realm (which consist of the usual stereotypical locales like snowy mountains, fetid swamps, and steampunk caves), vow to destroy you, and then retreat until the final battle of that environment a half dozen or so maps later. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for that fact that there's little deviation from this formula and after four or five repeats of the same thing, monotony starts to settle in.
Fortunately, the maps themselves offer both a bit of strategy and plenty of action. Goblin Commander doesn't bother with buildings to maintain nor the upgrade trees that come with them, something that I tend to enjoy quite a bit in RTS sims because it distracts from the endless rushes that I usually employ to overwhelm enemies. Instead, there is a cap of 10 units from any one clan (you can issues to up to three of them by simply using a single button -- square, X or O -- to command all the units from that group), and just about everything in a map that's not straight terrain can be targeted and destroyed for gold, which is used for everything from buying unit upgrades to unlocking more advanced units to building and repairing the few buildings you use to create units.
Since the focus is shifted almost entirely to controlling units rather than garnering resources, maps can take seemingly forever to tackle, but the limited flow of resources (the only other form of resource collection comes from "capturing" soul fountains that are used for creating and unlocking units simply by clearing the area and moving units near a fountain for a few seconds) forces you to think strategically about what's on hand and what you'll need for scouting or assault movements.
While it's not as strongly enforced as I would have liked, there's also a intrinsic balance struck between clans that means each clan has a strength and a weakness to another clan. This can help when mounting a rush assault, but again it doesn't make a massive difference. Among the clans themselves are units that are vaguely balanced, but beyond their ranged or melee skills, there isn't a terrible amount of variety or balancing. For most of the missions, I found it easier to just lead 95% of the time with the cheapest units and send them swarming into an area in a near-constant stream.
As RTS games go, GC isn't exactly a looker. It does the job fairly well, displaying a couple dozen units without any real slowdown (though when environment destruction enters into play, it's another story), but with simplistic, angular units and mostly barren and plain terrain, that should be the case. Textures slide into disappointingly bland and blurry territory most of the time, but the cleanly executed fog of war and overall smoothness do help keep things visually appealing, if only moderately.
It should be noted that there was an effort to add a very basic physics system into destroyed objects, meaning buildings and structures that were razed actually explode and break into pieces that can the be pushed around – albeit only for a few seconds before fading away – which does more than you'd imagine to make things seem a little more grounded.
The audio is about on par with the visuals, accomplishing the tasks admirably, but not doing anything that will wow anyone. The specialized effects are well placed, and the quips from the units are nicely varied, though by the end of the game, you'll have had more than your fill. The dialogue during cutscenes manages to stay true to the theme of the game, and stays intelligent even when the clichés roll out during the verbal quips you'll engage in at the start of every new environment.
Suprisingly, the music managed to do keep my attention more than anything else in the game, due in part to how good it was but more importantly how it could be pushed out of the forefront yet hold up to repeat listenings throughout the game's 20 or so hours of gameplay. Nothing was particularly memorable, but then I suppose that could be one of the better parts of a game like this where you'll often hear the same tuned for an hour or longer stretch in one sitting. You'd think that something that repetitive would stick with or more likely annoy you, but it managed to stay remarkably… well, unremarkable in all but the fact that it was "good."
Goblin Commander isn't a perfect game, but it is a lot of fun for RTS gamers looking for something to play from the couch without a massive amount of hardcore planning. It is in every way a console RTS effort, and while I would have enjoyed a bit more variety or substance to the storyline, what was there did a decent job of moving things along until the end. It could be said the ending offered a bit of a plot twist, but really is was only the first real glimmer of interesting narrative the exists in the game, and if it weren't for that bend in the almost razor sharp course of the story, things would have gotten a bit underwhelming.
Tinges of monotony near the end of the game aside, there is plenty here to love, and if you've been searching for a good, solid real-time strategy game for consoles that succeeds in spirit where PC-to-console ports have failed, this is a rather smart buy.
Perhaps it was because no developer thought it would be worth the effort. Perhaps it was just because there wasn't enough real talent devoted to getting a console RTS up and running. Hell, maybe it was because the timing just wasn't right. Whatever the reason, Jaleco has taken a big chance and kicked out easily the best RTS console gamers have seen yet. Best of all, it's pretty damned fun -- if only in that pleasant distraction sort of way rather than anything as engrossing and relentlessly addictive as Starcraft.
What separates Goblin Commander from the glut of mediocre console RTS efforts is doubtlessly the way the developers took into the account the console controller. Rather than trying to duplicate the already simplistic mouse and keyboard shortcut setup employed on the PC for years, they simplified the overall control scheme and took clever advantage of the number of easily mappable buttons on the PS2 (at least twelve easily accessible ones and four more if you include start, select and the buttons under the analog sticks). When combined with an intuitive interface, the wealth of shortcuts makes issuing orders wonderfully easy, overcoming one of the first stumbling blocks most console RTS efforts trip over and never really recover from.
Goblin Commander offers about as much story as you're going to get from an RTS game. It's not quite on the level of some of Blizzard's efforts, but there was a conscious effort to include some semblance of a story. The problem is it essentially boils down to little more than a foil for the slow conquest of different clans of goblins. The leader of a particular clan appears shortly after you warp into their realm (which consist of the usual stereotypical locales like snowy mountains, fetid swamps, and steampunk caves), vow to destroy you, and then retreat until the final battle of that environment a half dozen or so maps later. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for that fact that there's little deviation from this formula and after four or five repeats of the same thing, monotony starts to settle in.
Fortunately, the maps themselves offer both a bit of strategy and plenty of action. Goblin Commander doesn't bother with buildings to maintain nor the upgrade trees that come with them, something that I tend to enjoy quite a bit in RTS sims because it distracts from the endless rushes that I usually employ to overwhelm enemies. Instead, there is a cap of 10 units from any one clan (you can issues to up to three of them by simply using a single button -- square, X or O -- to command all the units from that group), and just about everything in a map that's not straight terrain can be targeted and destroyed for gold, which is used for everything from buying unit upgrades to unlocking more advanced units to building and repairing the few buildings you use to create units.
Since the focus is shifted almost entirely to controlling units rather than garnering resources, maps can take seemingly forever to tackle, but the limited flow of resources (the only other form of resource collection comes from "capturing" soul fountains that are used for creating and unlocking units simply by clearing the area and moving units near a fountain for a few seconds) forces you to think strategically about what's on hand and what you'll need for scouting or assault movements.
While it's not as strongly enforced as I would have liked, there's also a intrinsic balance struck between clans that means each clan has a strength and a weakness to another clan. This can help when mounting a rush assault, but again it doesn't make a massive difference. Among the clans themselves are units that are vaguely balanced, but beyond their ranged or melee skills, there isn't a terrible amount of variety or balancing. For most of the missions, I found it easier to just lead 95% of the time with the cheapest units and send them swarming into an area in a near-constant stream.
As RTS games go, GC isn't exactly a looker. It does the job fairly well, displaying a couple dozen units without any real slowdown (though when environment destruction enters into play, it's another story), but with simplistic, angular units and mostly barren and plain terrain, that should be the case. Textures slide into disappointingly bland and blurry territory most of the time, but the cleanly executed fog of war and overall smoothness do help keep things visually appealing, if only moderately.
It should be noted that there was an effort to add a very basic physics system into destroyed objects, meaning buildings and structures that were razed actually explode and break into pieces that can the be pushed around – albeit only for a few seconds before fading away – which does more than you'd imagine to make things seem a little more grounded.
The audio is about on par with the visuals, accomplishing the tasks admirably, but not doing anything that will wow anyone. The specialized effects are well placed, and the quips from the units are nicely varied, though by the end of the game, you'll have had more than your fill. The dialogue during cutscenes manages to stay true to the theme of the game, and stays intelligent even when the clichés roll out during the verbal quips you'll engage in at the start of every new environment.
Suprisingly, the music managed to do keep my attention more than anything else in the game, due in part to how good it was but more importantly how it could be pushed out of the forefront yet hold up to repeat listenings throughout the game's 20 or so hours of gameplay. Nothing was particularly memorable, but then I suppose that could be one of the better parts of a game like this where you'll often hear the same tuned for an hour or longer stretch in one sitting. You'd think that something that repetitive would stick with or more likely annoy you, but it managed to stay remarkably… well, unremarkable in all but the fact that it was "good."
Goblin Commander isn't a perfect game, but it is a lot of fun for RTS gamers looking for something to play from the couch without a massive amount of hardcore planning. It is in every way a console RTS effort, and while I would have enjoyed a bit more variety or substance to the storyline, what was there did a decent job of moving things along until the end. It could be said the ending offered a bit of a plot twist, but really is was only the first real glimmer of interesting narrative the exists in the game, and if it weren't for that bend in the almost razor sharp course of the story, things would have gotten a bit underwhelming.
Tinges of monotony near the end of the game aside, there is plenty here to love, and if you've been searching for a good, solid real-time strategy game for consoles that succeeds in spirit where PC-to-console ports have failed, this is a rather smart buy.
