Carrier Command: Gaea Mission

 PC
User Score
5.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 74 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 74
  2. Mixed: 23 out of 74
  3. Negative: 25 out of 74
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  1. Scritty
    Sep 29, 2012
    9
    The graphics, while not awesome are very good, alomsy Crysis standard (and yes I know that game is well over 3 years old) but still very good. INtro "make it to your carrier" shooter is ok, but as I'm playing the rather spectacular Borderlands 2 now, it does pale in comparison to that - but as it's such a small part of the game it's hardly worthwhile critcising it too much.
    Vehicles drive    The graphics, while not awesome are very good, alomsy Crysis standard (and yes I know that game is well over 3 years old) but still very good. INtro "make it to your carrier" shooter is ok, but as I'm playing the rather spectacular Borderlands 2 now, it does pale in comparison to that - but as it's such a small part of the game it's hardly worthwhile critcising it too much.
    Vehicles drive really well, GUI is spot on - freedom is AWESOME! I've justr done to second mission about 5x and finished it sompletely differently, and I've had more ideas since then to be more efficient. The REAL issue (and why this is an 8.5 or 9 rather than a 10) is the pathfinding AI essp against obstacles. While I love to play this is a shooter in the Battlezone1 and 2 mould, I would like to play it properly as a mixed genre strategy game without having to micro manage the routes by wingmen are taking. I notice on Steam that their is alreadyu a pathfinding patch on the way. SO in anticipation of that I give it a 9. Without it it's still a solid 8. For those of us who prefer sandbox to theme park no matter what the genre, this is one of very few great games to hit in the last 7 years. The last game similar to this was "Hostile Waters"    … Expand
  2. flic182
    Sep 30, 2012
    9
    This game, in terms of scope, is genius. I was super excited when I saw the premise. Control a carrier, launch amphibious and flying units and direct them directly and indirectly to assault and capture an island and its resources... However I wasn't born yesterday, I've seen this type of premise before, and I
  3. Elenoe
    Sep 28, 2012
    9
    Ok. Never heard of this game (or original) until today. Bought it because I saw commanding carrier, nice islands and driving vehicles with freedom. And I love it. From intro which has its dynamic even with little obsolete animations, through menu with excellent music to the actual game. I'm one of few who actually liked first FPS mission. As FPS player I agree it's not the best ever seen.Ok. Never heard of this game (or original) until today. Bought it because I saw commanding carrier, nice islands and driving vehicles with freedom. And I love it. From intro which has its dynamic even with little obsolete animations, through menu with excellent music to the actual game. I'm one of few who actually liked first FPS mission. As FPS player I agree it's not the best ever seen. But I love it because developers took some time to make this "minigame" to make you know you are one man on your way to seize and command carrier - your future home. Game itself reminds me Project Freedom style. I'm definitely more enjoying action part - driving vehicles/VTOL's around islands and shooting enemies/unlocking doors/lowering barriers on my own - then strategic part of commanding units from map. And I really think the game do this perfectly. Nice graphics when it's moving. Good quick-to-learn interface made for PC. And nice using more, yet limited to 8, units to support you, as wingman, to defend places or just to supply you with another vehicle when your own is destroyed. Some upgrades, production and customization of units. The best of the game is IMO freedom you have. There is no one way to accomplish mission. You can approach from any direction you choose. Use anything from single unit hit-and-run tactics to drive enemies out through strategic map. You can take ground turrets from behind with single unit or use nearby hovering VTOL's for taking out ground units while APC's for taking out air cannons. Every mission in campaign also have something new to see/use/do. All-in-all I love the freedom and the personal approach of commander. There are issues with game. If you are just a little forgiving you can overlook them but they still are there. The most annoying is bad AI pathfinding. When AI is driving your units, they can be really pain in the ass. Stucking on each rock they met. Usually they get to the target eventually, just not as smooth as you would like. So you need to be checking them and time to time just drive a bit of way yourself - UI is very helping to do this easily. This can be serious issue when you want to use strategic map to coordinate multiple attacks. Didn't bother me that much as I used it more like arcade game and drive most of units myself. Graphics and physics is very good. With no FPS drop on 570GTX. Music is excellent, liked one this much last in DXHR. And the storytelling made me feel the same as I felt on Freelancer's back then. So if you are willing to forgive some hitches, they may be even fixed later (writing this on release version), buy it. If you unsure, wait for 15… Expand
  4. xtom
    Mar 12, 2013
    9
    Brilliant strategy/action game that is faithful to the original. Graphics and weather conditions are gorgeous. The campaign is decent but more importantly there is lots of replay value in the strategy game mode.
  5. Azrapse
    Jul 29, 2013
    9
    Really fun and engaging game that mixes strategic conquest of neutral and enemy islands to power your war effort (and maim the enemy's) with tactical combats manning aircraft, amphibious tanks, and a carrier with turrets.

    The campaign serves both as an introduction to the gameplay and tutorial, as well as a refreshing change of pace with its on-foot infiltration missions, chases on land    Really fun and engaging game that mixes strategic conquest of neutral and enemy islands to power your war effort (and maim the enemy's) with tactical combats manning aircraft, amphibious tanks, and a carrier with turrets.

    The campaign serves both as an introduction to the gameplay and tutorial, as well as a refreshing change of pace with its on-foot infiltration missions, chases on land and air, and a story whose writing, while not going to win a Nobel prize of literature, gives a reason and a motivation for the whole thing.
    You can rush through it, but I took the time to conquer every single optional island, and visit both the factory/refinery and the research center at every island to get the free goodies, and Steam accounted 40 hours to complete it.

    Once you are done with the campaign, you can replay the game in strategic mode, where you can configure the starting archipelago, initial technology and victory conditions to your liking. You can go for fast games where you rush face to face against the enemy carrier and everything becomes a fest of plasma and explosions in under 10 minutes, or take the long calmer way of a totally neutral archipelago for a more strategic gameplay.

    At the time of this review with patch 1.6.0011, the AI problems have been mostly fixed, although now and then you can experience some hiccups in their pathing at specific places in specific islands, something you can correct by taking control of the unit and moving it a little bit forward in their route. The game is also prone to freeze or crash at predictable moments. But because of this predictability, it's nothing you can't mitigate by saving just before a cutscene or before arriving a new island.

    This is a game I would gladly recommend to get without much thinking once they have ended ironing the remaining bugs left, or if they added a multiplayer cooperative mode.    … Expand
  6. galex8
    Sep 30, 2012
    8
    Loved the original, and think this captures it well, Unfortunately the engine lets the game down a bit, hopefully there will be some patches, ARMA2's useless AI driving is slightly improved, although they still get stuck and bump into things, but it can this can be managed. There are some pretty serious problems with vehicles getting stuck behind buildings, and AI jumps off bridges, butLoved the original, and think this captures it well, Unfortunately the engine lets the game down a bit, hopefully there will be some patches, ARMA2's useless AI driving is slightly improved, although they still get stuck and bump into things, but it can this can be managed. There are some pretty serious problems with vehicles getting stuck behind buildings, and AI jumps off bridges, but so far I haven't lost a vehicle to a bug. The initial tutorial mission could have been done better, but it shouldn't frustrate anyone too much, but doesn't really get you into the game, should have rather been a cut scene.

    Really fun fast paces action game, got me sucked in for too many hours already, a few problems, but for a release day game it's stable and very playable.    … Expand
  7. Jedra
    Oct 15, 2012
    8
    This is definitely a 'Marmite' game. You are either going to love it or hate it. Fans of the original Carrier Command will probably enjoy this remake if they jump into the strategy game rather than the campaign. From this point of view the experience is a good one.

    The campaign is a little strange as they have added an FPS element to 'set the scene'. You can see why they did this,    This is definitely a 'Marmite' game. You are either going to love it or hate it. Fans of the original Carrier Command will probably enjoy this remake if they jump into the strategy game rather than the campaign. From this point of view the experience is a good one.

    The campaign is a little strange as they have added an FPS element to 'set the scene'. You can see why they did this, and it also seems like a good idea. Unfortunately the mechanics of the FPS portion are poor by today's standard and not really up to scratch. It is a shame as this is not what the game is about . The strategy elements are what Carrier Command is all about and all the FPS section achieves is to confuse the player as to what genre the game actually is. It is also unfortunate that the FPS segment takes up the first 30 minutes or so of the game, before you actually get your hands on the strategy elements.

    Having said all this, I enjoyed the strategy elements of the campaign very much indeed. Here you take control of your Carrier which has a complement of 4 Mantas (planes) and 4 Walrus' (tanks). You can give the carrier and the vehicles waypoint orders or you can decide to control it yourself - in reality you'll be doing a mixture of both. Each island is defended by the enemies mantas and walrus' as well as an array of AA and AT guns and laser weilding soldiers. The idea being to take control of the command centre. In most cases it cannot be taken directly, you first have to take down a series of scramblers or other obstacles first to 'unlock' the command centre. The graphics are good with weather effects prominent. Driving you Manta or Walrus is a great feeling and the mechanics feel solid.

    It took me around 50 hours to complete the campaign. Admittedly it can be done in a lot less time, but I really enjoyed the process of taking each island, trying to perfect my technique for each different island type.

    There are a couple of well documented problems at the moment...

    1. Issuing waypoint orders to the Walrus' (tanks) can be fiddly as the path finding AI often gets confused. This is especially the case when you order 3 Walrus' to 'follow' a lead walrus. I was getting rather frustrated with this until I realised that issuing individual waypoints to the Walrus' alleviated the problem.

    2. The enemy carrier can be too easy to destroy. If you do this 'too early' in the campaign then the game sort of ignores that you destroyed it and acts as if it was never damaged at all. This is until the point you are supposed to kill it then all is OK.

    Both of these issues are being addressed by BI, and will be released in a forthcoming patch. BI are also going to release modding tools for the game, which should help address some of the other gameplay issues. These issues are really game style choices that people have added to a 'wish list' of features. Some of these I expect will be added by BI and some will be modded in by the community.

    Overall I am scoring this an 8 as I think that it is an excellent strategy game. The campaign is let down by the FPS portions, but you don't have to play this - the real meat is in the strategy game. My score also reflects the fact that the game is moddable which should ensure it's longevity and also some interesting directions in the future.    … Expand
  8. meatbag2010
    Sep 30, 2012
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Hard to think where to start. Loved the original back on the Amiga back when I was just a wee lad. This update adds a huge amount to the original game. Ok, so the graphics aren't up what a lot of people are expecting in 2012, and the AI is pretty terrible (at one point I had 4 walrus's going around in a silly circle after wanting them all to dock, really hoping for a patch or two), but I'm just so glad that they didn't end up with a Star Wars Episode 1 type of sequel. The ability to upgrade the walrus and manta craft have given it a nice update and like the original I'm hoping after lots of hours I can get to sink the carrier which on the original was quite hard! The only difference now is instead of parents yelling me to go to bed it's the wife that's wondering why I'm still playing a silly computer game till the early hours!… Expand
  9. moon2587
    Oct 11, 2012
    8
    This is not your average strategy game and it is also not your average action game. Having never played the original I don't know how it compares to the game of old, but Carrier Command has no game quite like it out on the market today. Having only the PC version I can tell you that this game looks a little intimidating up front. You have at your disposal a single carrier with 4 VTOLThis is not your average strategy game and it is also not your average action game. Having never played the original I don't know how it compares to the game of old, but Carrier Command has no game quite like it out on the market today. Having only the PC version I can tell you that this game looks a little intimidating up front. You have at your disposal a single carrier with 4 VTOL planes (Mantas) and 4 amphibious tanks (Walruses). Your objective is to sail between islands and using these resources attack and capture the island's command center. You could also simply blow it up, but this makes the island neutral and takes longer to turn to your war effort. You do this by outfitting these tanks and planes a variety of weapons and support gear as needed and ordering them on a overhead map much like a standard RTS. The kicker for this game though is that at any time you can assume direct control and pilot the craft yourself. Meanwhile you need to produce a stockpile of weaponry and energy for your carrier to keep your ship equipped and fueled for it's island hopping campaign. But to resupply you need to send out an underwater supply ship that takes time to get to and return to your stockpile island. Thus knowing when and where to move this supply depot is key since if the computer captures it you lose your entire stockpile. The islands though per-generated have interesting and varied challenges. Some might have radar jammers that limit the range your craft can operate in since they are remote operated. This means you need to move your carrier around the island to try to get as close as possible so you can remove and open up the island for proper assault. Others might have firewalls scattered that if not taken out will slow the capture of the headquarters significantly. Finally there may be shield generators that must be assaulted or capture of the headquarters is impossible altogether. All this while having to contend with island defenses, dynamic weather (snow/sand storms, night vs day, even glare from the setting sun) , and worst the enemy carrier that is out there with the same armaments as you. The battles take time and several hours can be spent in an afternoon to capture just one island. A campaign could last you weeks if not months depending on how many islands you set in the campaign mode, or possible a full afternoon. However there are some drawbacks. First off the tank AI is less then stellar, many a time I had to hop into a tank to clear a traffic jam of my tanks as they all tried to follow my instructions. Manufacturing is also a just a little to slow along with resource income, not so bad as to be painful but enough to be a little frustrating. Finally several times in the story campaign you also hop into a first person shooter perspective. While I never found these overly difficult, with no way-points and what feels a little pointless I was glad these portions tended to be over before they overstayed their welcome. Overall the good outweighs the bad by far with this game. With a multiplayer expansion promised in the near future and the developer planning to expand on the core gameplay this game could see some bright horizons. While not perfect right now I would recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a fresher take in their strategy or action games… Expand
  10. Onychoprion
    Jan 21, 2013
    8
    First, yes, the AI is a bit buggy, but considering what it needs to do, that is, pathfind between any two points a human gives it, I feel it does fairly well. If the AI gets stuck in circles, as happens, just move it a few dozen meters along the path. It's also a good idea to manually move over bridges.

    But aside from the AI thing, this is a great remake of the original game. A mixture    First, yes, the AI is a bit buggy, but considering what it needs to do, that is, pathfind between any two points a human gives it, I feel it does fairly well. If the AI gets stuck in circles, as happens, just move it a few dozen meters along the path. It's also a good idea to manually move over bridges.

    But aside from the AI thing, this is a great remake of the original game. A mixture of real-time tactics, real-time strategy, and vehicle simulation, Carrier Command makes for a great play. The FPS sections of the campaign can get a mite annoying.

    The scenery is stunning, and the island design makes it often feel like, when traversing the roads, you're not on an island at all. The campaign is about 20 hours long, which is nice, and there's a variable 'strategy' gametype for an open ocean with islands to conquer and the enemy carrier to contend with.

    All in all, I've spend 30 hours on it so far, and will probably spend many more. Even with the AI bugs it's a pretty good buy. Try out the demo, mentally add in an RTS element of resource production and distribution; if you like it, buy it. If not, to each their own!    … Expand
  11. TheBadGamer
    Oct 23, 2012
    7
    This is actually a remake of a 1988 PC game. At the time, Carrier Command was a pretty groundbreaking game. It was pretty (for 1988, of course) and very deep. This remake is a faithful update to that original formula.

    The game looks amazing. The carrier itself is very detailed, with tons of ports, bays and guns. The futuristic jets and tanks it launches are quite impressive as well. The    This is actually a remake of a 1988 PC game. At the time, Carrier Command was a pretty groundbreaking game. It was pretty (for 1988, of course) and very deep. This remake is a faithful update to that original formula.

    The game looks amazing. The carrier itself is very detailed, with tons of ports, bays and guns. The futuristic jets and tanks it launches are quite impressive as well. The only downside is that the gameplay takes place exclusively on islands, so the scenery can get kind of repetitive. The islands do have different climates and terrain features, however it feels more like a theme park than dynamic scenery.

    Unfortunately, a game's looks can only take it so far. The gameplay has to be compelling and sadly I found myself pretty bored after just a few hours.

    In story mode, you start out on foot with your squad invading an enemy island base. You traverse your way through some winding island paths and rust covered indoor facilities. Nothing about this first person on foot experience feels right. The gun feels lifeless in your characters hands because it has no recoil. You just point at an enemy, spam your fire button and they go down. And with no real visual indicators, you can barely tell if you are actually hitting your target until they fall over dead.

    This takes about 30 minutes to complete. Which is good, because the on foot first person gameplay never comes up again. You find your carrier and add a ground vehicle. From there you go from island to island, defeating enemies and gaining more vehicles. This should only take you a few hours and will get real boring, real fast.

    The RTS portion of the carrier is decent You queue up ground and air vehicles, and upgrade which attachments they get sent out with. And the transition from RTS to FPS is seamless. You deploy your units from the carrier, issue them commands via the minimap, then click on any of their icons to instantly gain a first person view of that vehicle.

    You will be commanding your vehicles quite often, because the AI pathing is just dumb. They will drive into the walls of an island base over and over again while being shot at. They will get stuck on rocks. They will fly in circles instead of getting to their waypoints. If you don't micromanage every vehicle almost all of the time they will get themselves killed. Which is unfortunate, because that is the most challenging part of the game.

    The enemy AI isn't much smarter. They seem to have set zones where they will patrol, so it doesn't take much to find a spot where you can destroy them without taking any damage yourself.

    Everything about this game has the potential to be great like its 1988 predecessor. It just isn't strong enough in either its RTS or FPS portions to be anything more than mediocre, which is just a shame.    … Expand
  12. Ofca
    Sep 29, 2012
    7
    This game is good. With terrible AI and dated graphics amongst the largest low-points, it still managed to pin me for hours, with more to come. If you liked games like Homeworld for their management side, where you keep your units from mission to mission and have a mother-ship to upgrade, repair and keep alive, you'll feel right at home here and stay for hours.
  13. NLS
    Jan 21, 2014
    7
    it's not bad. I still gives you the feeling the original CC had (like Mass Effect and unlike X:Rebirth - but let's get back on topic), that your ship is your home. Graphics are ok. Pathfinding could be better. The mechanics work though. Could be better, but it's still more than "ok". Would love to see a II based on this, though unlikely because I doubt the sales went too well. Get it forit's not bad. I still gives you the feeling the original CC had (like Mass Effect and unlike X:Rebirth - but let's get back on topic), that your ship is your home. Graphics are ok. Pathfinding could be better. The mechanics work though. Could be better, but it's still more than "ok". Would love to see a II based on this, though unlikely because I doubt the sales went too well. Get it for very few bucks in Humble Weekly Sales (if you read this the last week of January 2014 that is).… Expand
  14. Caleger88
    Oct 7, 2012
    6
    This game is quite fun when you first start off but when you collect more vehicles the AI seems to die in the ass. they don't assist you, attack enemies. The enemy AI seems to be smarter than the AI that controls your side or drive the right way.The enemy AI seems to be smarter than the AI that controls your side....its really annoying because the game in other respects it really cool loveThis game is quite fun when you first start off but when you collect more vehicles the AI seems to die in the ass. they don't assist you, attack enemies. The enemy AI seems to be smarter than the AI that controls your side or drive the right way.The enemy AI seems to be smarter than the AI that controls your side....its really annoying because the game in other respects it really cool love the aircraft the most. maybe add robotic foot troops that can deploy from the Walruses would be cool too...the score is really down due to the AI being stupid....Sorry.… Expand
  15. Vas
    Aug 6, 2013
    6
    Currently I rate this as a 6, as I think they have done great so far. The problems people stress out as being unplayable are not fully true. The game is playable, the AI may be bad at times but it doesn't completely ruin the game. AI have had improvements since most of the reviews I have seen as well. I will edit my review of this game after the next planned update but for right now,Currently I rate this as a 6, as I think they have done great so far. The problems people stress out as being unplayable are not fully true. The game is playable, the AI may be bad at times but it doesn't completely ruin the game. AI have had improvements since most of the reviews I have seen as well. I will edit my review of this game after the next planned update but for right now, as it stands;

    Pros:
    Amazing graphics. Just the most beautiful graphics I've ever seen.
    Long interesting campaign, though sometimes seems unfair but it is fun overcoming the overpowered enemy.
    Strategy mode makes it so no play through is the same and you can customize it to be more fun for you.
    RTS or FPS, it's your choice. I choose FPS 90% of the time.
    Manual Saves, these saves save everything to the last detail. Most games now days make you use save points so you can't just click save and run off, you have to get to a checkpoint and or quit and redo everything from that previous checkpoint which can sometimes suck.

    Cons:
    Buggy, has plenty of bugs that you may discover such as AI.
    Random crashes, Every once in a while, the game will crash or freeze. Luckily the game auto saves each time you visit an island even in strategy mode.
    Slow to be fixed, the devs have much larger projects on hand most of the time so updates to fix the game are slow but as I discovered, are still happening.

    I would like to give this game a positive review, but I'll wait and see if they fix some of the bigger bugs before I amend my review. As it stands, I would definitely recommend this game to a friend. It's definitely worth the look if you are curious about the game. Try to get it though when it's on sale though if you are afraid you may not like it.    … Expand
  16. light487
    Oct 4, 2012
    5
    This is a really great concept that has been reborn in the current gen. The concept is inspiring and makes me want to love this game. I remember the original on the Amiga 500, so having this with new graphics, easier controls and generally everything upgraded was what made me buy it despite some mixed reviews. On the surface it is everything I wanted it to be but then as you get around 2This is a really great concept that has been reborn in the current gen. The concept is inspiring and makes me want to love this game. I remember the original on the Amiga 500, so having this with new graphics, easier controls and generally everything upgraded was what made me buy it despite some mixed reviews. On the surface it is everything I wanted it to be but then as you get around 2 or 3 hours into the game you lose interest very quickly as the vast amount of bugs, most notably the ground-unit pathfinding, keep rearing their heads. It gets to the point where you have to hand-hold and coddle the units; micromanaging every tiny little movement across the map.

    I gave this game a 5 because everything else about it seems really well done.. and has a lot of potential.. it just feels like I am playing an early Beta version of the game that it could be in another 6 to 12 months. So my recommendation would be to wait until the pathfinding and generally the entire AI system is overhauled. Don't bother wasting your money or time until that happens.    … Expand
  17. JerryYeh
    Oct 2, 2012
    5
    So, this game is made by Bohemia Interactive, the creator of ARMA. Since ARMA is a very realistic military shooter, as a player you would expect the developer would bring some of that realism to this game, right? But no, I was wrong

    At the start of the game you play as a infantry, as soon as you assume control of the main character, something doesn't felt right. The walking speed for    So, this game is made by Bohemia Interactive, the creator of ARMA. Since ARMA is a very realistic military shooter, as a player you would expect the developer would bring some of that realism to this game, right? But no, I was wrong

    At the start of the game you play as a infantry, as soon as you assume control of the main character, something doesn't felt right. The walking speed for instance, is like a unreal tournament crazy jumping character. It doesn't felt like a actual military character, more like a floating camera. It's hard to describe that feeling, but you get the ideal. So, when I encounter that first enemy, I realized I cannot aim down sight. Yes, I cannot aim down sight, even when the gun model clearly shown a red dot like aiming sight on it, I cannot use it, I can only zoom in like some older shooter do.

    Later on, you get the carrier, that pretty cool by the way. And launching vehicles and planes from it is quite awesome. But everything else fell apart when the first fight broke out. You can control up to 4 land vehicle at a time, like a RTS game. You can drag and select your unit, and right click on your target to attack, simple, right? No, If you rely on the Artificial intelligence to control your own units, they will be slaughtered, or they would get stuck on some most obvious terrain and cannot get out for some reason. These vehicles seems to be able to get stuck on anything, even on a totally flat surface. Or when a bunch of vehicles trying to group up to attack a target, they would keep bumping into each other and failed to get to my designated location after 5 minutes of struggle, and I have to assume manual control to get these cars out of each others way in order to allow them to reach their target.

    Weapons effects are not very solid, they don't have that kind of "X" mark in battlefield to let you know if you hit your targets or not, and texture are very ugly, i guess it' due to it needs to run on 360, so the textures been heavily compressed, but it looks pretty awful in some parts.

    Overall, I think this game has some potential, but wait until it drops to like 20$, I don't believe it worth the price as it is now.    … Expand
  18. Want2Game
    Oct 3, 2012
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is based on an old game-title from the 80's called Carrier Command. And as a kid I played it on the Amiga, Spectrum (emulator) and PC. The idea; to conquer islands of different kinds and build up a supply-chain, are an extremely fun addicting one so it was one of my favourite games of all times. So came the day, another remake came out so I had to buy it. Since I never buy and play bad games, I don't have time for the bad ones really, the start rating is 10. It is no exaggeration to say that I expected this game to be better, meaner and so fourth, on every level than its 'predecessors'. First out is the graphics. I found it to be very pleasing to look at (on my mid-range-computer). No doubt this is an enormous improvement (haha). People these days are so spoiled with good graphics so no tears there. No change in score. It is still 10.

    So how is the gameplay? Well, even here there are huge improvements of course compared with the old variants. One must know that there were no AI, except for a "go-to-waypoint"-AIs without pathfinding for the player available in these days so the walruses and mantas could die any time you looked away.

    Sadly enough the first thing that strikes me is the bad AI available for the player. First the path-finding doesn't work very well, so you need to babysit the walruses so they don't get stuck or do some really silly manoeuvres. Second, I had trouble cancel orders, like the assist-order. It wouldn't stop until it docked so to speak. This means that you need to babysit your walruses and mantas just like in the old game (but OK AI are still much better). Walruses can do neat things like hack, or resupply themselves (on an island) if you order them to.

    But overall AI feel incomplete so there goes two point down to 8.

    The campaign is quite fun, you start out as a soldier and advance to be a "Carrier Commander" and let you into the game quite smoothly. The campaign let you to familiarize yourself with the different controls and weapons while telling a default kind of we-have-heard-it-before-story. One time I fought an Island in the beginning of the campaign for hours and wasted a lot of resources.. You better pick you fights! Since some parts are FPS-mode, some missions are on different islands and in buildings. This is an OK element, and you notice that they have put a lot more effort on the rest.

    The missions in themselves are fun, you can do so much more now on the islands than in the distant past and there exists different environments you must take in consideration.

    If you play this game for hours in a session, like I did, you might get CTD's. This is because the current version of date of this message have numerous and obvious bugs in it. Here is a sample list: * Missing sounds on different Islands. One Island may have thunder and rain sounds, but is missing on the next.
    * Graphical bugs. Textures may go missing (memory leak?) after a long session.
    * CTD's Transitions between game-modes, from an area to the next (like entering a building as soldier) may cause random CTD's. * AI is also buggy, hard to cancel orders like assist.
    * Campaign got bugs in it. For instance you might trigger an old mission if you take back an island you lost.
    Due to the bugs and the feel of "incompleteness" I slash away 3 points more to 5.

    So after a while you get used to avoid the bugs and it really feels like Carrier Command! I really do like the game so I hope they fix the bugs.    … Expand
  19. khadgar
    Oct 11, 2012
    5
    The Good:
    * Island visuals, each with a distinct theme (snowy, temperate, etc)
    * Units & carrier look really good * Easy-to-configure controls, supports 360 gamepad natively The Bad: * The beautiful visuals are constantly obscured by excessive dust, snow, fog, haze, etc. * Repetitive mission types * Uninspired story * Lack of polish all around (ex- it plays the full tutorial    The Good:
    * Island visuals, each with a distinct theme (snowy, temperate, etc)
    * Units & carrier look really good
    * Easy-to-configure controls, supports 360 gamepad natively

    The Bad:
    * The beautiful visuals are constantly obscured by excessive dust, snow, fog, haze, etc.
    * Repetitive mission types
    * Uninspired story
    * Lack of polish all around (ex- it plays the full tutorial dialogue for firewalls every time you encounter a firewall, which is many times)
    * Player unit control is mildly clunky

    The Worse
    * Poor unit path execution; the game can find a good route for the unit to take, but the unit has trouble taking the route, getting hung up on rocks, buildings, walls, lakes, trees, or even open water
    * Enemy carrier 'AI' runs away at full speed 100% of the time for no reason in both campaign & free battle mode (bug? poor design? laziness?)

    Overall, I am giving this game 5/10, because that is approximately how much of the game I thought was good. I had a ton of fun in the first couple of missions of the story,but a little less than a quarter of the way through the campaign things started getting very repetitious. I kept playing to see what new technologies I would find, but nothing ever surpassed the basic laser I got early on. However, it's not a bad game by a long shot. One of my favorite things about the game was the ability to see, from first person view, the units inside of your carrier. They didn't just magically vanish and reappear when docking and undocking, you can see the space they occupy within the carrier which was really brilliant.    … Expand
  20. Kauffy
    Dec 24, 2012
    5
    I was a huge fan of the original on the Amiga and will say that this is a very faithful copy (with hugely updated graphics) of the original. The AI pathfinding issues aside (which essentially ruined the game and consigned it to history's bargain bin), being such a faithful copy of the original has its own problems.

    The game was originally released in the the 1980's. We have all learned    I was a huge fan of the original on the Amiga and will say that this is a very faithful copy (with hugely updated graphics) of the original. The AI pathfinding issues aside (which essentially ruined the game and consigned it to history's bargain bin), being such a faithful copy of the original has its own problems.

    The game was originally released in the the 1980's. We have all learned a lot about UI, game design, and pacing since then. This one, unfortunately, retains most of the pacing of the original (that is, when there isn't immediate action going, the game PLODS)-- it is very easy to find yourself (as the player) stuck in a holding pattern, waiting for your resource network to produce much-needed supplies and then to be waiting for the supplies to reach your ship and, literally, while that's going on, nothing happens. If you're (un)lucky, the enemy carrier will attack one of your islands that you will be unlikely to reach in time, so at least you get a sense that something is going on somewhere, despite that being frustrating on its own. The player-controlled flight and driving are pretty gratifying, but these are isolated experiences inside an overly ambitious metagame. It seems really weird that after 20-something years, the only problem you would see with the original was that it wasn't pretty enough and you should have more weapons. Overall, it just doesn't really work as a game, either in campaign or in strategy mode anymore-- and I ~loved~ the original. If it's available as a bargain title (    … Expand
  21. drevyluk
    Sep 10, 2014
    4
    I was very enthusiastic about this game, having played the original when it came out.

    While the overall application of the game has been performed well and the graphics and interface are all good, my game experience was ruined by the AI. The pathing has a lot of problems and the combat AI is very unreliable. An example of the combat AI. Having 4 mantas (with machine guns) and 3    I was very enthusiastic about this game, having played the original when it came out.

    While the overall application of the game has been performed well and the graphics and interface are all good, my game experience was ruined by the AI. The pathing has a lot of problems and the combat AI is very unreliable.

    An example of the combat AI. Having 4 mantas (with machine guns) and 3 walruses (lasers and grenade launcher) I sent an armoured walrus into a base to draw out enemy. A single grenade walrus was in the base so I lured him out. The other vehicles watched while it destroyed the lure vehicle, even as it drove straight passed them.

    After being fired upon for a while the walruses decided to move about a bit, rocking in little circles until they where all destroyed.

    A big shame, as otherwise this game could have been great.    … Expand
  22. thefinn
    Oct 22, 2012
    3
    Once again another franchise destroyed by a developer not really willing to put the time into it.

    If you were to get past the awful, tear-jerking pathing of your tanks - which are a huge part of the early game - which I know MANY people are complaining about and thus leave the game at this point. However, you would NOT get past the fact that the game crashes constantly which as you    Once again another franchise destroyed by a developer not really willing to put the time into it.

    If you were to get past the awful, tear-jerking pathing of your tanks - which are a huge part of the early game - which I know MANY people are complaining about and thus leave the game at this point.

    However, you would NOT get past the fact that the game crashes constantly which as you know in an RTS which only saves at the start of each mission (island) can lose you an hour of gameplay at a time.

    Completely unforgivable treatment of this old franchise.

    Having gone to the forums of this company to complain I was also greeted by a so called "moderator" who locked the thread after trolling it himself - the worst customer service on the planet.

    Give this one a miss I am sad to say.    … Expand
  23. aidenraine
    Sep 30, 2012
    3
    this game is the very essence of good idea, poor execution. the idea of a combined action-rts game set in a huge open world with the objective of complete dominance is brilliant, and would make for a great game.. if done right. unfortunately, carrier command does not do it right.

    to begin, you have 2 types of units, one aircraft and the other a tank-style vehicle, of which you can have    this game is the very essence of good idea, poor execution. the idea of a combined action-rts game set in a huge open world with the objective of complete dominance is brilliant, and would make for a great game.. if done right. unfortunately, carrier command does not do it right.

    to begin, you have 2 types of units, one aircraft and the other a tank-style vehicle, of which you can have a maximum of 4 each. you have the option of selecting one vehicle and piloting it yourself action game style, while the others can "assist" you using the AI. or you can use the game's map to plot courses for all your vehicles, RTS style. here's where the game's biggest problems come in. firstly, the controls are clunky. you would expect the controls to be more responsive, and on par with other action games. secondly and most importantly, the AI is downright idiotic. the path that the AI selects at times takes your vehicles as far off course as possible. sometimes, the pathfinding routines will change mid-travel, and result in the vehicles driving around in circles. on several occasions, AI controlled allies continued ramming into destroyed enemy vehicles until they exploded.

    the enemy AI, as well, is fairly stupid. at times, they would completely ignore you while you drive over them. their range of detection is abysmal, oftentimes not detecting you until you are directly in front of them. the AI also does not use any tactic other than attempting to swarm you with large numbers of cannon fodder.

    bottom line with this game is, wait for a patch. as it stands, it's a jumbled mess. this game had potential, and an interesting premise. but the poor execution and horrible AI make it almost unplayable.    … Expand
  24. Psymarine
    Oct 8, 2012
    3
    After seeing this in its development phase on vid clips i was quite looking forward to it..... i cant help but feel slightly disappointed by the finished product. I dont usually part with the price they are asking for this on steam, but i gambled and i didnt come out on top. The good points - interesting concept if you havent come across it before mixing RTS style with first personAfter seeing this in its development phase on vid clips i was quite looking forward to it..... i cant help but feel slightly disappointed by the finished product. I dont usually part with the price they are asking for this on steam, but i gambled and i didnt come out on top. The good points - interesting concept if you havent come across it before mixing RTS style with first person perspective. pretty nice graphics on high-ish settings, environments look quite nice and reasonably enjoyable play for the first few hours. Now the bad points, yes, not many good points i know - An interesting concept but pretty poorly executed in the sense that you cannot just concentrate on RTS side of it for instance, even thou they claimed you would be able to, as like other people have said the AI is shocking. units spinning, getting stuck in pretty darn stupid locations like an odd tree by the side of the road, hits it, reverses to turn around.... nope forward again hitting the tree, again and again i timed it at 9mins and had to intervene. Also sending my units back to the carrier and they decided to take the long way round the island, change their mind and decide to go through an enemy base aaaand you have another 4 walrus's in the building que. this in itself spoils the very essence of the gameplay. Its a great concept but it is un finished. alot of polishing to do, they must of known about this issue as its pretty major. so dont get why they would release the product in this state just to patch it after, dont release it in the first place until its fixed. It also gets a bit repetitive for my liking, dont get me wrong the campaign is pretty interesting but its the same sort of thing for every island and because AI is not as it should be it takes the depth out of the game. It also jumps to elements of FPS like in the first mission, big no no for me the FPS side of it really could of been left out. The voice acting is a bit poor too, bit corny for my liking.

    Summary - Interesting concept but extremely poorly implemented and executed, it is not worth the money it is on steam and for the price i want to get the most out of the game and im afraid you cant. but like i said it was good for a couple of hours but i haven't played it since, wait a while for the price to fall, for the bugs to be fixed and the AI and i would recommend it, right now thou i would use your money on something else.    … Expand
  25. SteadyMercury
    Dec 30, 2012
    3
    I've been watching this since it was first announced. I noticed it on steam today and downloaded the xbox 360 demo mission to give it a whirl. I love strategy games and I wa shoping this would give me something to do when I wasn't in the mood for Empire Total War or Halo 4. No. So first the good

    The concept is fun incarnate. You travel a world with a futuristic aircraft carrier    I've been watching this since it was first announced. I noticed it on steam today and downloaded the xbox 360 demo mission to give it a whirl. I love strategy games and I wa shoping this would give me something to do when I wasn't in the mood for Empire Total War or Halo 4. No. So first the good

    The concept is fun incarnate. You travel a world with a futuristic aircraft carrier launching military assaults on enemy strong holds. Sweet. The Bad (and boy there is alot)

    I made a metacritic account because when I first saw the metacritic review there was only the one user review rating this a 9. No way. This game is fundamentally broken. The controls feel awful to start with. They somehow manage to feel jerky and unresponsive at the same time on the Xbox 360 version. Maybe its a bit better on PC. FPS mode is the worst. I just sprayed and prayed for the most part. Perhaps thats what they made the enemy foot soldiers so weak. If they had any amount of health you would never be able to kill them. The tanks and mantus planes aren't much better despite being a larger segment of the actual gameplay. The physical layout of the controls on the 360 controller is beyond unintuitive. I've played the 360s arsenal of strategy games, from Halo Wars to EndWar to Tropico 3 and 4. The controls never feel as fluid as they do on PC but I never expect them to. In all the above cases the developers managed to create a controller scheme that at least made sense and functioned even if it wasn't as good as a keyboard and mouse. In this case I constantly found myself button mashing looking for things as silly as select (who makes select down on the d pad instead of A. A has been the default select button for every game I can think of for xbox since the early 2000's why change it now?) In short even when you can find the controls the results will be less then steller.

    The voice acting was garbage. Some parts were narrated in a very bland uninspired manner other parts were just text blocks (glitching maybe). Theres nothing else to say about it. At a time when video games are getting orchestras and professional voice actors a game with the voice acting quality of the original Starcraft (generous example) in just unnaceptable. The graphics are nothing to write home about. At the end of the console life cycle and considering what we've seen Mass Effect 3, Skyrim and Halo 4 do on the 360 there isn't any reason for this to look like a 360 launch title graphically. I know a console isn't a PC so I don't expect PC style graphics but this is beyond rediculous. The enemy AI is terrible. But since your AI allies are equally as bad the playing field is somewhat levelled. Enemy AI shows up in the same place no matter how you approach (is it too much to ask for slightly less then on invisible rails AI in 2012?) Your own AI needs constant direction in order to operate. I don't mind directing forces but so far as I can tell you can't even tell an ally to advance to an objective and engage along the way. Instead you tell them to move in spits and spurts every few seconds with you. I consider a game that functions but isn't fun a five. I consider a game that functions but isn't to my taste a 6-7 and above. To me below 5 means the game is fundamentally unplayable. In this case 20 minutes into a game I was quite excited for I threw down the controller in disgust and signed up on Metacritic to help save someone else from playing this. While you could certainly force yourself through it (with a lot more will power then I have) I would never pay to play it. I'd never play it for fun. In short the less then stellar graphics and voice acting combined with sloppy frustrating controls and inexcusably bad AI all adds up to turn a game that with only one or two of these problems could have been a servicable 6 or 7 into a pathetic 3.    … Expand
  26. joeyh92989
    Sep 22, 2013
    3
    I really wanted to love this game, but sadly i cannot. This game looks great and feels fun, but that's where it ends. AI is so poor it makes it almost unplayable at certain points. In many missions you are required to rely on AI support but most of the time they will either fire upon YOU or drive of into nothingness. Its a shame, but this game requires so much AI support it is too hard toI really wanted to love this game, but sadly i cannot. This game looks great and feels fun, but that's where it ends. AI is so poor it makes it almost unplayable at certain points. In many missions you are required to rely on AI support but most of the time they will either fire upon YOU or drive of into nothingness. Its a shame, but this game requires so much AI support it is too hard to play with such poor execution… Expand
  27. Rebellious
    Sep 30, 2012
    2
    The Idea behind the game is great and the graphics are very good, however the playability is almost non existent. This is all down to the poor AI that seems to have come from the 80s where it was still being developed. The enemy's AI is nearly perfect but your own isn't even able to tell the difference between a road and a wall. It has a hard time hitting the enemies with certain weaponsThe Idea behind the game is great and the graphics are very good, however the playability is almost non existent. This is all down to the poor AI that seems to have come from the 80s where it was still being developed. The enemy's AI is nearly perfect but your own isn't even able to tell the difference between a road and a wall. It has a hard time hitting the enemies with certain weapons or doesn't fire at them at all. Path finding its poor, it likes to get stuck on rocks, trees, walls and even take the longest route it can find. It also struggles to can line-of-sight on the enemies it targets, especially with the mantas air units. It will just hover in one spot with a wall in the way rather than move to the other side and begin shooting. It often floats above the targeted unit, where its unable to shoot it. This isn't a problem for the enemy AI which can shoot you from across the map.

    The interface for the game needs work as well. The ability to send units to different location is good, if it didn't get confused with whether its sending all of them, some of them, or not going to until you execute the command manually. You can dock all the units very easily in one press, but can not dock a single unit with out "going around the houses" to do so.

    Graphics are very good though, not the best but are still good to look at. The trees, water and land are detailed well. The units all have good details to them. Difficulty of this is debatable. Some times it is so easy you and just go through it with your eyes shut. Other times it is near impossible with enemies having weapons and armour FAR in advance of your own, even when the island says its weak defence.

    Story to the game is alright, nothing too hard to understand. You start as a first person shooter, which is very easy to deal with, but only plays a small part of the game. The game introduces new elements when going to each island, so learning curve is good.

    My conclusion is that although the idea behind the game is fantastic the AI is so poor that you will probably stop playing after 6 hours. If they can fix this to correct the errors in path finding and attacking then i would rate this game at around the 8 or 9 mark. But until then it is nearly unplayable.    … Expand
  28. Baritiar
    Nov 10, 2012
    2
    This game seriously sucks. It looks promising, and the idea was brilliant, but the AI is incredibly stupid. It cant even understand simple orders like "go here". I tested this by pointing a tank in the correct direction manually and telling to drive 100m down a straight road. Instead it did a left turn and rammed into a wall, backed up, and continued to run into the wall for 6 minutes,This game seriously sucks. It looks promising, and the idea was brilliant, but the AI is incredibly stupid. It cant even understand simple orders like "go here". I tested this by pointing a tank in the correct direction manually and telling to drive 100m down a straight road. Instead it did a left turn and rammed into a wall, backed up, and continued to run into the wall for 6 minutes, when i got bored and manually drove it to its destination. The comcept is good, but the game itself needs a LOT of work. Definately not worth $49.99. Also a little variety would be appreciated, after 5 missions you get a serious sense of deja'vu because theres only 2 or 3 different sets of objectives. This was an extremely disappointing game.… Expand
  29. EvilxFish
    Oct 3, 2013
    2
    Well this game had potential, it could have been great but it was killed by poor path finding that will drive you mad and voice acting that will make you cry. I don't always look for brilliant voice acting in a game but I at least expect something that is half decent. This game is barely playable because of the frustrating AI I wouldn't recommend it at all.
  30. ThunderHawk
    Oct 29, 2013
    2
    A really bad game, I must say. I am struggling to find what things are good in this game.

    The tutorials are there, but it's not explaining enough. To control 2 units, you need to have the 2nd unit somehow "follow" you, which they do stupidly. They will stuck in things, or fight things you should avoid. I think there's no logic also why it needs two APCs to fix something. The only    A really bad game, I must say. I am struggling to find what things are good in this game.

    The tutorials are there, but it's not explaining enough. To control 2 units, you need to have the 2nd unit somehow "follow" you, which they do stupidly. They will stuck in things, or fight things you should avoid. I think there's no logic also why it needs two APCs to fix something.

    The only great thing in this game is only its concept. And its unit graphics. The carrier looks fantastic, the APC and the fliers looks great, but the game is not.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

71
#71 Most Shared PC Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
60

Mixed or average reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 23
  3. Negative: 3 out of 23
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Feb 6, 2013
    76
    A.I. problems and hollow FPS segments aside, CC:GM offers a kind of gameplay that we don’t see that much these days. It remains faithful to the original Carrier Command, modernizing the basic recipe with an improved interface and meticulous tutorial, and grants complete freedom to the player, in game-changing decisions. [November 2012]
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Jan 23, 2013
    75
    The patch fixed the awful route AI, and now the game is OK'ish, but somewhat bland. What it still most needs is more speed, both for the game and vehicles, and much less waiting. The FPS parts are as awful as Mr. Myrik's nasal British accent. [Jan 2013]
  3. Hyper Magazine
    Dec 17, 2012
    40
    Terrible AI, poor controls and questionable design decisions. [Jan 2013, p.66]
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