Perimeter

The ability to completely control the terrain may not appeal to everyone, but you have to admit it’s a great idea. Together with the nanomorphing, Perimeter has enough innovation to turn heads and sell copies.

I think this is a lateral development for the genre. I hail the ambition, I commend the experimentation and I recognise the potential. However, I wish it still didn't sport some of the genre’s silly little annoyances and the whole thing is a little too unbalanced in its execution.

One of the most frustrating elements of the game is the sense of helplessness in controlling and customizing units and squads, and setting up offensive tactical maneuvers. In the end however, the amalgamation of storyline and gameplay is successfully delivered as a truly unique experience in Perimeter.

If you can get past the learning curve of the game, it's a very new and fun experience that any strategy fan would enjoy.

Most interesting when you're diddling with the terrain, but it gets old fast when the missiles start flying. Not the breakthrough it could've been, it'll appeal only to experimental-RTS fans. [July 2004, p.62]

The perimeter shield, one of main selling points of the game, causes a severe power imbalance which is not helped by the fact that opponents have identical unit types.

The potential is there for something much greater. The magic just doesn't quite happen. [Oct 2004, p.86]

The storyline is very difficult to understand and just won’t make sense to newcomers at first, the gameplay is hard to stomach until players start to comprehend all the little “undocumented features” that the game’s brief tutorial utterly and completely fails to explain, the mission objectives get repetitive, frustrating, and even boring as the campaign moves on, and the game engine definitely demands a kick-ass system to ensure an experience that is at least somewhat smooth.

While original and imaginative, Perimeter is also remarkably slow. Everything about the game seems designed to annoy the impatient, including the tutorial, in which each sentence of instruction is followed by five seconds of silence, and the game narrative, which is tedious and incoherent.

There are unique concepts in the game that hardcore gamers should enjoy tweaking. Though the routine campaign missions, lack of multiplayer audience, and un-novice friendly interface might have some players looking elsewhere.