An RTS and MMO mix that is free-to-play but that never sacrifices depth

Jun 7, 2012 14:51 GMT  ·  By

Publisher Trion and developer Petroglyph might have a huge hit in their hands with End of Nations, a game that feels like a true real-time strategy experience when engaged in the tactical battles while also delivering an MMO experience, with battles that include up to 56 gamers and a full Player versus Player and PvEnvironment experience.

At E3 2012, I got to play a 2 versus 2 battle and came away pretty impressed with the look of the game and its mechanics.

The displayed End of Nations game mode was focused on territorial control, which would then lead to an assault on the enemy base ,and it was both quick and tactically engaging.

Each unit has a clear battlefield role, upgrades that affect its efficiency and a number of abilities that can be used to deliver quick, surprising hits on the best unit of the enemy.

Additionally, gamers have global powers and the arsenal of both units and abilities is expanded as the player takes part in battles and levels up his profile.

The development team is also making an effort to make the game easy to pick up for those who might lack the experience or the time to check out all the units and their abilities by creating Elite Companies, that have both backstories and easy-to-understand descriptions and allow anyone to quickly jump into action.

End of Nations will be free-to-play and will use microtransactions, which might be a problem for some purist RTS gamers, but the publisher is insisting that they will not make it easy for those willing to use cash to dominate the game and easily take out players who are not willing to pay.

One of my final notes on End of Nations simply reads: “This could be the Command & Conquer 4 that Westwood never got to create.”

To a long-term strategy fan that should say a lot, despite the fact that an MMO has been granted to the real-time strategy skeleton.