The Review
Well my review will start out with the first thing you see once you run the game for the first time. The Intro. Well I just have to say that the intro is one of the best intros in technology and overall quality I have ever seen. You get the opinion that you are going into a high-quality game when you see that beauty of an intro. The briefings are informative and funny at the same time. While they still contain movie-like quality like you would see in a westwood game briefing. So you won't feel like that was a good intro now onto crappy briefings. The main campaign consists of a non-linear structure consisting of over 50 missions and 3 sides. The missions are very fun most of the time. And no matter how difficult a mission may seem, it is never impossible. This organization of missions will make you keep on playing until you are finished with the game. And even after that the multiplay and soloplay(a.k.a. skirmish) features will make the game keep going on. The map editor lets you make your own high-quality maps in maybe half an hour at the most. Another interesting feature is the unit editor where you can change stats on a kknd2 unit so that you can use it in soloplay or multiplay(or in the campaign if you are willing to cheat). The gameplay is very clean and easy. For example another feature is called smartselect. Basically when you are "rubber-band" selecting units you won't accidentally select structures tankers or any non-combat units. For all you starcraft players out there smart select would work that you would not select any scvs. Then there is also the unit building. This is by far the easiest form of unit buiding I have ever seen. Basically there is a side bar where you can select how many you want units to build up. Also referring to unit building is that you can select where units will move the second they are finished from construction. The resources works in an interesting way. You build up these things called mobile derricks or the other sides equivalents. Then you put them on an oil puddle. Then you build a structure where the oil gets collected and tanker units move from the derrick to the station constantly creating resource units. Or the alternative is that when you don't have oil handy you can build structures which generate resource units at a constant rate all the time. The tech tree is fairly easy to climb rather than complicated tech-trees in most other games. You simply need a structure which makes upgrades to other structures using resource units. Then an upgraded structure performs better, has more options, or it gains special features. The graphics in the game are well done. The detail of the units to the special effects of an explosion all give the eye candy any modern rts player could ask for. The sounds in the game are pretty good. Though the lagging point in the sounds is that the units don't have too many responses. Although as they veteran they do change comments. That brings up another point. The units as they experience more combat they will take less damage. Gain accuracy otherwise inflicting more damage. Or gain special abilities like self-healing. The music mixes well with the game. Especially since each side in kknd2 has its own soundtrack. The 3 sides have quite a diversity. Because each side has units with different weapons, strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and looks. Also each side has different types of constructibles. This diversity is pretty diverse but all in all equal. Each time you beat an individual species campaign you get a cool looking movie scene too. So in conclusion I think KKND2 deserves a 9.3 out of 10 for good graphics, Proof of work, and all around fun.
The Plot
The plot takes place in the not to distant future. After 80 years of peace and prosperity the world seemed like a perfect place. There were no wars. Crime worldwide was at an all-time low. Well conflicts sprung up suddenly. The conflicts between the countries got out of hand. So red buttons were pushed down and nuclear missiles went up.
Though some humans had enough foresight to go underground before the nukes totalled the planet. Most of the populated cities like New York city, Cairo, Prague, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Hong Kong were all nuked. But the radiation went on killing more of the surface-lying humans.
The few humans on the surface that survived had some crazy beliefs. They believed that the nukes were sent down by gods called the scourge. They thought that the scourge punished humanity for things like pollution, overpopulation, high technology, space travel, politics, and the lack of god worshipping. So they sat around on the surface mutating and taiming the mutated beasts so that when the "symmetrics" rise from the ground they will get killed.
So after 60 years the Survivors started crawling towards the surface. The first person who stuck their head out of the ground had it blown right off! Then after much fighting the disease which mutated the "Evolved" got to the survivors. Then eventually the Survivors went back under because of Agoraphobia. And the Evolved fled into the desert because of lack of population.
The Evolved sat around on the surface getting even more mutated while the Survivors kept renumbering and redesigning their technology. Although it wasn't the 2 nuke survivors being the only ones in the war now. Now there was a third species. They were the series 9.
Before the planet got totalled utterly. There were 9 series of robots which were programmed to do tasks any normal preson would not want to do. Series 1-4 worked in the cities so they died immediately. Series 5-8 worked in mines. And the series 9 worked on farms. But once the nukes hit the series 9 being the most populous series they killed series 5-8.
Now that their crops were destroyed because of the nukes the series 9 developed feelings. After 60 years of developing a better ai. They wanted revenge and they wanted it bad. After they learned of the survivors and the evolved they went to kill them all. Although after learning that the survivors had things like giant chaingun wielding tanks. Or the evolved had missile packs surgically implanted into giant crabs. And the Series 9 had picks and scythes.
So they spent a 40 years going over the weapon files of the world before it was nuked. They redesigned farming equipment so that they could be armed to kill. Now with the evolved being even more mutated. The survivors back with better technology. And the series 9 ready for battle. Well it looks like there will be an entire armageddon just so that the victor will win.
