Z – Review
Z is back! And no, it’s not a review of the final letter of the alphabet but rather the revival of the famed Bitmap Brothers’ classic game ‘Z’. The game was originally released in 1996 and recently it hit Steam with practically no changes or updates at all. Perhaps certain classics were just made to withstand the test of time.
Story
There has never been a more authentic example of Red vs Blue than Z. As there is no thick plot it’s pretty much the red robots against the blue robots, with you on the red side of the equation.
Like in the 1996 original the game will star three major characters, namely the loud and stern general Zod and the two grungy robots named Brad and Allan. You’ll see small cinematics in between the levels that show the short but funny escapades of the two aforementioned stoners. Their slacking off often collides with the stereotypical army general Zod, which will cause a small smile to appear on your face.
Overall, the snippets of story you receive are more than enough to provide this game with a light but adequate base to get you hooked.
Graphics
Graphically Z has undergone hardly no to no changes at all. The game still looks like it did in the mid nineties, with some smoothened out pixels. The game provides a decent amount of variation with the different units and environments.
You’ll also see the faces of the characters you’ve selected to add a bit more personality to this already fun looking game. Sadly, for some reason the standard big HUD was resized to a much smaller one. Even though you’re able to enlarge it, it would have provided more clarity and comfort to have the original sidebar intact.
The cinematics are actually quite nicely done, seeing they’re roughly eighteen years old. The characters look fairly detailed and each have their own personality. Sadly, with the license changes, the creators cut out the original companies from the opening cinematic but the developers did not seem to care about removing the sound effects of the names that originally flashed by. Oddly enough, when the camera angle changes, the names are still visible.
Sound
When it comes to the sound, you’ll immediately feel as if you’re in the nineties again. You’ll notice the game presents you with a totally different soundtrack than what we’re used of today. The typical midi-like tunes will sway you in to feeling like a kid again, whilst the voice-acting still remains quite superb, even this many years after the initial release. Your grunts will be sure to tell you if you’re doing a poor job, so don’t worry – they’re quite honest.
Gameplay
Z is a typical real-time strategy game at its core, with a decent amount of unique twists. These twists either rack up the difficulty or prove to be a great challenge for those looking to spice things up.
The game consists out of separate, fairly short missions which you’ll have to complete. You’ll clear the missions if you’re able to destroy the blue team’s fortress, which is located on the other side of the map. To destroy their fortress you’ll have to progress slowly along the map, to be able to reach their base.
To progress on the map you’ll need troops and in turn these troops can only be produced by the proper buildings. In Z, you won’t be able to build buildings yourself and thus you will need to capture small areas on the map in order to gain buildings. You’ll be able to capture different kinds of buildings, such as a radar or buildings that will produce the necessary troops. (Some areas are blank and just have a turret on them.)
Each unit has their own specific build time, with grunts being the lowest and vehicles having the longest building times. In some of the buildings you’ll be able to switch what you produce and thus you’re able to create the units you will need to most to complete the job at hand. You’re able to cut down the spawning times by capturing more areas, which means you’ll have to be quick to catch some areas, even those without buildings on them. Lower production times means you will get a tactical advantage over your opponent or that you’re able to produce stronger units at the same time your opponent creates weaker grunts. If you lose a territory, it’s best to be sure to compensate your loss by capturing another territory or reclaiming what is yours.
When all or nearly all territories are captured, you’ll be able to make your move to destroy the enemy base. This does not mean the base can easily be destroyed if you are low on troops yourself.
Empty vehicles are scattered around the map, to provide both teams with a quick start to be able to claim areas quickly and perhaps if planned correctly with a great advantage. Vehicles can be destroyed by combat but it’s possible that only the driver dies, which will put the vehicle up for grabs. Luckily the grunts that are left out can grab some of the grenades which are also scattered across the map, to give them some extra firepower, or the ability to blow up obstacles that block their way.
Whilst pretty much everything Z has to offer still is great, the game has a few minor flaws that simply cannot be overlooked. Seeing the game has hit steam, in a nearly unaltered state, the controls feel very dated and quite uncomfortable by today’s standards. When giving orders to a character, be it the proper one or a ‘missclick’, you’ll immediately deselect the character you had selected.
The characters still often get stuck behind walls, don’t respond to attack commands or simply run the wrong way when you tell them to do something. Whilst the initial great gameplay is still intact, it would have been even better if these frustrations of a nearly forgotten age would have stayed buried deep beneath the ground.
Overall the gameplay proves it can still battle our modern games and perhaps even be on par with a lot of recent releases.
Conclusion
Z is not dead and the fact hardly any changes were made, made it clear that this game was a great game for its day and age and still is a great game. Prepare yourself for a decent amount of tactical battles, tons of short but amusing sketches and above all the satisfaction of conquering that last area with your army of grunts.
Z - Review,
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