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Building a base is a straightforward task. Each faction has it’s own unique constructor unit which is capable of building everything in the game. First, a resource field must be located so that a mine can be placed to collect the goods. Then a vehicle production building is assembled and resource collectors are sent out to do their gathering. Ore must be transported from the mine to a processing plant. The resource gathering gets a little monotonous at times but is an essential part of winning the game. All of this requires power, so power generators must be located throughout the base in order to keep a steady flow of electricity to the other buildings. If the power happens to fail, the base is extremely vulnerable because the defensive guns that are found on every building will be inoperable. Incidentally, any building that can be fitted with turrets can also have upgrades for those turrets. In some missions, it’s extremely important to upgrade your building’s turrets, because otherwise they could be defenseless against an air attack. In general though, defensive structures are quite limited, meaning that you will seldom have a completely impenetrable base.

Units themselves are created from scratch by starting with a basic chassis and adding guns, rockets, or other devices. While there are a rather limited number of options to choose from, it’s still fun to put together your own vehicles and upgrade them. There is an extensive upgrade and research path in Earth 2150. You’ll often be asking yourself if you should spend money to research a better rocket, or simply keep producing inexpensive units that aren’t as capable.

One of the most anticipated, yet disappointingly useless features of base construction is the fact that the terrain is completely deformable. Using a construction vehicle, you can dig trenches, flatten rough ground, or even tunnel underground for a covert attack. More often than not, while digging trenches my construction vehicle would dig itself into a hole and become stuck in the terrain. Furthermore, if there are any ground units parked near a constructor while a trench is being dug, they usually become stuck as well. Unfortunately, tunneling doesn’t work a whole lot better. After several attempts at building a tunnel in an undertaking to infiltrate the enemy base, I gave up after not even getting out of my own base. It seems tunnels cannot be built under rough terrain, which means over half the map cannot be tunneled through. Tunneling is definitely a cool feature, and may even become easier with practice as you instinctively figure out how to make it work. Here again, a more robust tutorial or manual would have made this feature a lot less enigmatic.