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Giants is pretty good in most other aspects, but its multiplayer is, unfortunately, a very disappointing affair. I was under the impression that the latest version of Gamespy 3D would support it, but it didn’t. It turned out that I had to download GameSpy Arcade instead. After I got that up and running, I decided to join a server but the game gave me an error and put me back to my desktop. Thinking that this was perhaps just a case of bad luck, I tried going onto another server. This time, joining was successful but the lag was so bad everyone complained that couldn’t play properly and the host shut down the server a couple of minutes after I joined. Undaunted, I tried yet another server. Same result. Finally I joined a server where I managed to play all of five minutes when again the host shut down the server. Frustrated, I complained in the multiplayer chat lobby for Giants. It turns out that there is a bug that keeps on crashing the game on the server that’s hosting it, causing the host shut down message, and that the bug should be worked out by the time the next patch will be released…

Set to go with you Pee-Shooter & A Multiplayer Game with a Smartie on your back

During the time I actually managed to play in these multiplayer games however, I must say that unfortunately I wasn’t too impressed. As I mentioned earlier, the game was somewhat laggy. Secondly, the players are a little bit too small and nimble to hit. Most of the time all you can see of your enemies visually is the symbol above them that indicates their faction. The only time I would even see my enemies would be when they were up close, almost to point blank range, and even then only for a split second. The Reapers are especially difficult to hit because of their special “turbo movement” as well. How about using explosive weapons to hit enemies with splash damage? Good luck, since, as I mentioned earlier, the splash damage is rather pitiful. The end result is, if you plan to fight your enemy, be prepared to spend most of it in one of the zoom levels, aiming at basically a speck in the sky or land. Not good. To be fair however, there are other modes of play other than deathmatch that are available online but most servers were only sparsely populated and “build your own base” scenarios usually degenerated into deathmatch games anyway. Finally, the way player models move about the landscape is sort of cheesy; they kind of slide around like in an ice skating rink…

In addition, there are certain balancing issues that even the game designers admit to that can affect the multiplayer game. They suggest the solution be to “ideally” have a three way game consisting of 5 Meccs against 3 Sea Reapers against 1 Kabuto. The fact that certain factions have to have a certain number of players to have a fair game gives the online gamer some pause for thought.

Miscellaneous

The manual was really well produced and written and rife with the great humour that is present in the game itself: it’s quite an entertaining and easy read if you have the time for it. Stability wise, the game is fairly consistent at not crashing. I’ve only had two inexplicable crashes in my time with it. There are a lot of minor bugs that have been fixed with a patch that has been released by Interplay awhile back. However, I still found the game behaving strangely with creatures or enemy units being able to walk through hills and mountains and some bugs that have to do with Kabuto and his… odd way of keeping “health packs” handy. Hopefully the next patch would also fix the multiplayer aspect as well.

Conclusion

This game is destined to be a single player classic despite it’s shortcomings. The great action, graphics, sound, humour, and storyline make a good recipe for a great single player game. My only major gripe about the single player was the lack of in-game saves during the RTS style missions, but due to their limited role in the game anyway it shouldn’t be much of a concern. A very major concern for any gamer however is its apparent weakness its multiplayer aspect. If you are a gamer who likes to play FPSes online this may not be the game for you because honestly speaking, multiplayer doesn’t appear to be very stable or balanced the moment. At this point in time multiplayer feels like a tacked on portion of the game. Otherwise, Giants is for the most part, a solid single player hit from Planet Moon Studios.

Overall Score: 80%