Oil Rush PC Review - PAGE 1

Oil Rush can be summarized simply as a naval strategy game, but as there's a widespread lack of micromanagement and huge emphasis on capturing and defending various points, you might call it alt strategy. If you're normally terrified of the genre or just want something fresh, keep reading.

As a PC, Mac, and Linux title created by the team behind the UNGINE engine, it's got technical prowess in multiple departments (hard to think of a better looking RTS at the moment) and for the most part, runs butter smooth as you'd hope.

Mechanics

Three modes are featured: Campaign (16 linear missions across varied maps), Quick Match (really a Skirmish mode, featuring a variety of setups and options), and Multiplayer (skirmishes with friends or strangers).

Campaign mostly does an excellent job of introducing you to the mechanics, slowly easing you into the purpose of various hotkeys, units, etc. On the downside, still hand-drawn cutscenes and more or less weak voice-acting are a turn off, and are best ignored.

Longtime RTS players will find major changes from the norm: movement is very restricted in that you can only send units from one site (oil reserve, plane construction facility, etc) to another. However, you can return them mid-journey, and also choose from three percentages in how many units you want to send (important for keeping points guarded when appropriate). As well, battles play out automatically as units encounter each other, and units are built automatically, with only one type per site as dependent on the given site (chopper facilities will only produce choppers, for example).

As you progress in a given level, you can upgrade your units or sites as you see fit from 20 or so abilities. No matter the mode, you'll want to play it out a bit different each time, whether it's going the sabotage route, full-on assault, or defensive, or a mix. Eventually you'll be able to drop nukes or just plain torch enemy sites and units if that's what you're into. A separate mode with persistent progression would add a lot to the enjoyment, and offer a welcome addition flavour – definitely a downer.

Sites are divided into three main production types: oil, units, and towers. Oil is your resource for equipping unit and tower sites with the necessary defenses and upgrades, so capturing them is key, not only for building up your own defenses, but for preventing the enemy from building up his.

Modes & difficulty

 The campaign's weakness is its linearity: it often feels like you're jumping through hoops, and when you fail, you won't be too inclined to try again, particularly for some bugged missions which are very particular on how you must proceed. Still, its variety is commendable, whether you're taking over enemy air sites or going all out tower defense and surviving waves of enemies, to name just a couple setups.

Oil Rush shines brighter in skirmishes, where a more open, sandbox style of play is offered. There are premises to the various maps, mind you (strong air focus, one team in each corner of the map, etc), but beyond that it's anyone's guess as to how it'll play out or what the optimal path is. A few options keep things interesting, too, whether you want to team up with normal AI against one hard AI, pit four players against each other, or just go 1v1, for example; game speed can be increased, too, for when you want to make things extra spicy.

It should be noted difficulty may prove an issue, at least for those not entrenched in the strategy genre. Even on the Easy difficulty, some missions can feel like you're going around in circles, capturing and losing the same points over and over and making little progress. That said, controls and UI make for a very fluid, intuitive experience. You can actually control most of the battle via simple minimap commands if you like, and often win, cutting to the well-done cinematic camera as you please.

Dead multiplayer

Still, even here, potential feels limited, much like playing a great shooter with bots only. Sadly, the multiplayer community is among the most scant I've ever seen, such that I didn't get one battle in. You're lucky to find one match at any given time, and even then it's usually full (oddly, full matches are shown and can't be filtered out). There is a small IRC community around it if you're really patient and in love with the game (#oilrush on webchat.quakenet.org), but for most it's not really worth the bother, sadly enough. With any luck it will pick up in the future and reach its potential, but I wouldn't count on it. Of course, if you can wrangle a friend into getting hooked, you can have a grand old time together online or via LAN.

PC features & performance

Oil Rush features a reasonable amount of graphics options: four slider settings each for graphics and textures, one for AA (FXAA included), and of course resolution, windowed/fullscreen modes, and V-Sync. 3D support is in, too, for those into it. Performance maxed using FXAA on a 2GB 6950 GPU and X6 1055t CPU is a solid 90-120 about, though consistent stuttering can be observed while using the cinematic camera. There are heaps of hotkeys, which can all be binded as desired.

Final thoughts

Unigine's first effort is a strong one recommendable to anyone looking for something different in the strategy genre, especially at the $20 price point. The sad bit is a busy community behind it would push it to great heights, but the chances of it happening aren't high, though the upcoming mod kit could compensate for this with more solo content.