Revenge of the Mutants Pierre SD

Posted by : Donald W. Pfeffer

What do you get when you cross a horse with a horny toad? Either a punch line unfit to be printed in this magazine or the latest real-time strategy game from Relic Entertainment, the developers behind the fantastic "Homeworld."

"Impossible Creatures" isn't quite up to the standards of their last game, but Relic did create a very fun, attractive, and diverting RTS game that will keep you entertained, for a few days at least.

The gimmick behind the game is simple enough: You create armies of "impossible creatures" by combining the skills of several different animals. Put a gorilla and a cheetah in the Combiner and out comes a Goreetah. Throw a mountain lion in with a porcupine and you'll get a Mountain Pork. Each animal comes with different traits, stats, and behavioral characteristics, and even combining just two animals together offers hundreds of combination possibilities. Creating (and naming) the different animals is the most entertaining part of the game, and it almost makes up for the lackluster battle engine and routine campaign mode.

The gameplay will be old hat to fans of the genre, but there is a tutorial to ease in gamers unfamiliar with real-time strategy. As far as RTS games go, however, "Impossible Creatures" is noticeably light on strategy. There is very little in the way of micromanagement, especially during the battles, and I found myself watching the battles more than I actually played them. Gathering resourc...

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