Carrier Command: Gaea Mission PC

1. flic182

   Sep 30, 2012

   9

   This game, in terms of scope, is genius. I was super excited when I saw the premise. Control a carrier, launch amphibious and flying units andThis game, in terms of scope, is genius. I was super excited when I saw the premise. Control a carrier, launch amphibious and flying units and direct them directly and indirectly to assault and capture an island and its resources... However I wasn't born yesterday, I've seen this type of premise before, and I… Expand

   • 5 of 15 users found this helpful
2. Azrapse

   Jul 29, 2013

   9

   Really fun and engaging game that mixes strategic conquest of neutral and enemy islands to power your war effort (and maim the enemy's) withReally fun and engaging game that mixes strategic conquest of neutral and enemy islands to power your war effort (and maim the enemy's) with tactical combats manning aircraft, amphibious tanks, and a carrier with turrets.
   
   The campaign serves both as an introduction to the gameplay and tutorial, as well as a refreshing change of pace with its on-foot infiltration missions, chases on land and air, and a story whose writing, while not going to win a Nobel prize of literature, gives a reason and a motivation for the whole thing.
   You can rush through it, but I took the time to conquer every single optional island, and visit both the factory/refinery and the research center at every island to get the free goodies, and Steam accounted 40 hours to complete it.
   
   Once you are done with the campaign, you can replay the game in strategic mode, where you can configure the starting archipelago, initial technology and victory conditions to your liking. You can go for fast games where you rush face to face against the enemy carrier and everything becomes a fest of plasma and explosions in under 10 minutes, or take the long calmer way of a totally neutral archipelago for a more strategic gameplay.
   
   At the time of this review with patch 1.6.0011, the AI problems have been mostly fixed, although now and then you can experience some hiccups in their pathing at specific places in specific islands, something you can correct by taking control of the unit and moving it a little bit forward in their route. The game is also prone to freeze or crash at predictable moments. But because of this predictability, it's nothing you can't mitigate by saving just before a cutscene or before arriving a new island.
   
   This is a game I would gladly recommend to get without much thinking once they have ended ironing the remaining bugs left, or if they added a multiplayer cooperative mode.… Expand

   • 0 of 1 users found this helpful
4. Onychoprion

   Jan 21, 2013

   8

   First, yes, the AI is a bit buggy, but considering what it needs to do, that is, pathfind between any two points a human gives it, I feel itFirst, yes, the AI is a bit buggy, but considering what it needs to do, that is, pathfind between any two points a human gives it, I feel it does fairly well. If the AI gets stuck in circles, as happens, just move it a few dozen meters along the path. It's also a good idea to manually move over bridges.
   
   But aside from the AI thing, this is a great remake of the original game. A mixture of real-time tactics, real-time strategy, and vehicle simulation, Carrier Command makes for a great play. The FPS sections of the campaign can get a mite annoying.
   
   The scenery is stunning, and the island design makes it often feel like, when traversing the roads, you're not on an island at all. The campaign is about 20 hours long, which is nice, and there's a variable 'strategy' gametype for an open ocean with islands to conquer and the enemy carrier to contend with.
   
   All in all, I've spend 30 hours on it so far, and will probably spend many more. Even with the AI bugs it's a pretty good buy. Try out the demo, mentally add in an RTS element of resource production and distribution; if you like it, buy it. If not, to each their own!… Expand

   • 0 of 1 users found this helpful
5. Want2Game

   Oct 3, 2012

   5

   This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is based on an old game-title from the 80's called Carrier Command. And as a kid I played it on the Amiga, Spectrum (emulator) and PC. The idea; to conquer islands of different kinds and build up a supply-chain, are an extremely fun addicting one so it was one of my favourite games of all times. So came the day, another remake came out so I had to buy it. Since I never buy and play bad games, I don't have time for the bad ones really, the start rating is 10. It is no exaggeration to say that I expected this game to be better, meaner and so fourth, on every level than its 'predecessors'. First out is the graphics. I found it to be very pleasing to look at (on my mid-range-computer). No doubt this is an enormous improvement (haha). People these days are so spoiled with good graphics so no tears there. No change in score. It is still 10.
   
   So how is the gameplay? Well, even here there are huge improvements of course compared with the old variants. One must know that there were no AI, except for a "go-to-waypoint"-AIs without pathfinding for the player available in these days so the walruses and mantas could die any time you looked away.
   
   Sadly enough the first thing that strikes me is the bad AI available for the player. First the path-finding doesn't work very well, so you need to babysit the walruses so they don't get stuck or do some really silly manoeuvres. Second, I had trouble cancel orders, like the assist-order. It wouldn't stop until it docked so to speak. This means that you need to babysit your walruses and mantas just like in the old game (but OK AI are still much better). Walruses can do neat things like hack, or resupply themselves (on an island) if you order them to.
   
   But overall AI feel incomplete so there goes two point down to 8.
   
   The campaign is quite fun, you start out as a soldier and advance to be a "Carrier Commander" and let you into the game quite smoothly. The campaign let you to familiarize yourself with the different controls and weapons while telling a default kind of we-have-heard-it-before-story. One time I fought an Island in the beginning of the campaign for hours and wasted a lot of resources.. You better pick you fights! Since some parts are FPS-mode, some missions are on different islands and in buildings. This is an OK element, and you notice that they have put a lot more effort on the rest.
   
   The missions in themselves are fun, you can do so much more now on the islands than in the distant past and there exists different environments you must take in consideration.
   
   If you play this game for hours in a session, like I did, you might get CTD's. This is because the current version of date of this message have numerous and obvious bugs in it. Here is a sample list: * Missing sounds on different Islands. One Island may have thunder and rain sounds, but is missing on the next.
   * Graphical bugs. Textures may go missing (memory leak?) after a long session.
   * CTD's Transitions between game-modes, from an area to the next (like entering a building as soldier) may cause random CTD's. * AI is also buggy, hard to cancel orders like assist.
   * Campaign got bugs in it. For instance you might trigger an old mission if you take back an island you lost.
   Due to the bugs and the feel of "incompleteness" I slash away 3 points more to 5.
   
   So after a while you get used to avoid the bugs and it really feels like Carrier Command! I really do like the game so I hope they fix the bugs.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
6. SteadyMercury

   Dec 30, 2012

   3

   I've been watching this since it was first announced. I noticed it on steam today and downloaded the xbox 360 demo mission to give it a whirl.I've been watching this since it was first announced. I noticed it on steam today and downloaded the xbox 360 demo mission to give it a whirl. I love strategy games and I wa shoping this would give me something to do when I wasn't in the mood for Empire Total War or Halo 4. No. So first the good
   
   The concept is fun incarnate. You travel a world with a futuristic aircraft carrier launching military assaults on enemy strong holds. Sweet. The Bad (and boy there is alot)
   
   I made a metacritic account because when I first saw the metacritic review there was only the one user review rating this a 9. No way. This game is fundamentally broken. The controls feel awful to start with. They somehow manage to feel jerky and unresponsive at the same time on the Xbox 360 version. Maybe its a bit better on PC. FPS mode is the worst. I just sprayed and prayed for the most part. Perhaps thats what they made the enemy foot soldiers so weak. If they had any amount of health you would never be able to kill them. The tanks and mantus planes aren't much better despite being a larger segment of the actual gameplay. The physical layout of the controls on the 360 controller is beyond unintuitive. I've played the 360s arsenal of strategy games, from Halo Wars to EndWar to Tropico 3 and 4. The controls never feel as fluid as they do on PC but I never expect them to. In all the above cases the developers managed to create a controller scheme that at least made sense and functioned even if it wasn't as good as a keyboard and mouse. In this case I constantly found myself button mashing looking for things as silly as select (who makes select down on the d pad instead of A. A has been the default select button for every game I can think of for xbox since the early 2000's why change it now?) In short even when you can find the controls the results will be less then steller.
   
   The voice acting was garbage. Some parts were narrated in a very bland uninspired manner other parts were just text blocks (glitching maybe). Theres nothing else to say about it. At a time when video games are getting orchestras and professional voice actors a game with the voice acting quality of the original Starcraft (generous example) in just unnaceptable. The graphics are nothing to write home about. At the end of the console life cycle and considering what we've seen Mass Effect 3, Skyrim and Halo 4 do on the 360 there isn't any reason for this to look like a 360 launch title graphically. I know a console isn't a PC so I don't expect PC style graphics but this is beyond rediculous. The enemy AI is terrible. But since your AI allies are equally as bad the playing field is somewhat levelled. Enemy AI shows up in the same place no matter how you approach (is it too much to ask for slightly less then on invisible rails AI in 2012?) Your own AI needs constant direction in order to operate. I don't mind directing forces but so far as I can tell you can't even tell an ally to advance to an objective and engage along the way. Instead you tell them to move in spits and spurts every few seconds with you. I consider a game that functions but isn't fun a five. I consider a game that functions but isn't to my taste a 6-7 and above. To me below 5 means the game is fundamentally unplayable. In this case 20 minutes into a game I was quite excited for I threw down the controller in disgust and signed up on Metacritic to help save someone else from playing this. While you could certainly force yourself through it (with a lot more will power then I have) I would never pay to play it. I'd never play it for fun. In short the less then stellar graphics and voice acting combined with sloppy frustrating controls and inexcusably bad AI all adds up to turn a game that with only one or two of these problems could have been a servicable 6 or 7 into a pathetic 3.… Expand

   • 3 of 8 users found this helpful
7. Rebellious

   Sep 30, 2012

   2

   The Idea behind the game is great and the graphics are very good, however the playability is almost non existent. This is all down to the poorThe Idea behind the game is great and the graphics are very good, however the playability is almost non existent. This is all down to the poor AI that seems to have come from the 80s where it was still being developed. The enemy's AI is nearly perfect but your own isn't even able to tell the difference between a road and a wall. It has a hard time hitting the enemies with certain weapons or doesn't fire at them at all. Path finding its poor, it likes to get stuck on rocks, trees, walls and even take the longest route it can find. It also struggles to can line-of-sight on the enemies it targets, especially with the mantas air units. It will just hover in one spot with a wall in the way rather than move to the other side and begin shooting. It often floats above the targeted unit, where its unable to shoot it. This isn't a problem for the enemy AI which can shoot you from across the map.
   
   The interface for the game needs work as well. The ability to send units to different location is good, if it didn't get confused with whether its sending all of them, some of them, or not going to until you execute the command manually. You can dock all the units very easily in one press, but can not dock a single unit with out "going around the houses" to do so.
   
   Graphics are very good though, not the best but are still good to look at. The trees, water and land are detailed well. The units all have good details to them. Difficulty of this is debatable. Some times it is so easy you and just go through it with your eyes shut. Other times it is near impossible with enemies having weapons and armour FAR in advance of your own, even when the island says its weak defence.
   
   Story to the game is alright, nothing too hard to understand. You start as a first person shooter, which is very easy to deal with, but only plays a small part of the game. The game introduces new elements when going to each island, so learning curve is good.
   
   My conclusion is that although the idea behind the game is fantastic the AI is so poor that you will probably stop playing after 6 hours. If they can fix this to correct the errors in path finding and attacking then i would rate this game at around the 8 or 9 mark. But until then it is nearly unplayable.… Expand

   • 4 of 9 users found this helpful
8. Luke0086

   Nov 12, 2015

   0

   The good thing about Gaea Mission is the graphics and sound effects - both are quite well thought out and designed. But unfortunately don'tThe good thing about Gaea Mission is the graphics and sound effects - both are quite well thought out and designed. But unfortunately don't expect to be anything but disappointed with everything else.
   
   Whoever designed the game, probably didn't design the original. The entire game is just thrown together using programming shortcuts that shows in the end product - Bugs that were present in release, are STILL present in the latest patch which was released years ago.
   
   Bohemia Interactive appear to have given up patching the game, without any announcement on the forums. It's the worst executed game I've ever come across, and BI's attitude to dump it and shrug it off is an insult to the Carrier Command franchise. The game is riddled with these bugs, and every time I think about going back and playing the game I feel nothing but frustration and disappointment. If you're wondering what level of stupidity these bugs can represent, a simple cut scene will reset any island you're at - progress is NEVER saved. You can destroy an entire island, go and come back or have a cut scene play, and the island is back to as if you were never there.
   
   I wont be buying a single Bohemia Interactive title after this, where I feel like I've been robbed for purchasing this game.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful

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