Earthbreakers

Earthbreakers is an unusual combination of team FPS and RTS, a spiritual heir to Command & Conquer: Regenade. The game was developed by Petroglyph (Star Wars: Empire At War, remastered versions of Command & Conquer and Red Alert), which includes former employees of Westwood Studios.

Plot

Earthbreakers is set in the year 2060 on Earth, devastated and torn by riots, under constant orbital bombardment. The crisis has been going on for 15 years now, when, during a period of civil wars and global unrest, a group of scientists discovered a new matter called Vilothyte, from which they they could create anything or use it directly as a power source. The substance was supposed to become a cure for the resource crisis on the planet. The first test produced enough Vilothyte to power the entire east coast of the USA for a week. The developed manufaturing system was to enter its final operational phase - until the hacker group Devolve entered the frey, bypassing the safeguards and taking control of the substance, plunging the Earth into an even greater crisis.

Mechanics

Earthbreakers is a multiplayer online game for up to 64 players, divided into two enemy factions. The task of each of them is to collect resources to expand the base and unlock new vehicles and character classes, leading to capturing and destruction of the opponent's base.

Each faction has access to twelve different character classes (e.g. soldier and technician). In order to unlock them, we first need to construct specific buildings from eleven available types. When travelling on the open world map or fighting opponents, we can use six vehicles, not counting the harvesters collecting the necessary resources. Although we are dealing with am FPS, the whole system of base development and shopping was based on solutions known from the genre of RTS.

Despite the emphasis on online gameplay, the title also offers a bot training mode where players can become familiar with the game mechanics.

Technical aspects

Graphics in Earthbreakers, despite the serious story, is very colorful and adopts a humorous convention. This effect was achieved by using the cel-shading technique, known for example from the Borderlands series.

Last updated on June 6, 2020