SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: IBM compatible system with a Pentium processor 16 MB of RAM 30 MB of available hard disk space SVGA / VESA 2.0 graphics card supporting high color mode (1 MB RAM) Double speed CD-ROM drive Mouse MS-DOS 6.x or Windows 95 (DOS-Box) Supported sound cards: Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 32 & AWE32, Microsoft Sound System, GUS, GUS MAX I've played a lot of real-time strategy (RTS) games throughout my life. Games like C&C and Age of Empires. The latest entry into the RTS market is Earth 2140 from Interplay and Topware. Graphically stunning with awesome AI it looks like it could be a competitor, but it's just another spiffed up C&C clone. Earth 2140 Welcome to Earth 2140. Earth 2140 puts you down in a war for what is left of humanity. After many wars and environmental disasters, the Earth is severely contaminated. Africa and Australia can't even be inhabited. There are only two world powers that remain: the United Civilized States (UCS) and the Eurasian Dynasty (ED). The UCS system has robots work for them while they enjoy what's left of this planet. The ED has bigger problems, parts of their domain are in extremely contaminated areas. The ruler of the ED has transformed the population into mostly androids. To make matters worse, the Earth has been almost completely stripped of natural resources (great huh). This has created a number of small problems between the UCS and the ED which have now turned into a war, the final war for complete domination. Only one side can win. The side that wins will get the last of the available natural resources and will rule the world or what's left of it! The low down With Earth 2140's "Stunning 16 bit color graphics," it is probably one of the best-looking RTS games I have ever played, but great looks aren't everything. While the graphics are stunning and the explosions amazing, the gameplay suffers a lot from it. Units can get stuck in what would seem to be an easy route around buildings. Maps are gorgeous and highly detailed. The maps are very pleasing to look at. The only problem with the maps is it tends to make it quite hard to move large groups of units through the terrain without losing some of the guys. The pathfinding routines seem to be a much-needed improvement over a lot of other RTS games and could be better if the maps weren't so full. It also would have been great if you could create your own maps, but they didn't put a map editor in. Earth 2140 does have a lot of good units with a good mix of land, sea and air that can make it a very strategically orientated game. Another nice feature I appreciated was the unit database viewer, which gave the specs of the units along with a 3D wire-frame picture. You can upgrade units with more powerful weapons and armor through research centers. You can group units and assign a "virtual general" that allows you to assign the computer to do the dirty work. You can set the generals to guard, attack, patrol or defend which makes it pretty cool. Multiplayer maddness In my opinion, multiplayer support is what can make or break an RTS. I guess that depends on how many friends you have and how many of them want to play against you. As for me, there is nothing more I love then blowing away my friends in a game.The final version contains support for only 6 players via an IPX network. In the age of the Internet, this seems like a huge mistake. Games like Total Annihilation, Age of Empires and Dark Reign all come Internet ready. It would have been nice if they had provided some sort of native Internet support. The truth is Earth 2140 is just an average RTS game. It is a good C&C clone with great eye-popping graphics but that's about it. If you're an RTS fan, (like me) that is more into gameplay than graphics you may want to look at some other titles. Earth 2140 seems old compared to other games out there. This one's just a day late and a dollar too short. Don't get me wrong, Earth 2140 is a decent game but there are simply too many other titles that offer a bigger bang for your buck. Earth 2140 was reviewed by: Dominic (Enforcer) Remane.