Linux Got Game: Warzone 2100

Warzone 2100 is a free and open source real-time strategy computer game developed by Pumpkin Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. It is often compared to Earth 2150, a Windows-only RTS game known as one of the first commercial full-3D games of its kind.

I was pretty excited when I discovered Warzone 2100 because the last time I played a real-time strategy game was when Red Alert became popular way back in 1997. Warzone 2100 is available in the Ubuntu repository so it was within my reach and I had no trouble getting and installing it.


Gameplay:
Warzone 2100 is a typical build-defend-attack type of RTS game. However, it has some unique aspects that differentiate it from other traditional RTS. One example is that the Units can all be customized according to: chassis (e.g. takes weight and power into account); drive system (such as wheels or tracks); and mounted object (such as a weapon, or one of various support tools).


Warzone 2100 can be played in single player campaign or in multiplayer mode. The campaign mode begins with the Commander, the protagonist, sending teams to gather technology in Arizona that would help with reconstruction. While gathering said "artifacts," the Project fends off attacks from an organization called the New Paradigm, which is under the command of an organization called Nexus, which is actually one man responsible for the nuclear war. In the final campaign, the Project launches a full-scale assault on Nexus, destroying it and thus removing all significant, organized barriers to its reconstruction of the Earth.


These are some of the highlights and main features of Warzone 2100:
* 24 Fast play mission maps for extra action
* 400+ Technologies to research
* 2,000+ different units to design
* 3 large campaign maps to conquer
* Intelligence Display sets objectives dynamically
* Interactive message system
* Quick Screen Navigation
* Map Editor


Conclusion:
Though not as graphically pleasing as today's 3D games, I still enjoyed playing Warzone 2100. Maybe because I'm used to playing Red Alert on a low end PC (Windows ;-0) before and experienced occasional hang -- Warzone 2100 is just lightning fast on my new Linux machine and it has very low demand on RAM. I hope a new version of Warzone will still come out soon as I've heard that the current project's progress is slowing down due to the lack of game developers.

Here's how I rated Warzone 2100:

Sounds and Graphics: 6/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Total: 7/10
---