Urban Assault
| Urban Assault | |
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| Developer(s) | TerraTools |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Designer(s) | Bernd Beyreuther |
| Composer(s) | Sylvius Lack |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Shooter/strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Urban Assault is a combined first-person shooter and real-time strategy computer game developed by the German company TerraTools and published by Microsoft. It was released on July 31, 1998.
The player creates and commands groups of tanks and aircraft, and can also take direct control of one vehicle at a time. Over the course of the game one can acquire upgrades and new vehicles.
The player is in command of a futuristic host station with plasma energy technology, allowing the player to create units and buildings, as long as the blueprints and sufficient energy are available. In the single-player campaign, the objective of each mission is to capture each key sector on the map, allowing use of the beam gate to transport the host station to the next field of battle. However, destroying enemy host stations imparts a bonus to the player's maximum energy reserves. Combined with the fact that many key sectors are located deep in enemy territory or even right below an enemy faction's host station, the unstated goal of each game is to eliminate all enemy host stations. In multiplayer, beam gates are not present on the map and the only objective is to destroy opponents.
Like most strategy games, the game is centered on resources. The sole resource in Urban Assault is energy, which is required to build units and buildings used to conquer other factions. Energy is gained through controlling power stations. Each power station emits energy relative to the number of white boxes attached to it on the map screen; each box represents more power output. Power stations are also limited in power output by the number of adjacent sectors controlled by the player, referred to in-game as efficiency, forcing the player to increase control of the map in order to create more powerful armies. Powerful units and buildings require significant amounts of energy to build.
The plot of Urban Assault is set in the future, where ozone depletion, termed The Big Mistake, results in destruction of the ocean's phytoplankton, causing the Earth's food chain to collapse. Scarce food supplies results in a resource war, and plasma formation technology — the ability to form solid constructions using only energy — allows military commanders to create entire armies to subjugate their foes. The technology was leaked to enemy factions, destroying fragile political alliances and launching the planet into a third world war. Citizens are forced into domed communities, which shield them from dangerous levels of UV radiation (to an extent) and filters the toxic air. However, most of the adult population had already consumed contaminated food, and most died within five years - regardless of location, domed or not.
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