A.I. problems and hollow FPS segments aside, CC:GM offers a kind of gameplay that we don’t see that much these days. It remains faithful to the original Carrier Command, modernizing the basic recipe with an improved interface and meticulous tutorial, and grants complete freedom to the player, in game-changing decisions. [November 2012]
A great remake? An excellent legacy to the Amiga history? Maybe. However, the new Carrier Command game is also full of frustration and at the same time it doesn't fulfill its potential. When the game's artificial intelligence is fixed by Bohemia Interactive, then the action-strategic magnum opus will be a true smash hit.
Really 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.
Brilliant strategy/action game that is faithful to the original. Graphics and weather conditions are gorgeous. The campaign is decent but more importantly there is lots of replay value in the strategy game mode.
An ambitious and enjoyable genre-bender marred by major AI-trouble for the units under your command, as well as some poor FPS sections. Still worth a look if you're after something different.
A voyage into the past, Carrier Commando Gaea Mission presents a great, original idea in a fresh gameplay. Pity that this effort is ruined by a very poor AI.
Overall I found that the game just seems to lack some personality. Old school fans of the original may enjoy Carrier Command: Gaea Mission for the PC but for the price, the rest of us may just want to pass.
Carrier Command: Gaea Mission is a forced sequel to the 1988 classic. Choices have been made that affect the original concept and technical issues hold it back. In essence it's still a challenging strategy game that doesn't look bad, but the awful artificial intelligence and awkward controls manage to frustrate.
Carrier Command: Gaea Mission manages to take a number of interesting features and turn them into a rather broken mess of incapacitated AI and extended waiting. The framework and presentation of the game however show that the developer has both skill and dedication, which leaves me surprised that the game is released in this state. Promising concepts and frustration awaits the one who dares venture out on the open sea.
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 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
it's not bad. I still gives you the feeling the original CC had (like Mass Effect and unlike X:Rebirth - but let's get back on topic), that your ship is your home. Graphics are ok. Pathfinding could be better. The mechanics work though. Could be better, but it's still more than "ok". Would love to see a II based on this, though unlikely because I doubt the sales went too well. Get it for very few bucks in Humble Weekly Sales (if you read this the last week of January 2014 that is).
This is actually a remake of a 1988 PC game. At the time, Carrier Command was a pretty groundbreaking game. It was pretty (for 1988, of course) and very deep. This remake is a faithful update to that original formula.
The game looks amazing. The carrier itself is very detailed, with tons of ports, bays and guns. The futuristic jets and tanks it launches are quite impressive as well. The only downside is that the gameplay takes place exclusively on islands, so the scenery can get kind of repetitive. The islands do have different climates and terrain features, however it feels more like a theme park than dynamic scenery.
Unfortunately, a game's looks can only take it so far. The gameplay has to be compelling and sadly I found myself pretty bored after just a few hours.
In story mode, you start out on foot with your squad invading an enemy island base. You traverse your way through some winding island paths and rust covered indoor facilities. Nothing about this first person on foot experience feels right. The gun feels lifeless in your characters hands because it has no recoil. You just point at an enemy, spam your fire button and they go down. And with no real visual indicators, you can barely tell if you are actually hitting your target until they fall over dead.
This takes about 30 minutes to complete. Which is good, because the on foot first person gameplay never comes up again. You find your carrier and add a ground vehicle. From there you go from island to island, defeating enemies and gaining more vehicles. This should only take you a few hours and will get real boring, real fast.
The RTS portion of the carrier is decent You queue up ground and air vehicles, and upgrade which attachments they get sent out with. And the transition from RTS to FPS is seamless. You deploy your units from the carrier, issue them commands via the minimap, then click on any of their icons to instantly gain a first person view of that vehicle.
You will be commanding your vehicles quite often, because the AI pathing is just dumb. They will drive into the walls of an island base over and over again while being shot at. They will get stuck on rocks. They will fly in circles instead of getting to their waypoints. If you don't micromanage every vehicle almost all of the time they will get themselves killed. Which is unfortunate, because that is the most challenging part of the game.
The enemy AI isn't much smarter. They seem to have set zones where they will patrol, so it doesn't take much to find a spot where you can destroy them without taking any damage yourself.
Everything about this game has the potential to be great like its 1988 predecessor. It just isn't strong enough in either its RTS or FPS portions to be anything more than mediocre, which is just a shame.
I was very enthusiastic about this game, having played the original when it came out.
While the overall application of the game has been performed well and the graphics and interface are all good, my game experience was ruined by the AI. The pathing has a lot of problems and the combat AI is very unreliable.
An example of the combat AI. Having 4 mantas (with machine guns) and 3 walruses (lasers and grenade launcher) I sent an armoured walrus into a base to draw out enemy. A single grenade walrus was in the base so I lured him out. The other vehicles watched while it destroyed the lure vehicle, even as it drove straight passed them.
After being fired upon for a while the walruses decided to move about a bit, rocking in little circles until they where all destroyed.
A big shame, as otherwise this game could have been great.
I really wanted to love this game, but sadly i cannot. This game looks great and feels fun, but that's where it ends. AI is so poor it makes it almost unplayable at certain points. In many missions you are required to rely on AI support but most of the time they will either fire upon YOU or drive of into nothingness. Its a shame, but this game requires so much AI support it is too hard to play with such poor execution
SummaryCarrier Command: Gaea Mission, set in the Gaea Universe and based on a story adapted from the science fiction trilogy of novels, reinvents the classic gameplay of the original Carrier Command released in 1988 in next-gen experience.