Twentieth Century is starting to show real returns on my investment. I can honestly say that I'm starting to enjoy it, and its being all that I wanted it to be. Unfortuantely, there seems to be a lack of USB ports. They tend to come in handy when I have all the ports used up and want to get a screenshot off it.

My latest flashback is EarthSiege2, a mech combat game, released around 1995. In some cursory research, it is a distant relative to the Tribes franchise, including the new Tribes: Ascend. The shallow fabric of a story consists of robots on the Moon invading Earth, and destroying everything they can. It seems that you and your team are the only ones really kicking robot ass. You move around from continent to continent, until acquiring some spacecraft, and going to the Moon to kick some more ass. (Don't forget the bubble gum!)

Gameplay involves quite a bit of resource management, revolving around mechs, weapons, and crew. When a mission is completed, the enemy mechs are salvaged into scrap metal, and you get to keep any weapons that might be functional. You can also build your own. Mechs start off light, fast, and barely armed, and you will want to build better ASAP. Better mechs tend to be slower, but carry far more weaponry, thus more deadly to the enemy. You also get to play around with jet aircraft in the beginning of the game, but gets taken away in a few missions, but then becomes available to build about halfway into the game.

Mission gameplay is shoot at the enemy, for the most part. Because even the light mechs are rather clunky, cover isn't really an option. Just shoot at the enemy and hope it dies before your shields run out. Your squad (if assigned for a mission) mostly just sit around you waiting for orders. There's quite a bit of management involved in telling them what to do, but it really pays off, since the enemy has more targets to shoot at then just you.

Being mid-90s, everyone was thrilled by CDROM technology, and this game's developers were no exception. This game does include FMV in the briefings, along with the dialog and acting that it entails. It's a charming game of the times, to be sure, and I'm glad this genre is coming back, along with all the other dead genres being revived. It seems that I built Twentieth Century at just the right time to go back to the roots.