Urban Assault

Urban Assault is a 3D combined first-person shooter and real-time strategy computer game developed by the German company TerraTools and published by Microsoft.

Urban Assault
Developer(s)TerraTools
Publisher(s)Microsoft Games
Designer(s)Bernd Beyreuther
Composer(s)Sylvius Lack
Mark Snow
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, PlayStation (cancelled)[1]
Release
  • NA: August 18, 1998[2]
  • EU: September 1998
Genre(s)Shooter/strategy
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

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.

Gameplay

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. The player also has access to various commander assets such as an overhead Map screen; where the player can monitor actions on the battlefield in the bigger picture and assess various strategic and tactical elements that's not covered by the fog of war, or Squadron Manager; which allows the player to easily check status and manage all units under control as well as set various parameters for each squadron to better suit their specializations.

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 and any accompanying vehicles to the next field of battle. However, destroying enemy host stations provides additional space to the player's maximum room for accompanying vehicles. 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 the 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.

Resources

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; with each additional 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 energy output from friendly power stations can also repair friendly units in nearby friendly sectors, while the hostile power sources can damage friendly units if they are present in enemy sectors with enemy power stations in the vicinity.

The management of energy sources is an important aspect of the game. Geographically scattered power stations provide better mobility and map control for the player since teleporting over a friendly power station is free, but often require the player to control more sectors to provide a better energy recharge rate. The player may choose to destroy excess power stations that he/she doesn't need for teleport or to support friendly units, while establish a base of clustered power stations which provides more efficient energy absorption rates.

Plot

The plot of Urban Assault is set in the future, where a set of hazardous natural disasters involving 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 of military drones 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. The surviving humans had divided into warring factions: The Resistance, Ghorkovs, Taerkastens, and the Black Sect.

A group of alien invaders, the Mykonians, view humans as being unworthy of such a resource-rich planet, and implant their Parasite Machine into the crust of the planet to draw energy directly from the Earth's core. The Parasite Machine is causing the Earth's core to cool, weakening its magnetic field. This will eventually cause solar radiation levels to rise and obliterate all of the planet's biomass, making it suitable for Mykonian colonization. In the campaign, Mykonian forces are usually present in northern Europe, where the cool temperatures allow for more efficient data transfer.

A second group of alien invaders, the plant-like Sulgogars, have invaded northern Africa, where the warm climate creates a suitable spawning ground. It has been mentioned that Sulgogars eat humans and extract minerals from the ground, and the fact that humans killed the ocean may have contributed to their animosity against the human race. In the original campaign, the Sulgogars are rarely encountered and only appeared in 4 missions including the final confrontation.

In addition to the in-game mission briefing texts, a significant portion of comprehensive, in-depth background lore of the game are scattered and hidden deep inside the game's Help files. One could access these fragmented storyline materials by clicking the special glowing button that appears on numerous help pages.

Factions

The Resistance

The Resistance represents the last traces of democracy and freedom to survive global chaos. The Resistance was months away from destruction when a coalition of engineers and hackers wired together the free world's computers to create seven host stations. The host stations, however, had a caveat: no one would entrust the task of defending democracy and freedom to machines, so each host station was piloted by a Synaptic Donor Unit, abbreviated SDU. These SDUs were regarded as heroes, who, according to the game's help files, "sacrificed their humanity for the continual humanity of others." The Resistance's HQ and training grounds are located in Britain, with the rest of their forces and former contested territories dispersed throughout Western Europe.

In the original single-player campaign, the player's role is that of the last SDU champion to be deployed into battle, SDU 7. The player can read the diary entries of the fallen SDUs on the briefing for each game. The Resistance has the greatest variety of war machines, notably the Dragonfly heavy assault helicopter, the sub-nuclear missile launching Rhino, and the anti-air tank Fox. It is based around 90's era "modern" designs and weapons consist primary of machine guns, artillery shells, and rockets and missiles.

The faction's strengths in general are mainly its versatility and cost-effectiveness, while their weaknesses are the units being average and therefore usually outclassed by the other factions' counterpart with everything else equal. As an example, the Resistance Tiger is the "average" heavy tank that loses out to the Taerkasten Leonid in terms of armor and loses out to the Ghorkovian Tekh-Trak in terms of speed. In singleplayer, The Resistance also has the greatest variety of buildings, even including a 6-bar power station with self-defense guns that no other faction has save for the Black Sect. The Resistance Host Station is the weakest host station in the original single-player campaign in order to justify their underdog status. In the multiplayer levels, the host stations from all playable factions are equalized in both armor and firepower.

Ghorkovs

The Ghorkovs is a faction of humanity that holds totalitarianism and communism ideals and is the most similar to The Resistance in terms of the vehicles and technology they use. Their vehicle designs and weaponry are more futuristic, including usage of electromagnetic pulses. The Ghorkov host station icon is a red star. The Ghorkovs were originally allies of the Resistance, but later turned against them when the Resistance attempted to sell the Ghorkovs out to the Mykonians. The faction emerged from Eastern Europe after The Big Mistake.

In the single-player campaign, the Ghorkovs begin as the first enemy the player encounters in the game, and frequently reappear in later missions. Ghorkovian units generally possess higher speed and agility compared to most other factions' counterparts, trading off with lesser armor. Notable vehicles in the Ghorkovian arsenal include the Tekh-Trak, a ground assault vehicle; the Speedy, an anti-air hovercraft tank; the Gigant, a saucer-shaped aircraft that specializes in destroying host stations; and their Ghargoil series of anti-tank aircraft.

The Ghorkovs have two different classes of host stations: The weaker Turantul I which appears in the early levels, followed by the stronger capital mothership Turantul II. The Turantul II, also known as its nickname "Skorpio", is generally considered the most powerful host station in the game, whose extensive firepower even allows Ghorkov players to use it as an offensive tool in battle. While the Ghorkovs are similar to the Resistance in terms of gameplay, it lacks the latter's versatility, given that its strengths lie mainly on air units.

Taerkastens

The Taerkasts is a group of humanity that represent a fundamentalist, neo-Luddite society, abhorrent of technology. Hypocritically, they embrace plasma formation technology and possess their own versions of "technologically" advanced armaments and equipment, regarding these as a necessary evil. A majority of their technology design is based around the First/Second World War with some exceptions. The Taerkastens blame more "technological" factions like The Resistance and Ghorkovs for destroying the Earth's ozone layer and its atmosphere.

They have a cult like formation and are situated in much of Southern Europe and Africa, and are heavily based on the ideas of religion and theocracy. Despite their geographical location the faction is originated in Europe, supposedly Central or Northern Europe with their culture and traditions as well as a part of the game's lore stating that they were the first human group to encounter the Mykonians. In the original campaign, they are infamous for getting into conflict with the Ghorkovs.

In the game, Taerkasten units are typically heavily armored and have strong attacks, but the majority of them are very slow and especially vulnerable to hit and run tactics. The backbone of conventional Taerkast assault usually involves massed Leonid tank units, with Hetzel fighter plane support. The Taerkasten Host Station is the Flying Fortress, whose turret design possesses a fatal flaw in the form of defensive blind-spots that sometimes allow a human opponent to stay close to one side and relentlessly attack without fear of reprisal from the host station. Taerkasten units are designed to be more AI-friendly among the playable factions.

Mykonians

The extraterrestrial invader Mykonians disdain humanity for wasting a precious birthright like the Earth. They see Earth as nothing more than a battery and use the Parasite Machine to drain the power from the Earth's core. Mykonian units have geometric shapes, with evocative names like "Air Prism" and "Ground Cube." The Mykonians are typically located in Northern Europe with their biovein-infested environments, where their data transfer is optimal as well as their vehicles and buildings blend in with the surroundings better.

In the game, Mykonian units have weak shielding, but generally possess one of the strongest attacks in the game. The Mykonian Host Station in the original single-player campaign uses a single Ion Cannon as self-defense weaponry; while strong, it can only focus on a single enemy unit at a time and therefore is easily overwhelmed by a large squad of enemy units. In singleplayer, the Mykonians can only create 1 class of power station, which is more efficient than a standard 2-bar power station but is still weaker than a 4-bar power station.

Destruction of the Parasite Machine is the focus of the single-player campaign, which is shown in the final mission where the player must destroy it before a long in-game timer runs out. The multiplayer gives the Mykonian Host Station more self-defense cannons but equalized its firepower with the other factions, and equalized its availability of power stations with the other factions for a balance. The Mykonian faction is specifically designed to excel when controlled by human players instead of AI.

Sulgogars

The off-world Sulgogars treat the Earth as fertilizer for their spawning grounds. A vegetative species of bionic alien, their powers reside in biotechnology, genetic manipulation and cloning. The Sulgogars are rarely encountered, only appearing in 4 out of 40 missions in the original campaign.

In the game, the Sulgogars arguably has the strongest attacks, surpassing even the Mykonians in certain areas. As a part of game balance, the Sulgogars' weakness in exchange for their powerful units is their severe lack of versatility and their inability to create buildings - They have a very few variety of units and all are airborne, rendering them mostly vulnerable to attacks from anti-air tanks and also become helpless when their power sources are destroyed. The Sulgogar Queen possesses the strongest self-defense weaponry among all the faction's host stations, but with only one weapon it can only defend itself against one enemy unit at a time and is easily overwhelmed by a large squad of enemy units.

The Sulgogars are not available in Multiplayer. This single-player exclusive faction is considered out of the balance cycle between other major factions. But the well known "jump gun" cheat allows one to play as the Sulgogars in the single player campaigns without directly modifying game data. Moreover, a fair amount of "mods" (essentially hacks) have been released to allow playing them in singleplayer.

The Black Sect

The Black Sect is a mysterious splinter faction composed of pirates, scavengers, and mercenaries who have decided to enter the war for personal profit and gain. Having no original units of their own, the Black Sect relies on stealing technology from other factions, including the Resistance Anvil-class host station (the prototype model of SDU1 that SDU7 was meant to use) and the Taerkasten Bronsteijn flying ion cannon. The Black Sect also have the ability to create Mykonian and Sulgogar units, which hints that even the aliens have a history with the Sect. This is backed up with the constant communication with the terran forces and Mykonians.

In the game, Black Sect units have a special stealth projection, rendering them invisible to the player's radar. This translates to hampering the player's real-time strategy capabilities, forcing the player to adopt a more active first-person shooter role. For every mission that the Black Sect appears in, they are able to create a portion of units from all factions that made an appearance in the battlefield. Their host station is one of the most durable with strong self-defense capabilities. Overall, the player cannot easily exploit any weaknesses in the Black Sect like they can do for the other factions, and therefore they are arguably the most difficult faction to defeat.

The Black Sect cannot be played in Multiplayer. Although there are several community-made mods (essentially hacks) which allow playing as them in singleplayer. In the original campaign for single-player, the Black Sect has invaded the region surrounding the Black Sea, and only appears towards the end of the game. They are often recommended to be the top priority to be eliminated. One of the in-game briefing line states that their "origin could be traced back to the earliest European secret societies, with all the requisite branches into the royal families".

Localization

According to the game's credits, Urban Assault is officially translated and released with full audio support in the following 4 languages: English, French, German, and Japanese.

Reception

Urban Assault received above-average reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.[3]

The game suffered heavily from lack of advertisements. Common criticisms included complex interface, lack of variety and monotony in game modes, steep difficulty and learning curves. Praise included innovative gameplay, immersive 3D battlefield experience consisting fully destructive environments, tactical and strategic depths involving diverse range of ground and air vehicles, balance model consisting four entirely unique factions, non-cheating singleplayer AI, and excellent joystick support and the introductory video with music by Mark Snow.[14] Next Generation said of the game, "There's enough variation to keep you playing, but not enough to really consider this a major step forward in a new sub-genre that's ripe for exploitation."[11]

According to the developer, until 1999 the game sold 400,000 units.[15]

In spite of its mediocre reception from various press reviews, the game is usually scored very high on user/customer scores at numerous game review websites. As of 2012, the game retains an active fan community that releases game modifications and other content. For instance in 2016, the community released a game engine recreation on GitHub.[16][17]

Metropolis Dawn

An expansion pack for the game was originally planned under the title "Metropolis Dawn".[18] However, it was never officially released due to contract issues between its publisher.[19] The expansion allowed the player to play as the Taerkasten or Ghorkov factions in their respective singleplayer campaigns, as well as adding new vehicles and maps. Although never released for sale, a near-complete copy was leaked to the internet community before TerraTools became RadonLabs.

References
  1. https://forums.metropolisdawn.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1589&start=10#p16812
  2. IGN staff (August 18, 1998). "News Briefs". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on April 13, 2000. Retrieved January 13, 2021. Microsoft's Urban Assault, an action/strategy hybrid, is now shipping.
  3. "Urban Assault for PC". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 17, 2019. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  4. Smith, Nathan (October 9, 1998). "Urban Assault". Computer Games Strategy Plus. Strategy Plus, Inc. Archived from the original on July 10, 2003. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  5. Scisco, Pete (December 1998). "Life During Wartime (Urban Assault Review)" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 173. Ziff Davis. p. 346. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  6. "Urban Assault Review for PC on GamePro.com". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. 1998. Archived from the original on December 7, 2004. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  7. Chin, Elliot (September 3, 1998). "Urban Assault Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive.
  8. "Urban Assault". GameStar (in German). Webedia. September 1998.
  9. Harris, Craig (August 13, 1998). "Urban Assault". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  10. la redaction (September 28, 1998). "Test: Urban Assault". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Webedia. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  11. "Urban Assault". Next Generation. No. 49. Imagine Media. January 1999. p. 108. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  12. McDonald, T. Liam (October 1998). "Urban Assault". PC Gamer. Vol. 5 no. 10. Imagine Media. pp. 192–93. Archived from the original on March 2, 2000. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  13. Lord, Paul (September 1998). "Urban Assault". PC Zone. No. 67. Dennis Publishing. pp. 94–95. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  14. "Urban Assault". Radon Labs. 2007. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  15. "URBAN ASSAULT - over 400.000..." TerraTools. March 17, 1999. Archived from the original on May 29, 2000. The smash hit title URBAN ASSAULT sells over 400.000 units world wide.
  16. UA_source "Opensource reimplementation of UrbanAssault engine. You needed copy of original game files for play." on github.com (2016)
  17. UA:Source on metropolisdawn.com by Zidane (Jun 23, 2016)
  18. "MISSION CD "Metropolis Dawn"". TerraTools. May 3, 1998. Archived from the original on February 29, 2000. Watch out for the URBAN ASSAULT Add-On "Metropolis Dawn" coming this summer! Our mission CD will feature new levels and vehicles and will be sold around the world. Bonus: This time you will be able to play all enemy races!
  19. (In German) The original developer's comments about the publisher issue with Metropolis Dawn
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