[Longplay, No Commentary] Total Annihilation (PC, 1997) 1080p Hard ARM Campaign Play-through
265* I may appear clueless early on but I assure you I will improve later on
Total Annihilation is a real-time strategy game originally released in 1997 for Windows. It is arguably one of the defining titles of the genre which was criminally overshadowed by other more popular titles of that era. "What began as a conflict over the transfer of consciousness from flesh to machines escalated into a war which has decimated a million worlds" is probably one of the most epic and apt introduction in the history of gaming. The first video of this series will cover the galactic war from the perspective of ARM.
The game, as its title suggests, is all about total annihilation of enemies, a bit too literally most of the time. Mission objectives usually revolve around building up forces to destroy every single enemy unit on the map, throw in some capture objectives occasionally. Story-wise, well, the player must lead their faction from one system to another in their quest to annihilate the enemy. How the war came about was not mentioned in the game, though it was explained in the game manual so do give it a read to have a better understanding of the game universe. I love the sound department; the music and attacks all sound great, just that they might break down when too many things happen at once. There are balancing issues with this game that gives rise to a certain meta, where certain units are fielded pretty much every time while others are rarely seen. Spamming cheap low level units are also sometimes more favourable than building their higher level counterparts. Next, being a game that's turning 24, the control scheme is very dated and I have yet to get fully accustomed to it even after clocking in 20+ hours. Lastly, while the pathfinding is not frustratingly bad, you will find units colliding into each other more often than not, and they might even go to unexpected places when traversing cramped space, so it still leaves a lot to be desired.
Despite these flaws, I enjoyed playing this game. It reminded me of Supreme Commander, another RTS game about large armies of machines fighting each other to their demise. It turns out SupCom is actually the spiritual successor of Total Annihilation, no wonder the similarities. I recommend RTS fans who missed this game to give it a go, you'll probably love it.
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Specific mission timestamps:
0:00:00 Intro
0:02:46 Mission 1: A Hero Returns
0:05:10 Mission 2: CORE Kbot Base, Destroy It!
0:17:48 Mission 3: Spider Technology
0:27:40 Mission 4: CORE Contamination Spreads...
0:48:10 Mission 5: The Gate To Thalassean
1:12:10 Mission 6: Beachhead On Thalassean
1:31:31 Mission 7: The Defense of Larab Harbor
1:53:55 Mission 8: The Gate To Tergiverse IV
2:30:02 Mission 9: The Hydration Plant
2:44:14 Mission 10: The Bromid Maze
2:53:18 Mission 11: The Gate To Barathrum
3:12:49 Mission 12: Barathrum!
3:38:21 Mission 13: Landown's Interface
4:09:30 Mission 14: The Heat Increases
4:29:12 Mission 15: Rougpelt
4:35:23 Mission 16: Stockpile At The Abutment.
4:57:48 Mission 17: Fortress At Brooban's Isle
5:23:48 Mission 18: Vengeance!
5:28:10 Mission 19: The Motien Ramp
5:48:55 Mission 20: Dump
5:55:17 Mission 21: Welcome To CORE PRIME
6:06:46 Mission 22: Battle For Coordinate 6551:447
6:23:06 Mission 23: Crossing Aqueous Body 397
6:41:49 Mission 24: Breakthrough To Central Consciousness
6:58:44 Mission 25: CORE PRIME Apocalypse. Free At Last!
7:21:58 ARM Victory, Credits
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