Impossible Creatures

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Tags : game review, impossible creatures

Impossible Creatures In recent years, more and more Real Time Strategy (RTS) games have been popping up all over the market. Unfortunately, most of them have pretty much similar basic gameplay mechanics: collect resources, build buildings, build troops, fight it out with your opponent(s) until someone eventually lasts longer. Of course, most RTS games try to play around with the formula by introducing more unique gameplay mechanics in order to make the game appealing. However, in my opinion the most unique gameplay mechanic of all that has been introduced into an RTS game in recent times is the one in Impossible Creatures, an RTS game developed by Relic and published by Microsoft back in year 2002.

Despite being a 5 year old game, that doesn't make this game too outdated (Starcraft is almost 10 years old and is still being played competitively nowadays). It has an extremely unique gameplay mechanic: it allows you to create your own army before an actual match, and the way in which you do this is what's special. Basically, you're given a database of around 70 animals and insects (if you download the free Insect Invasion expansion that is), all of which have different stats (size, health, damage, ability to fly/swim, etc). From there, you then have to mix 2 creatures together to form a single unit. You are able to determine which animal's head, torso, front and hind legs and tail you want on your resultant creature. For example you could have a dog with a whale's head or an owl with a beetle's torso. Every small detail affects your resultant animal in big ways. For example if you decide to include a crocodile's tail on a land animal, that creature will become an amphibious creature, allowing you to swim and move around on land. If you give a dog an eagle's wings, it will be able to fly. This sounds next to absurd, hence the game's title Impossible Creatures. You then have to create 9 different creatures to form your army, and even then there are other things to consider such as the level of research of each creature and the cost required to build them in game.

All this might sound very complicated, but in my opinion that's what gives this game such a deep and unique gameplay. The reason being that practically no two people will have exactly the same army, because there are an infinite number of possible combinations. Even if 2 people choose to mix the exact same 2 animals out of around 70 of them, the different parts of the animals you choose will still affect the resultant creature's stats and price and even research level. This is important because you start off at research level 1 at the beginning of any game, this means you can only build creatures of that research level. As you collect more resources (coal and electricity), you'll be able to gradually research higher levels up till level 5 when you can finally build your most powerful (and expensive) creatures. This then opens up even more possible tactics for the player to take. Some players might choose to have more level 1 creatures so that they can rush (attack in the early stages of the game) their opponent and hopefully clinch an early victory, or others might have more level 5 creatures and possibly use towers to defend their base in the early game until they can tech up to higher levels so that they can quickly produce more powerful creatures. The possible scenarios and outcomes are endless due to the different armies.

However, while the gameplay itself might still be fresh, the graphics certainly aren't. Don't get me wrong, this game is by no means ugly, but they just don't look too good 5 years later. Still, Starcraft uses 2d sprites and people are still playing that game, so I'm not going to complain about the graphics of Impossible Creatures. The sound effects on the other hand is top notch, save for some corny voice acting. There's nothing much for me to comment about the sound, though the animals will all produce very authentic sounds when you click on them or order them to move around, which is a nice touch.

Unfortunately, despite having such a unique gameplay and a fresh idea in a market full of RTS clones, Impossible Creatures never really caught on. It might be because of the name itself, as well as the fact that the box art makes it seem like a game intended for children. By no means does that mean that no one's playing the game anymore. There's still a large community for it which is still releasing their own mods for the game which adds even more creatures to the game and tweaks some of their stats. For anyone looking for a breath of fresh air when it comes to RTS games, I'd definitely recommend you check out Impossible Creatures.

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