Krush Kill 'N Destroy Xtreme Reviews

Old school RTS. Classic fun

[h1][i]"Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery – it's the sincerest form of learning."[/i] ~George Bernard Shaw[/h1] All the science aside, it does feel like time is inconstant. There are periods when it feels like nothing's happening. Yet there are other periods too. Periods when sh*t begins to hit the fan. The 90s was that kind of period. At least for real-time strategies. In only a few years, the whole market changed [i]dramatically[/i]. [i]Boom![/i] It's 1992. [b]Westwood Studios[/b] releases their [b]Dune II[/b], which shapes the genre the way we know it. [i]Boom![/i] It's 1994. [b]Blizzard[/b] makes [b]Warcraft[/b]. A fantasy take on the formula that introduces us to things like upgrades. [i]Boom![/i] It's 1995. [b]Command & Conquer[/b] takes over the world and [b]Warcraft II[/b] arrives in all of its online glory. So much life-changing stuff in only three years. Crazy times. Today, though, we won't be talking about life-changing releases. Today we'll talk about imitations. I don't think I'll surprise anyone when I say that every major success leads to some copycats. Heck, there's a whole country that makes a living by selling cheap imitations. And since these were times when making a AAA game didn't require one of those crazy budgets we have today... You know where this is going. [b]C&C[/b] and [b]Warcraft[/b] ended up being among the most imitated titles out there. [b]Krush Kill 'N Destroy[/b] was among those imitations too, of course, but it's not really that simple. Because instead of copying one game? [b]KKND[/b] went out and copied three. The main dish is, of course, [b]C&C[/b]. We've got a similar UI, [b]Dune II[/b]-like gameplay, and even the fat-ass units akin to, say, the [b]Mammoth Tank[/b], are here. [i]But[/i]. First of all, it's hard not to notice the [b]Wasteland[/b]-like setting. Sure, you may say that simply calling a post-nuclear game [b]Wasteland[/b]-like is unfair, and yeah, sure, you'll be right. But the thing is – [b]KKND[/b] didn't just introduce us to a post-nuclear world, it actually copied [b]Wasteland[/b] in pretty much everything, including its humor and that certain mecha scorpion. If anything, mood-wise it felt [i]exactly[/i] like [b]Fallout[/b] a few months [i]before[/i] [b]Fallout[/b] was out. Now, what about the third game? The third game that inspired [b]KKND[/b] was... Well, I've already mentioned it – [b]Warcraft[/b]. And I'm not talking about the fact that one of the factions here looks suspiciously like orcs (in this game we choose between so-called [b]Survivors[/b] who lived in nuclear bunkers and finally came back to claim the surface, and [b]Mutants[/b]), I'm talking about... OK, OK, I've mentioned that too – upgrades. Like [b]Warcraft[/b], [b]KKND[/b] allows us to upgrade structures. Long story short, you build a special structure and use it to improve the others. Which will unlock things like the map (yes, the map won't be available by default) and new units. Resource gathering is similar to [b]Warcraft[/b] too. Meaning stationary mines (oil derricks in our case) instead of the "spice" fields ([b]C&C[/b] would use that mechanic only in its [b]Generals[/b] incarnation). That's pretty much it. That's [b]KKND[/b] for you. It's a [b]C&C[/b] clone in a [b]Fallout[/b]-like setting with upgrades. Doesn't sound that impressive, but guess what? [b]KKND[/b] was actually one of those clones that managed to stand out. It had FMV elements (something that not so many bothered to imitate thanks to how it required a lot of effort), post-nuclear scenery looked quite impressive (yes, this game had [b]Lady Liberty[/b] buried in sand), and even gameplay-wise it sure had its share of strong pros. Take the AI for example. Unlike most of the other games of its kind, it won't do mindless suicide attacks. If the computer sees that it has no chance against your defense, it'll fall back and regroup. Doesn't sound like a big deal nowadays, but remember – it's 1997 we're talking about. Even [b]Tiberian Sun[/b] wasn't there yet (it would only arrive in 1999). Talking about [b]Tiberian Sun[/b], by the way. Years before [b]C&C[/b], [b]KKND[/b] introduced us to veterancy mechanics. Even your infantry had a chance to become quite a force if they lived long enough on the battlefield. Should I say that all that made the single-player experience quite exciting? And if you didn't want to play against the computer, there was always multiplayer. Which was actually cooler than you might think thanks to how this game allowed you to manually customize unit and building stats. You don't like the official balance? Feel free to change it. The way they implemented it was quite poor (we're supposed to manually edit a CFG file), but still, it was a thing. Unfortunately, there was also a fair share of cons. The AI, for example, cheated. And exactly like [b]Joey Tribbiani[/b], it wasn't even sorry. The thing is – [b]KKND[/b] was designed to be quite brutal. It aimed for the experienced audience that had already finished all of those major titles on the market and wanted more challenge. Which was a pretty neat idea if you ask me, [i]but[/i] at the same time it made the game more niche. I mean, take [b]Tiberian Sun[/b] for example. While letting us choose difficulty, it became more accessible. The difficulty options made it more versatile. [b]KKND[/b]? With its unforgiving difficulty and shamelessly cheating AI? Like I said, it was a bit too niche. And guess what? Even experienced players had things to complain about. Me, for example. I totally didn't enjoy the lack of speed settings. Sure, [b]KKND[/b] had a pretty solid pace and never felt too slow, but come on! After the tenth [b]Monster[/b], you just want [i]speed![/i] [b]C&C[/b] does that. [b]KKND[/b] does not. Still, unlike many other games of its kind, [b]KKND[/b] ended up being one of those that didn't become obsolete. You know how it is. Back in the day, we often played things just because we didn't have anything else to play. Nowadays, with more games than we can play in our lifetimes, we're supposed to choose. Lots of those copycats from the past aren't worth wasting your time on today. Unless you're a die-hard RTS fan, that is. [b]KKND[/b]? [b]KKND[/b] is one of those games that are still worth your time. It looks good (comes with that certain unique charm of 2D strategies, while vehicles are pure pre-rendered mecha porn), the atmosphere is quite awesome (you like old [b]Fallout[/b] games – you'll love it), and it has everything you may want from an old-school RTS. Plus, what we have here is the best version of the game. To make it short – there were two versions of [b]KKND[/b] released in 1997 – the original and the [b]Xtreme[/b] ones. The original version was [b]DOS[/b]-only and, for whatever reason, didn't have skirmishes. The [b]Xtreme[/b] version (which felt a lot like a quick update) fixed that, while also adding native [b]Windows[/b] support (meaning [b]SVGA[/b] visuals). It also added 20 new missions which you can play in addition to the main campaign. And the best of all? Despite being meant for much older versions of [b]Windows[/b], this version runs perfectly fine on modern systems. No problems launching the game, no crashes, [b]Alt+Tab[/b] works perfectly fine... They didn't add any HD patches or anything like that, but personally, that's how I like it. You want some third-party stuff? It's easy to add manually. This here is, like, the perfect way to make you finally forget about your old CD. And yes, some of us actually kept using those. Just because, like I said, [b]KKND[/b] is one of those games that passed the test of time. And I guess there's a moral in this story. There's no real need to make revolutions every next day. Sometimes, a careful and smart imitation is more than enough.