Oil Rush

Want innovation?

You’ve got it!

Want beautiful graphics?

You’ve got them!

Want a tactically deep RTS made by a lesser known studio that provides a whole new (and rather cinematic) angle on gameplay?

Well, you’re oddly specific, but that’s here as well!

The game I am talking about is Oil Rush and my, was I impressed with it.

From the moment I loaded up the campaign of Oil Rush I was hooked. A slightly sinister gentleman, introduced as The Commander, sets the scene, explaining how the world has been flooded and the only ones left to defend what is left of civilisation is his paramilitary group – the Sharks. You are then cast as Kevin, a newly graduated Australian officer being given his first assignment against the nefarious raiders.

The game then dives into the tutorial levels, rapidly teaching you how to command your ships, build up your bases, and allocate resources. As I was launched into this, I instantly began to feel that this game was thought out a good deal more than many other current RTS games. Every one of the tutorial instructions are given with a purpose. If you are asked to move your camera it is to survey your base. If you are told to command your units it is to go on the offensive. If you get instructions on how to build base defences then you better do so (and fast)!

In fact, by the time the tutorial is over, you have crushed a local rebellion, gained the recognition of The Commander, and have been both betrayed and avenged. Far from boring me while I waited for the real gameplay to start (as is true for so many other games), the first couple of levels of Oil Rush made me feel like I’d really accomplished something and at the same time left me wanting more.

As you enter the campaign proper, the game continues to delight. In part this is due to the brilliant narrative, ever full of twists and turns. Let down by awful cut scenes, Oil Rush relies on its gameplay, which doesn’t dissapoint.

The best way to win each mission (though by no means the only way) is to capture every structure on the map. Generally you start with just one structure, although this varies from several to none at all. With that one structure you then are tasked with using the units that the structure automatically produces to capture further structures, giving you access to more unit types each with their own specialisations and abilities.

Units are controlled not as individuals but as a group and while this may seem awkward at first there is never a point where you would want to send one unit on the attack by itself. Additionally it is very simple to split units apart according to their class and shrink the group sizes further with the 25% and 50% buttons located just above the mini-map. The fact that you can only issue orders when units are docked at structures adds even more depth to the game. You having to think pretty far ahead in order to ensure that your units aren’t out in mid-ocean when your opponent is attacking your base.

Not that bases are completely defenceless without units to defend them – you’re able to build up to five towers from three categories around your base. Each of these categories specialises in defending against either light, or air based units. These towers are risky to build since they can’t function while being built or upgraded. They also require you to capture nearby oil rigs to supply the resources for their construction. Theses oil rigs cannot build towers of their own so it is common to lose whole fleets defending them in an attempt to gather enough oil to fund your defensive program.

Impressively, even while you are doing all of this, the game will continue to stun you with its beauty.

Originally designed as a show case for the spectacular Unigine engine, the graphics constantly wowed me. The waves sparkled in the sunlight, the structures seem to be tangible objects and the units themselves all look pretty slick no matter how closely you examine them. There is not a polygon in sight, and this is only at half graphics.

Furthermore the game seems determined to make you recognise this through the use of the “F” key. Upon pressing it, the game will switch to a cinematic camera shot and pan around the area on the map where it believes most of the action is happening. Now occasionally this feature doesn’t work, the camera instead choosing to pan around an unused structure, but generally speaking, the effect is spectacular and leaves me all the more jealous of people with 3D enabled PCs (another feature Oil Rush is set up for).

Once you are done with the campaign, it is well worth checking out the single and multiplayer aspects of the game for a little extra challenge.

Despite lacking the narrative of the campaign, the additional maps are ingeniously well-thought out. They range from very basic, open maps, where you have to deal with attacks on multiple fronts, to maps that are basically mazes where aircraft are essential to navigating over the mountain peaks poking out of the sea to rapidly reinforce your troops.

The games, especially against human players, are intense. It would be all too easy to lose track of time very quickly while playing Oil Rush simply because you constantly have to be concentrating in order to cope with and compensate for enemy attacks. Most importantly, it remains fun even outside of the campaign and at no point does it feel repetitive.

This isn’t to say that the game doesn’t have its problems. The aspect that irked me the most was the afore mentioned cutscenes. These were composed of (with the exception of the first one) a poorly made computer-generated picture of the speaking characters while the camera zoomed in on them. For a game that prides itself on being pretty, these were really quite ugly to look at.

Then there was the fact that sometimes I would click on buttons in-game for quite a while and nothing would happen, especially when trying to build towers. Also, I think that one of the in-game achievements should almost certainly be finding someone else to play with online, as there almost never seems to be anyone on – a pain once you have exhausted the single player campaign.

However, none of these niggles really detract from the game itself. Sure it is a little rough and unfinished around the edges, but it’s an experience well worth the time of any RTS fan.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some oil platforms to conquer.