Terra Nova is Looking Glass' forgotten classic that remains to this day one of the best squad-level first-person games ever made. Set in the far future of mankind where inter-planetary wars are rife, you must take charge of a crack unit of Strike Force commandos trained to follow your lead in the battle between Centauri colonists and the oppressive Earth Hegemony.
The number of innovations Terra Nova introduced to the first-person shooter (FPS) genre is numerous. For starters, you must choose up to 3 other commandos to be your squadmates in most missions. Each commando has his or her own statistics, and has different "specialty," e.g. recon experts are good at spotting enemies and moving undetected, while demolitions experts are indispensable in missions that call for the bombing of enemy structures. Choosing the right team is therefore crucial.
As soon as your squad land on the ground, the amazing depth of Terra Nova becomes apparent in the wide variety of commands you can give to your squadmates. Unlike other FPS games, these commands are not just inconsequential "icing on the cake," but do spell the difference between success and failure. You can employ 'fire and maneuver', diversions and other squad combat tactics, or split your squad up into groups and send them on special missions. Your can order your squadmates to fire at will, fire at target of your choice, or even request a repair expert to fix failing systems in your battle armor suit as you take damage from enemy fire. The action is always fast, furious, and captivating in a lush, realistic terrain with stunning atmospheric effects: rain falls, lightning strikes and clouds race across alien skies.
The 3D vistas, in SVGA mode with full detail on, rivals any game made in the same period. And as if that is not enough, you can see the drama of the campaign unfold in full motion video sequences, believably performed by real actors. With 39 missions plus a scenario editor for creating your own combat adventures, Terra Nova grabs hold and doesn't let go. Training missions ease beginners into the game, while veterans will cut their teeth on "hard" difficulty level. Too bad not many modern FPS games pick up on its novel concepts of co-operative play -- although Dynamix' Tribes is a worthy spiritual successor.
If you are a FPS fan or anyone interested in a good mix of strategy and action, Terra Nova is simply a must have. Highly recommended.
Review By HOTUD
Comments and reviews
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (GOG)
https://archive.org/details/terra-nova-strike-force-centauri-gog
Real great game. Had to learn a lot of english therms until I understood the complex gameplay and the many different tasks of the missions. If you're familiar with the arming procedure, the squard tactics and comands, the different weapon types etc. it's absolutely entertaining and also thilling.
The communication with the squard members while the mission is absolutely cool, as well as the large maps.
who the hell is still holding the rights to this game that they feel the need to still charge $6????
Look at you hacker, pathetic creature of meat and bone.
hey man you know you can expand the view to nearly full screen right? just press "F"
Loved this game, so much i found Looking Glass's phone number, and rang them up to ask of they were making a sequel to this game, the answer i got back was, not enough sales to warrant a sequel.
Highly under-rated game. While my friends were playing Mechwarrior, I was playing this game. I kept telling them it was really good, but they never tried it. I found it really entertaining having a squad cruise around with me and being able to tell them to go do stuff. Eventually you become very OP in the game, but you are put against stuff that tests how OP you really think you are. The story is good, jump-jetting around is fun, but the game doesn't have enough longevity. There's an "instant action" mode that just dumps you in a small map with random enemies to kill, but not much more then that. The other gripe is that the playable view area is so tiny.. a goggle-sized view with a lot of wasted screen real-estate. But, developers did that in order to try to increase performance and graphical quality without having to do fullblowing 640x480 or what-not. Still, a really entertaining game.
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.