DOS

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri

Description

Strike Force Centauri, the premier Strike Team on Alpha Centauri, was founded to combat pirates. As Nikola ap Io, you'll be leading them into combat. But the pirates are, too, well-armed, and the Terra Hegemony may be involved. When the covert action turns overt and a full-out assault is mounted by the Hegemony upon Alpha Centauri. All that stands in the way is SFC.

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri is a first-person sci-fi combat sim featuring realistic sci-fi weapons with true 3D terrain. You control a power-suit with arm-mounted weapons: just aim (with mouse) and shoot, while move completely independently (using keyboard).

You can choose from multiple types of suits (scout, regular, heavy), multiple types of weapons (everything from simple lasers to railguns to missile launchers), multiple assistance modules (from mine layer to auto-doc), and up to three squadmates that'll follow your orders. You are pitted against enemies from pirates to tanks and mechs, even psycho clones and armed drones. Missions vary from attack and recon to rescue and defend, across three different planets in a variety of weather and terrain.

Similarly to Wing Commander 3, the game features full-motion video sequences.

Alternate Titles

• "טרה נובה" -- Hebrew spelling
• "Terranova: Strike Force Centauri" -- Common misspelling
• "Free Fall" -- Working title

Part of the Following Group

• Visual technique / style: Live-action cutscenes

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User Reviews

I am acting!	BostonGeorge (225)
A great squad-based combat game with just one problem	Roedie (5234)
Great action, good strategy and kickass gameplay!	Aamir Alavi (5)	unrated
One of the forgotten classics...	Kasey Chang (3664)	unrated
Out in the open air	Ashley Pomeroy (230)
Classic Sci-Fi Fun	Adam Baratz (1355)

The Press Says

PC Player (Germany)	Apr, 1996		100
GameSpot	May 08, 1996	9.2 out of 10	92
Coming Soon Magazine	Mar 14, 1996	92 out of 100	92
PC Games (Germany)	Apr, 1996	91 out of 100	91
PC Zone	Aug 13, 2001	9 out of 10	90
Computer Games Magazine	1996		80
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Jun, 1996		80
Power Play	Apr, 1996	78 out of 100	78
Gamezilla	Oct 10, 2000	71 out of 100	71
Gamesmania	1996	55 out of 100	55

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Trivia

Cancelled Add-on

A multiplayer add-on was planned ("Terra Nova Multi-Player Pack Coming." was written in the middle of the back of the CD booklet), although never released.

Demos

Two demos were released for Terra Nova. An early 1-mission demo with lots of missing features and a full-featured 3-mission demo later on. Interestingly enough, the 4 missions themselves do not appear in the full game and are exclusive for the demos.

Development

The development team was known as "Team Schmitty."

Ending

Upon completion of the campaign, you're shown some interesting statistics: the repair cost for your armor suit (i.e. how much damage you sustained), and the number of trees you destroyed.

Legacy

Reportedly what Looking Glass (technologies at the time) wanted to do with this game was to create an outdoors engine to complement System Shock's indoor engine and, hopefully, merge them on a third game. Was that game to be Thief: The Dark Project? Who knows...

Origin

Terra Nova apparently started out as an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's classic sci-fi novel, Starship Troopers. However, Looking Glass were unable to get the license, so came up with their own story and intricate universe, instead. The year after Terra Nova's release, Paul Verhoeven's film version of Starship Troopers hit the cinemas.

Practical Tips

The readme file suggests (just as the bartender in the FMV does) that "mixing alcaps and water makes a great imitation martini."

Sales

Although critically acclaimed, Terra Nova was a huge commercial flop. This (together with the equally unsuccessful project of 1997, British Open Golf) plunged Looking Glass in a financial crisis from which the company never recovered. Ultimately, Looking Glass had to close its doors in June 2000. (That, and Eidos was dumping $25 million into Ion Storm at the time --Ed.)

Technology

• While the game didn't officially support VR headsets, the option was available anyway. If you had a pair of Virtual IO i-glasses!, a Forte VFX1 Headgear, or a VictorMaxx CyberMaxx, you could use it to do rudimentary head tracking.
• It is one of the few games that supported the 320x400 alternate resolution mode. The terrain looks MUCH better in this mode.

Tom Downey

Tom Downey, the actor of Nikola ap Io, seems to stay loyal to his acting-style and had only little roles in several less know Movies like Dracula's Curse, Frankenstein Reborn and Shapeshifter but has also small appearances in That 70's Show and the computer game Code Blue.

Awards

• Gamespot
• One of "The top ten games you never played"

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Boston George, nullnullnull, Kasey Chang, Roedie, Sam Jeffreys and Zovni