Total Annihilation

aka: TA, Total Annihilation: Use Your Senses
Moby ID: 904
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Description official descriptions

It is 4000 years in the future, and the epic battle between the Arm and the Core has devastated the galaxy. Both sides fight on with super-advanced technology, from plasma guns to giant robots to sonar jammers. The only acceptable outcome is total victory.

You, as the Commander of either Arm or Core, must build up your base to destroy the other side, in a game developing the ideas of Command & Conquer. Unlike earlier titles in the genre, it uses a 3D world in which elevation changes have an effect.

Mission objectives range from taking out specific targets to rescuing hostages to capturing the enemy base and using it in the next mission. Usually you must construct a base, although in some missions you lead an attacking force.

Unlike other strategy games, however, you start out with the Commander, the game's most powerful unit, and must defend him at all costs. Resource collection is very quick and easy, since a single unit can extract metal indefinitely from a mine without ever having to return to your base, while options for producing energy include solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, and fusion power.

Spellings

  • 横扫千军 - Simplified Chinese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

96 People (88 developers, 8 thanks) · View all

Project Leader
Design
Art Lead
Assistant Producer
Game Programming
Programming
Additional Design
Musical Composition
Sound Design
A.I. Programming
Producer
Lead Mission Design
3D Units & Buildings
Movie Supervisior
Movie Team
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 90% (based on 27 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 107 ratings with 10 reviews)

The Best RTS Game Ever!!!

The Good
This game is NOTHING like Command and conquer. Its much better in every way.... the units of the two sides, the Arm and the Core are almost identical but each unit is designed excellently. It has proved better than C&C in many ways:

The movements of each unit is realistic; far better than the animation you see in command and conquer...i.e u cant kill a unit when ur pointed in another direction.

The units will attack aircraft whether it is capable of destroying it or not instead of watching a Rapier Destroy its undefended base

The bigger and better units take large resources and time to build; Besides taking a long time to move/build/fire, preserving a sense of balance in the game. The Big bertha, though an incredibly powerful cannon with long range has many weaknesses like it is easily destroyed, it cant fire close range, it is VERY inaccurate.

The explosions and the ability to reclaim resources from destroyed units is awesome.

The Bad
The only thing i can think of is that the unit sounds are a bit repetitious. But its the same in C&C right?

The Bottom Line
This game is NOT for players who would rather sit in a corner and build and build and build.....until he finally feels ready to attack and destroy. attack early and effectively and u will have an advantage. attack at different points on the base, ensuring that the enemy cant build stronger weapons like the Big Bertha/Intimidator or the retaliator/silencer which will probably send your commander to kingdom come.

Windows · by Sharon I (2) · 2002

The best RTS game ever made. Get it.

The Good
Of all the Real Time Strategy games ever made, Total Annihilation is not just the best; it's miles better, better by exponential degrees. Games like "Starcraft" and "Red Alert" simply don't compare.

The game's campaigns are decent, offering a wide range of battles to practice various aspects of the game, but what makes TA better than any similar game is the amazing depth and balance of the combat system and what it offers to a multiplayer environment.

With expansion packs, (and it's now sold with them), TA offers the player more than 150 unique units and buildings, each of which has a particular role to play in the game. The key to the game, and the genius, is that no one unit can succeed in a major battle on its own. Players must master all units and use them in combined arms strategies for maximum effectiveness. Unlike many RTS games, there's no one juggernaut here; even the mammoth "Krogoth" superunit is helpless if left without supporting arms.

Also unlike most RTS games, the game's different units are actually different. Rather than being just a tradeoff between expensive vs. effective, TA units have wildly varying abilities, and so must work in teams. Some units can mow down ground troops but are helpless against air units; some can lob artillery shells but can't fight in close; all units need specialized radar and jamming support. Going with one type of unit is a sure road to catastrophe.

Multiplayer TA games between evenly matched players are multi-hour festivals of destruction. The game is perfectly balanced, allowing for combat and base development in just the right amounts to keep the pace up without being overwhelming. The construction system is simple but requires planning and attention to overall strategic goals.

The game is easily the most fun and rewarding RTS game available for a PC. The preceding comment might make it sound confusing, but it is not; it's remarkably easy to play, and so the player is given a chance to experiment with a huge variety of tactics and strategies to determine which works best in what situation. Get this game, get some friends who want to play it, and you'll be playing it for years.

The Bad
TA really has no significant weaknesses.

Unfortunately, its creator, Cavedog, seems to be falling apart; they've produced nothing for almost a year (as of Jan. 2001) and so the prospect of more units and maybe even a TA 2 seem thin.



The Bottom Line
The best RTS game on the market. Fun, addicative, challenging, with virtually endless replay value. As a multiplayer game it might be teh best game of ANY type.

Windows · by Rick Jones (96) · 2001

Stood the test of time?

The Good
The game offers a wide variety of naval and plane units. Ground units are represented by vehicles and Kbots, Kbots represent infantry. The unfortunately legendary tank rush of red alert is not repeated in this game, one unit can't survive on a attack of its own. Mobile artillery can't shoot a close range but is essential for support. The heaviest tanks such as the penetrator, bulldog and goliath need support of they get taken out by the long range cannons (big bertha/intimidator), planes are needed to take these out, early units have to be reused to draw fire off of the bigger tanks. The units are well balanced and the music while in combat gives a adrenaline rush.

The Bad
When the game is nearly at its end and two stealth planes are flying around and they have to be killed to attain victory it can be very annoying.



The Bottom Line
Yes it has stood the test of time and I still play it today with the downloadable units and good expansion packs. Also programs which allow you to make your own maps and units and profile your own AI are present on the taus.tadesigners.com site.

GET IT.

Windows · by Peter Clark (9) · 2003

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Total Annihilation appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

Total Annihilation was based on an idea for a game project leader Chris Taylor first thought of at the age of 14.

Mods

Total Annihilation has a massive base of users who customize and modify the game. Among these is a group called Swedish Yankspankers. This group developed an open source engine that plays multiplayer Total Annihilation in full 3D. They can be reached at http://springrts.com/.

Sales

Total Annihilation was a success for Cavedog:

Seattle, WA, October 30, 1997 -- Total Annihilation, Cavedog Entertainment's groundbreaking 3-D real-time strategy game, was simultaneously launched in three languages and 14 countries on September 27, blasting more than 250,000 games into retail stores during its first month of release.

Title

While in development, before the name Total Annihilation was chosen, the game was referred to as Really Cool War Game. This name was reused for an April Fool's Day joke in 1999, when Cavedog Entertainment supposedly had to rename all their trademarks, including the game's name, due to "a legal snafu with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office".

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – #50 Top Game of All Time
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #80 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
  • PC Gamer
    • 1997 or 1998 - Greatest Game Of All Time
    • April 2000 - #17 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games Poll"
    • April 2005 - #34 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/1998 - Most Stunning Music in 1997

Information also contributed by casimps1; Jeanne; MachTen, Maw, PCGamer77, Rick Jones and Vitarcus

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  • MobyGames ID: 904
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Plix.

Additional contributors: Eric Barbara, PCGamer77, Adam Baratz, Robyrt, Maw, formercontrib, CaesarZX, dome_quest, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added February 25, 2000. Last modified March 6, 2024.