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 106 ratings with 10 reviews)

THIS GAME WILL NEVER DIE

The Good
This game was one of the first games I brought totally for myself, a very selfish thing to do yes, but everyone who has played TA will know why. When you've created your base, and got things going it becomes your baby, your child, you watch it grow and over come the bad times, see it develop through the good times, and kick some ass. When you can upgrade and get better planes, bots, vehicles, weapons, you rejoice, and yet you keep the older, more relyable technology, the stuff that has seen off everything the enemy has thrown at you. You know you can rely on it, and it won't let you down. As you progress through the missions, you see your family of colonies grow and kick serious ass, you relish the opportunity to try out your latest weapon in combat, and watch it wipe the floor with any opponant it faces. Playing TA isn't playing a game, you are the commander, watching over the whole invasion of the universe. If you haven't guessed I feel really strongly about this game, anyone who doesn't like this game hasn't played it properly.

The Bad
I didn't like the fact that the game ended, and the fact that TA Kingdoms looked so damn right crap.

The Bottom Line
GO AND GET THIS GAME RIGHT NOW!!! IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY, WHY THE HELL NOT???? The possiblitlies with this game are massive, there are loads of bolt-ons for it on the net, and you can play online, what more do you want??

Windows · by David Lafferty (11) · 2003

It could have been so good... but no

The Good
Total Annihilation... when I first saw it, I thought it was just another C&C clone. But when I played more, I discovered that it was... well... more. The game feels good to play and there is great atmosphere of war. War with really big W. This War is played in future, and guns are now big. Really big. Graphics and sound are also very good. Units are polygon based and they look awesome. And the sound of distant explosions feels awesome. This could be the best rts-game ever.

The Bad
Unfortunately, there are millions of problems in the game. The worst is that both sides have almost identical units. There are a few differences, but changing the name and graphic doesn't make a new unit. Another problem is the resource system - the resources are virtually infinite, and if you can get enough resource input, you can, for example, put a factory creating about 100 tanks and drive them to the enemy base. Then the game balance - first it seems good. Nukes can be stopped by anti-nuke missiles, so they won't define the outcome. But then we have these cannons that can shoot from one corner of the map to another. Balanced? And the airplanes... at least they are now useful, unlike in other games, but why they must be better than land units? In a generic mission land units are for defense only - air force handles the attacking. And let's speak about defense a little more. The units can't attack what they don't see. That should be great. But radar display can be used to target and attack units unseen. So if you haven't got a few airplanes to scout out the enemy units, you'll be toast in no time. Then the difficulty level. There are missions that are way too hard. And they are not the last missions - Arm mission 8, and Core mission 6 are particularly annoying, but Arm mission 9 is then one of the easiest missions in the game. Also, most of the missions are your ordinary "destroy all opposition" missions, except a few "destroy everything but this or you'll die" missions. And "destroy all" missions tend to last long. You see, airplanes may temporarily fly out of the map - and stealth planes don't show on the radar. I, for example played a mission through in 1,5 hours. The last 30 minutes were only seeking that damn plane.

The Bottom Line
Total Annihilation had everything it needs to create awesome game, better than anything before... but it failed. It isn't a bad game, but I prefer Tiberian Sun.

Windows · by Aapo Koivuniemi (41) · 2001

Possibly the best real time strategy game ever.

The Good
The game has an incredible diverstiy of units, enabling a wide array of different strategies. You can fight full ground, air and sea battles in the course of one game. There is no "running out of resources" here, though the dynamics of your resource gathering will change as you progress up the tech tree or use up scrap metal/organic material.

Strategic elements include real-time physics, line of sight, elevation, as well as many units which have unique capabilities that contribute to the overall strategy mix.

The soundtrack is one of the best ever, a world-class symphonic score worth listening to without the game. The ability to customize the music adds even more playability - put in anything and you can assign tracks to 'battle' or 'build' music. The game also has a vast support community on the web - download more units, more maps, and other features. The latest patch will add some hotkey controls, improve the AI and increase overall playability.

At three years old, TA is still one of the best games around.

The Bad
It could use some menus to see what units you have, where they are and their status. This information is attainable, it's just hard to get it all when you need it. The AI could still be better, but there are plenty of 3rd party AIs that will prove more than a challenge. The AI doesn't matter in multiplayer. Finally, the setting is great, and a '4000 year war that has destroyed a million worlds' is quite dramatic - however the story isn't as dynamic or as involving as Starcraft. Still...that matters little when you're fighting a massive battle with dozens of units, explosions and cannon fire eminating over the blistering score. It just doesn't get much better.

The Bottom Line
Quite possibly the single best real time strategy game ever developed.

Windows · by Travis Fickett (2) · 2000

[ 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.