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Z vel Zed (Bitmap Brothers)

Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2,430
Another forgotten / underrated real time masterpiece.

Story is banal: red robots vs blue robots, is just an exuse for lulzy cutscenes.

What's special about Z is its mechanics.

Only one goal for every mission - destroy enemy's fort. Three ways to do that:

- sneak inside and sabotage it
- demolish it
- destroy every enemy unit on the map (including turrets inside the fort)

What is funny, the third variant is the easiest one.

No resources. NO FUKKIN RESOURCES. Map is divided for sectors, every has a flag. Grey flag means neutrality, blue/red - being captured by Blues/Reds. To capture the flag just touch it with your unit. The more flags you capture, the faster is your production. Simple.

Conquer the sector 2 sec before new vehicle will leave the factory - he's yours.

Vehicles are reusable. Instead of destroing them by explosives, u can just shoot da driver and replace him with your own infantryman. The same with turrets.

Need a shortcut? So blow up dat mountain on your way.

It's not huge epic ultrabattle, literally every unit counts. Single tank or even jeep can tip the scales and there's no exaggeration in here. Proved. Z also gives a middle finger to gamers who like play devensive way. If you waste your time trying to build some devastating nest of turrets instead of collecting flags, you will be quickly outnumberd . Entrenching can be done after conquering the very majority o sectors but it becomes pointless at that point.

Player's maunal skills matter, you need even to set up turrent's gun in right direction to win most of 1-on-1 confrontations.

Your troops actually comment on situation on the battlefield (huge immershun boost).

Buildings can be destroyed but it's better to avoid it, just damage them to postpone enemy's production if you cannot capture the flag.

Etc. etc. etc. in a nutshell - it's a fresh and unique mixture of Command & Conquer and Cannon Fodder, with his own individual touch. In some way, it's kinda like Nether Earth's spiritual successor. StrategyOTY 1996.

Only drawback I can think of is the lack of bots for skirmishes but diz upcoming (already released?) fanmade Zremake will improve that. BTW it's available now on IOS / Android but dunno how such tricky dicky twitchy game can be played on touchscreen, seriously.



Discuss.
 

Gondolin

Arcane
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
5,827
Location
Purveyor of fine art
I remember liking this game's early battles and disliking the latter ones when losing a single engagement is fatal. It tended to kill replayability.
 

someone else

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Feb 2, 2008
Messages
6,888
Location
In the window
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Is this the one where the AI units fight better because they dodge shots? I think I quit because of this. 1 vs 1 your unit loses without your control.
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
It was entertaining, but seemed too random to me - luck often was more important than an actual strategy.
Landing a lucky shot on the driver could net a vehicle that would turn the tide of the battle.
Could happen right again of course, or not at all.
 

Eyeball

Arcane
Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Messages
2,541
Very funny and charming game with some nice action in it. I particularly liked the Southern accented lady narrator keeping you up to speed on game events, including telling you "you're crap!" if you losing ground to the enemy.
 

Zed

Codex Staff
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
17,068
Codex USB, 2014
I remember playing a demo of this from a PC Gamers disc at a friend's house. We took turns trying to beat some scenario. Quite difficult IIRC, or maybe we just sucked.
 

knightley

Educated
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
104
Bitmap Bro.'s games are far from flawless. But damn they have flair. And I always enjoyed playing their games. Especially Speedball 2, "bloody" fun.
 

garren

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
2,036
Location
Grue-Infested Darkness
I remember playing a demo of this from a PC Gamers disc at a friend's house. We took turns trying to beat some scenario. Quite difficult IIRC, or maybe we just sucked.
heh, my friend had Z too and I always went there to play it, pretty fun, but there was this one mission with some laser dudes that I never managed to beat. The game felt pretty challenging, at least then.
 

Fart Master

Savant
Joined
Oct 10, 2012
Messages
241
Played the shit out of the demo as a kid. Tried the full version earlier this year and it didn't really do anything for me.

I think the game looks really good though.
 

asper

Arcane
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Messages
2,207
Project: Eternity
Bitmap Brothers had such good visuals and sound in their games.... Not to mention the soul. :salute:
 

Nutmeg

Arcane
Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
19,783
Location
Mahou Kingdom
Some of the Relic titles (Company of Heroes, Dawn of War) were influenced by Z and have a similar territory capture mechanic.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2,430
I remember liking this game's early battles and disliking the latter ones when losing a single engagement is fatal.

First 4 levels are just tutorial, after then difficulty is increasing drastically, having its peak during City missions so you didn't like the real Z when it becomes the most crazy, fast-paced shit RTS genre has ever experienced.

Coolest tactic is to fill APC with snipers trying to disarm turrets, avoiding their shots in the meantime and finally hijacking them. Lots of pure fun.
 

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