Genetic modification
One of most interesting aspects of Genesis Rising is the units that it offers. These space craft don't sport solid metal bodies, but are organically grown from strands of DNA. They are intricately designed with the finest detail and thus make the game far more compelling than playing with a standard set of units. The main unit in the fleet is the mother-ship, which has the ability to produce other units, such as light and heavy fighters, and resource collectors. There isn't a comprehensive choice of units on offer, which you see in many RTS games, but the reason for this becomes apparent when you encounter your first battle and realise just how much micro-management there is to think about. These units can be upgraded by collecting genes allowing you to modify these organic ships in the laboratory, where you can watch them evolve and morph in real-time right in front of your eyes as you add new features to each of the craft, such as speed boosts, long range rockets, healing and defensive abilities. The concept of genes is made more interesting by the fact that you can mix and match genes to create more powerful combinations that will aid you in battle. The whole genetic manipulation idea provides strategic freedom for the player, and the laboratory menu, where you manipulate and add these genes to your fleet of ship, is both well designed and fun to use.
Click for larger imageThe resource in Genesis Rising is blood, which you'll need to trade and form alliances, recover health, upgrade units and produce new units. This is harvested through using your organic spaceships to suck the blood from the carcases of enemy space-craft using resource collecting ships.
The range of strategic options in Genesis Rising is humongous and choosing how you divide your blood between gene production, trading, healing, research and ship production can be slightly overwhelming, but there's a large degree of experimentation at your fingertips, which should appeal to expert RTS gamers.
Click for larger imageFor all its effort in trying to innovate, Genesis Rising gets one aspect of the gameplay totally wrong. Whenever you insert a gene into your ship you can use the weapon or capability in battle. The problem is that many of the special weapons need to be activated before you can use them. So, you need to hold down the space bar to bring up the list of gene icons, which you've previously applied to your craft, and then click on the ability or weapon you wish to use, and then finally you need to left click on an enemy ship to activate the ability. This level of micro-management becomes truly frustrating and is made worse by the fact that you have to do this for every unit in your fleet. On top of this you need to move your individual fleet members into attacking or defensive positions. It's not about the complication of these actions, it's just about how many actions you need to perform and how little time you have in battle to go through all these processes; it left me flustered on many occasions.