Meridian: New World

It's nice to have something other than C&C to take place in slightly-sci-fi RTS genre, but this one is lacking too much to be enjoyable:
- no zoom, no rotation (building for sure, maybe even no map rotation)
- pathfinding is bad
- looks very generic, and unit weapons system does not make it better — it takes some effort to identify what kind of unit is that: AT, AP or AA
- Cutsenes ignore volume settings and deafeningly loud
Get next one instead, squad 22

been playing this game 13 hrs not a real bad game. but theres no key configuration . can not have control of the map view . feel like there's no really no turial of how to play the game u have to figure out yourself what to do its a cheap game but fun

Tried to open the game on Windows10, game instantly crashes after a couple of seconds on the first loading screen.
Tried to open the game on Linux (NixOS), game doesn't even open.
Tried to find a solution using the game's built in error reporter and it had no suggestions for a fix.
Tried to look for a solution online, but none matched my description and the game isn't particularly popular so there weren't that many results to begin with.
Tried verifying the integrity of the files using the Steam client as well as re-installing the game but neither worked.
Tried to run the .exe of the game directly as another user (adm) but nothing happened.
Tried to run the game in compatibility mode for Win7, WinVista, WinXP (sp3) but all encountered the same error.
No point in attempting further troubleshooting steps on a game I no longer feel any will to play.

You're not real. You're copies of people out here in the world.
The Island (2005 film)

Yes's:
Metal music
Fun strategy
Polished and bug-free
Interesting ability casting
Sick story


No's:
Worst squad ai and pathing in any game in history besting even the bullshat in Battlezone or the pathing in the original Dune. Your units are fak ing braindead suicidal. The amount of time I lost having to to reload a save because my squad engaged on it own...

3.5/5 jesus h c don't play this if you are not an rts nerd

Perhaps a great game to submit for a school project or contest; however, it certainly doesn't fall to par with other RTS games. A great deal of time and effort was put into the visual aesthetics, but the underlying game seemed basic and trivial. Some functions may or may not work; deleting a building via the DEL Hotkey (didn't work) nor clicking on the button-icon for it. Skirmish game at Easy AI proved to be cumbersome; only to spam units in one area to defend your base in order to build or evolve through the technologies. Units seemed to go wherever they want to go despite selecting Hold Ground, a group will attack one, that one will proceed to follow as the rest of the group will remain behind. Definitely a great achievement for a one-man project (per many of the comments already posted), but one-man can get tired over time and become sloppy... as mentioned before, a lot of time was put in on the visuals but not too much time on the game AI or the mechanics.

This is probably the worst game I have in library.

If you want to, in any way shape or form, have a conventional RTS experience, this game isn't for you.
If you want to have an unconventional, but fun RTS experience, this game isn't for you.
If you think that devs should make sensible design decisions, this game isn't for you.

I'm not going to drag you through the mechanics of this game, but I'll hightlight what is definitly wrong with this and probably won't be fixed unless they completely rebuild the game:

1. Grouping.
Your units are placed in a grid and occupy square spaces of the same size for all units. This doesn't have to be a bad thing necessarily, however, if you cannot pass through your own units and paths sometimes only give you two possible squares to move through, it becomes a real pain to maneuver.

2. Movement.
The movement in this game is abyssmal. Aside from having extreme difficulties to effectively select units, you will also encounter problems with the pathfinding of each unit. Because your own units are impassable, you may find paths in which all movement comes to a halt. If you select an area to move to, the units will get predetermined places to stand on. However, if the units in the front will have the closest squares in that area and the path is narrow enough so that they block the movement for your other units, the other units will just quit moving altogether, which results in a split of all units and not even close to the positioning the game previews. That units will never attack while moving also results in some shitty combat encounters.

3. Level design
From what I've played, there have been multiple missions in the campaign that will result in extremely unfavorable matchups against the AI. This wouldn't be too bad if the base mechanics were reasonably well designed. However, with the current implementation of them, some missions get either near impossible even on easy difficulties or result in very long spans of micro-ing every single unit into the correct position.


Verdict:
I can't conceive of a single reason anyone would want to play this game. Don't buy this, not even on sale.

At first, looks nice. Path-finding is a little goofy.
You need everything to manage yourself. Example: resources units. they will laze around after one task is finished. No way of giving a command chain.
Just like first C&C. In every aspeckt. But the path-finding...

But hey, little studio.
Nice missions. Funny campaign.
But now, last mission, gamebreacker:

First game I looked for cheats. Because they are needed.
Last mission is no fun. Till today I never beaten it.

Noob?
No, old C&C, CoH, Supreme Commander, Warhammer...

This mission is entirely scripted and adapts so you will have nearly no chance.
Noob?
No they give you less resources, stock units, no research and 3 heros who die like the flies. And these 3 must survive.
That's all?
No.
Micromanagement only, no time for anything, you got zerg-rushed all the time. You need luck and at least 2 players, better 3. (Not possible.)
1 building base, one using units and last one to safe the VIP's.

Building base?
VIP dies.

Safe VIP?
No buildings.

No Buildings?
No units/resources (unit cap).

New units?
No Resources for defensive towers.

No defensive towers?
VIP dies.

No research?
Units die.

…...

Conclusion: Waste of money.
I like challenge, but even dark souls is based on skills, preparation, plan, tactics...

Micromanagement Hell.

If you like that sort of thing, you're going to love this game.

Produce only one unit at a time. Must configure each unit you produce individually. Must manually assign individual workers to various tasks, even if workers are standing around idly. This is especially bad when you go to build new buildings. Once workers are done with a task, they're idle, which is fine as I expect to have idle workers ... to automatically do the next do-once task that pops up. Workers can not be assigned to a task via assigning them to a building. Workers seem to be unable to repair buildings. You're expected to manually heal individual units on the battlefield during combat.

What I was expecting was something more along the lines of Spellforce. What I got was something where everyone acts like they're chess pieces.

Like I said, if this is your thing, you'll have a blast. But it's not mine. Ugh.

And yes, we all know you micromanager nutters are out there. "What's this? That soldier will stand around and get shot unless I tell him to shoot back? (Cums a little in his pants) Oooh, yeah, baby! I LOVE THIS GAME!"

Lol, brought this game years ago in Alpha status... still not finished and 0 updates ever.. They are now bringing out a new Meridian I would have to pay for again.... FIX YOUR FIRST GAME avoid

Simply put, this game is awful to actually play. If that's all you need from a review, you can stop here. If you want to know WHY this game is awful, keep reading.

1. Storyline
The story is pretty uninspired. It's not completely terrible, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. Maybe it gets better, but I couldn't get too far due to numerous frustrations before I dropped the game. The voice acting is at best, average. WIth woodenly delivered lines, and dialogue that could have been written by a chat-bot.

2. Gameplay
This is the main problem. An average to below average plot/voice acting can often be made up for in gameplay. Unfortunately these developers seem to have forgotten how RTS' work.

Problem 1: The perspective and selection of units.
The angle of the game, and the awful awful unit boxes make it very difficult to get all your units, or select individual units, or really do basic things quickly and efficiently. Did you miss on of your units when trying to select it? Well screw you player! Because now you have NOTHING selected. Isn't that great? There are several abilities in the game that you are to use on a singular unit. This is difficult and can cause issues. Anyone who is used to a well made RTS, and want's to micro and control army effectively is in for a bad time. This however, is not the only contributor to that bad time.

Problem 2: The (lack of) pathfinding
You know when you play a game, and sometimes your unit happens to go a weird way around the map to the location you sent it to? Usually doesn't happen that often, and usually isn't a big deal. That's not the case In Meridian: forgotten mechanics. Do you want to move somewhere specific? They will eventually get there. Not together, not in a timely manner, but eventually. Just hope there are no enemies to fight.

What happens when there are enemies? Well I'm glad you asked! See, if you run in to an enemy, while moving around the map, chances are everyone in your dumb as hell army has separated into squads of 1. Thankfully, the enemy AI will just put them out of their misery. Now, it is possible you'll actually have your army together and want to attack. One of the basic moves in an RTS is to Attack move. In almost every RTS ever made, as soon as an enemy is in sight and range, the guns start blazing. In "Meridian: What LSD trip made us think we knew how to make a game", you will find, at almost every occasion, your units running directly at the enemy without firing. Without realizing that they are NOT some sort of kamikaze unit. Without deigning to obey your commands in a remotely satisfactory manner.

Thanks to these amazing mechanics, you often need to retreat to try to herd your dumb struck army in to a semblance of a group so you can actually play the game. In most RTS' retreat is a viable strategy. In "Meridian: Oh my GOD does anyone know how to walk?" this is nigh impossible. Retreating involves attempting to move away from the enemy. In the unlikely event your units actually manage to walk away from the enemy, you will find them immediately attempting to engage the enemy. The worst part is, the terrible pathing and AI means that they will have half trying to get back somewhere, half who are going the other way and get stuck on eachother, and no one actually firing on the enemy OR retreating. The target acquisition range is just absolutely nuts. It doesn't make sense. I've had units react to hostiles WHO WEREN"T VISIBLE YET. I'm pretty sure Chewbacca lives on Endor, because it just doesn't, make, sense.

Bonus problem:
Hotkeys. I get having your own hotkeys for your game so you can be "different" so all the cool kids will like you. But changing fundamentals like moving the hold position command from 'H' to 'E' is just plain stupid. There's many similar changes in this game. "Meridian: who even needs hotkeys anyway" decided to reinvent their hotkeys from the refined version most games have settled with, to a new pile of crap that no one wants to be in.

3. Graphics
This is the only area where Meridian: Really Shiny gets any sort of credit. I'm not saying it's a visually stunning masterpiece. But it is nice. It's vibrant. Also really shiny. Nothing to write home about, but nothing particularly bad either.

Final Thoughts: There are lots of RTS games out there. There is a reason that Command and Conquer, Warcraft 1, 2 AND 3, Starcraft 1 AND 2 are all timeless classics. There is a reason that most RTS games have similar if not identical base mechanics to each other. It's because they WORK, and they work WELL. They allow strategy, micro and macro. Meridian: Barely a functional game decided that's not necessary in their RTS. They wanted to be different, to be cool, instead everyone should be making fun of them and ignoring them.

5/10.
A late '90's style Real-Time Strategy game, with a simplistic but solid foundation.

What you can expect: Around 15 hours of fun, 90's RTS inspired nostalgia... and a bit of frustration, too. Beware that the variety of units, and some features of gameplay are very simplistic, so you will likely need to adjust to the limitations of such a basic system.

Hints:

• In the campaign, there is often an easy win condition. For example, rush to build a line of turrets at a bottle-neck; or, look for some unguarded enemy power stations; or, rescue the group of neutral units to get a bigger army.
  
• The simulation maps are great ways to pick up a few handy hints on gameplay.
  

• cannot attack while moving (can't even begin to list the strategic consequences of this)
  
• too few micromanagement options (such as no patrol option, no defend-this-building button, no action/movement queuing)
  
• Units sometimes wouldn't auto-acquire enemies that came in range.
  
• "attack towards" would first move my units forwards a few meters before attacking anything
  
• too few units and buildings (exaggerates hard counters, eg 2 rocket-launcher light tanks beats a whole army of troopers. What's worse is that because there are so few unit types theres a very good chance that this would happen. You end up needing to build 2 of everything which is just fiddly and annoying)
  
[*] Finally, I stopped playing this game after a Campaign map where the enemy has somehow amassed an army of around 100 units, and had 6 unit-producing buildings surrounded by turrets. It was an impenetrable wall of units that just kept regenerating.

This game is an RTS developed on a competitive formula and created mostly by a single person. The graphics are on par with many modern RTS titles and the gameplay is, for the most part, slick and elegant. As an RTS, its only pitfall in my opinion is a lack of factions and the ability to have team battles. The game currently lacks multiplayer, but the developer has stated that he plans on adding it in later. The campaign is a very interesting take on the RTS formula with interesting and varied missions that are actually quite challenging. It's a nice throwback to the quality of RTS that we used to see back during their inception, a la C&C and Red Alert. This is a fun game that you should support as much on principle as in practice- one guy made this game, and it's nearly as good as strong titles like Starcraft and Company of Heroes.

Think C&C but then...
-Remove all but one Faction
-Cut the unit roster down to a quarter
-Boil away all charm and personallity
-Cannibalise the UI
Learn from my mistake, save your hard earned money.

I really wanted to like this game. I really did. Two main problems keep me from doing so.

1. Babysitting. I can't send units from one part of the map to another and depend on them to get there in one piece, because they will move to that spot without fighting back against attacks on their way there. Even in Command and Conquer, units would shoot back when being attacked, but these units just march to their deaths and don't do anything to try and prevent it.

2. Dumb units. Select a unit or units to attack and enemy and will they open fire once within range? Not always. Sometimes they'll walk past the enemy to shoot from one particualr side. Why would they insist on shooting from the right rather from the left even though the left is of equal distance from the enemy and doesn't expose them to enemy fire like the right side does? Who knows, death wish?

Some odd programming choices here. Sadly, I'll be uninstalling the game.

I have enjoyed my short time in the game. For the price it is a steal. Does it reinvent RTS games? Not by a long shot, but it does stay true to the elements that make RTS games fun. So far the campaign mode has been solid and considering the size of the developer that is behind this, it is quite frankly a damn fine achivement. So if you are looking for yet another RTS to add to your collection you could choose far worse for way more money.

After playing it for three days, doing some skirmishes and getting to the last current mission (Mission 5 at the time of the review), I have to say I am very impressed. This game is really simple, but in a good way. Almost no learning curve to the basics of this game. It reminds me of Command and Conquer and the first Starcraft put together.

Pros:
*Even with only about 8 (I count the fighter and heavy fighter as one) units total, it's diverse.
-3 Units (infantry and bomber) only have 1 available weapon.
-1 Unit has 4 (Fighter/Heavy Fighter) weapon choices
-4 Units have 5 (Light/Heavy Vehicles) Choices
-(I count tier 1 and 2 weapons as one because the upgrade replaces the tier 1)

*For an RTS it has a pretty good story to it.
-In between missions you can walk around your ship and converse with the crew, run training simulations, and read about various parts of the game.

*Optamization
-As stated in another review, there are virtually no loading times. My rig is a 4 year old gaming laptop and missions and skirmishes load up in less than 5 seconds.

*Fun campaign

*Good graphics
-The graphics are really good for how smooth it is, even the cutscenes are really good looking.

Cons:
*No way to zoom in or pan the camera.
-Normally I play supreme commander, so I don't really care about panning the camera, but being unable to zoom in and out can be a minor inconvinience at times.

*Short campaign
-As fun as it is, it was over too soon, BUT!!! it is only on mission 5 so far. The dev is still adding missions in as the game progresses

*Only one faction
-I'm not even able to really speculate on whether I feel there would be another faction or not. It's too soon to tell but I don't see why there wouldn't be plans for one.

*A little buggy
-I had a start up error, but the crash report was very detailed and provided multiple troubleshooting ideas to solve the problem and they worked. This is an early access game, so bugs are to be expected.

*Pathfinding
-The AI pathfinding cand be really bad at times. I.E. I send a scout to one corner of the map and it cuts through and enemy base on the opposite side of the destination. Still good for the games current stage.

Neutral Points:
(These are neither good or bad, just some features that some people might like and others may not)
*Snipers can outrange defense turrets
*Defense turrets function like the NOD Turrets in C&C 3: Tiberium Wars (There is a central hub that is linked to turrets)
*A rank up tree (level up, get perks)
*Halowars Deathmatch style unit cap. You increase your unit cap by building structures.

All in all I do recommend this game. More so if it is on sale.

If you're a fan of RTS games, ala SC2 this game might just be for you. Is it StarCraft II??...well, no.

But this game puts a few interesting spins on the RTS formula that make it really interesting and fun to play. Instead of producing a standard unit and upgrading offense/defense from an approriate facility (this game has this feature aswell for unit specific upgrades), any weapon upgrades you research for your units can ONLY be applied when they are created. For example, you can Research upgraded cannons, rockets, lasers, railguns etc. that are purchased with the creation of your new unit (varried costs). Cannons are strong vs infantry, Rockets apply area damage, Lasers have increased range and Railguns jump to nearby units.

Also, Commander abilities add alot to gameplay (a SC2 comparison would be hero powers, but they are only usable when you have a hero and only with hero in range). Meridian's 'Commander' abilities are usable anytime and anywhere on the map not affected by fog of war. These powers do come at a cost in the form of an regenerative energy bar and vary from Direct Damage to Healing to Increased build/production rates. These abilities are trained with points you acquire when you level up.

No Multiplayer (yet at least), some pathing issues and at times questionable voice acting are the only minor concerns with this title.

NOTE: This game was for the most part made by ONE MAN in 2 years. Damn impressive.

I really, really wanted to like this game. I just can't, though.

I guess the reason for a larger team instead of one person is to point out little helpful things like... "Don't you think it's really annoying that units will just charge the whole way accross the screen to fight something?"

And... "I understand the medic scouts are fast... but it's just aggravating that they will always run to the front of the battle." In fact, that's most of this game... could have just called it formation commander. Most of it just involves trying to keep healing units from being in the front.

As for the campaign... it's tedious. It's extremely simple with hard parts that shouldn't be hard at all. At one level you're left with a tower defence portion. This killed the entire game for me. There's not enough of a story to bother spending the time it would take to beat it. You can't even adjust the difficulty... there simply isn't an adjustment. Anyways... at about level 20(of the TD mini game) I just gave up. Positioning units to protect from air attack... and then they just run off all willy nilly.

Hey, and in this part... you can't control them... No hold position function.


Seriously... I wanted to love this game... I wanted to so bad. I just can't. It looks pretty, but the mechanics are horrible.

My goodness, this is an awful game.

I see what they are trying to do, I really do. Meridian: New World is trying to be a throwback to the good old days of Westwood and Command and Conquer, and has many good ideas along the way, but it fails on too many levels to be anything but a waste of money. Poor controls, optimization, visuals, voice acting, and a general feeling of shabbiness ruin what may have, at one time, had the potential for an interesting experience.

There is the germ of good ideas here; you can customize the loadouts of individual units upon construction, which is always neat, and the story is attempting to be that rarest of beasts, a character-driven RTS. You, the player, have a branching tech tree that allows you to perfom actions like healing individual units, disable enemy vehicles, that sort of thing. The problem is, like so many games of a more indie persuasion, the good ideas fail to live up to their potential.

The customizable loadouts are a good idea, but it's done when you start building your units, meaning that by the time it's done, you may have wanted something different...but too bad! You'll need to build a new one. Compare Dawn of War, which had a fantastic loadout system.
The story is uninteresting, poorly translated into english, and with pretty awful voice acting. Normally I wouldn't mind this, but they are clearly trying to use branching, bioware style conversation trees and characterization to drive the plot. Bad voice acting undermines this goal.
The controls are slow and stiff, with painfully snail-like camera panning, and the ugly, impractical UI doesn't help. In a good RTS, your units feel alive, and responsive, and you are able to control them with precision and skill. Here, I feel lucky when they are even able to move where I want them to go. And if I wanted to change the controls to fit my needs, I have exactly two options to customize controls; mouse sensitivity and a toggle for "camera panning," a mysterious button with no discenerable effect on gameplay.

The players ability tree works well though. Kudos for that, though it was at first a little unclear how the energy bar that powers your abilities works. Unfortunately, there is only one faction (something the original Command and Conquer was able to overcome), and so the tech tree is the only source of variety you're going to get.

Moving on, the game is ugly an poorly optimized. It chugged more than games that look far better than this does, and crashes frequently. I know this is part of the early access package, but you have to keep it together if you want players to stick with it until the final release.

Finally, on a less easily described note, the game just feels...shabby. Other early access games have been able to have a feeling of beauty and vibrancy from the very beginning, but this game feels broken on a more fundamental level.

Taken as a whole, Meridian: New World is, quite, quite awful. It is the product of one man's vision, and where for some games that means a new experience, here it is clearly the work of someone in way over their head, trying to match the work of those who are far more skilled. It would take a truly gargantuan effort to make this game worth playing at its final release date, and I just can't see it happening. Take this game as an example of Steam's famously lax quality control. Or better still, don't take the game, and go play your favorite good RTS instead.

Meridian: New World is made by one developed, one! and after play the game for some time, the level of quality the game has to offer for the price it's asking is just amazing, the look and feel of the game, and the sound track is just great, it even has a high quality single player campaign with full of voiced characters. I'm not that into and not that good at RTS games, but a know a good one when i play one.

More info at: http://www.ksalue.com/main/2014/04/game-shock-meridian-new-world/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bfE3pqdnzE