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Shelled!

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Developer: Red Thumb Games
Publisher: Red Thumb Games
Genre: Action > General
Released: Aug 26, 2006
Players: 8

Scorched Earth fans may have a new �€œmother of all games�€?. Red Thumb Games is in the process of developing a real-time, action strategy game, going by the name of Shelled!. Despite the popularity of games like Tanks, Scorched Earth, Worms, and Gorilla, there haven�€™t been many follow-ups in that genre that carry much originality. Running on the Torque Engine, Red Thumb Games is changing that around with their high-quality take on the classic genre that made action strategy games popular.

There isn�€™t a plot for this game, so far, and it doesn�€™t need one. This is all about the on-screen action that takes place among the eight turtle-shelled tanks. Before starting the game you can choose the color of your turtle-tank, and other graphical/audio related settings. The actual game itself is played with the mouse and is fairly easy to use and get the hang of. If you�€™ve ever played a game like Scorched Earth, then you already know about charging up the power meter that determines the firing distance. Like in previous games similar to this, players can use the mouse to aim the tank�€™s turret. As the power meter is being charged, the view switches to first-person for aiming efficiency. In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, there�€™s an aerial, 3D rotating view of the player�€™s selected tank. This view is important because while aiming or flying, due to the game being in real-time, players are easily susceptible to an attack from any of the seven other competitors. The 3D view helps the player spot incoming attacks and gives an added measure of strategy to the overall gameplay.

For those unfamiliar with the play-style, players can choose a scenario or play-field and have at it with seven other CPU bots (or humans via on-line play). Since the game takes place in real time, anyone and everyone can lob shells at one another without time unit or turn-based restrictions. The second or third mouse buttons can be used to thrust the turtle-tanks into the air via jump-jets and the keyboard directional buttons maneuver the aerial turtles. (Though notably Aerial firing isn�€™t an option) There�€™s a limitation on the use of jump-jets through a colored bar that indicates whether the turtle tank is overheating. After jump-jetting, players will have to wait for the bar to cool down before using the jets again.

Like some newer iterations of Scorched Earth, Shelled is completely rendered in 3D. The environments are lush with indentation/destructive effects from shells and their explosions. The destructible terrain is cool and even affects the way the tanks are positioned on the map. Just like in Scorched Earth, there�€™s also score tabs that determine what armament you can afford from the weapon shop, in-between rounds. One of the more key differences is the golden shells that are scattered throughout the maps. When shot, they give you $10,000. Since the game takes place in real-time, there is a timer for each round. When time runs out, whoever has the most frags, wins. Depending on how many frags and/or how many golden-turtles were collected, players receive money they can spend on new super-weapons. Even though the game is still in development, there was a bevy selection of goodies to arm my turtle-tank with:

Jumbo Shot: This is a bigger version of the standard turtle-rounds. They provide a bigger bang for your buck and are far less expensive than some of the other weapons.

Slider: This is a cool shell that slides on the ground with a designated denotation time. Instead of blowing up on impact, the Slider�€™s continued momentum was good for hard-to-reach opponents.

Nuke: One of the coolest weapons on the game. The Nuke allows players to do massive damage to enemies within the surrounding radius of the blast.

High-Five: This is a kick-butt weapon that fires five tank shells at once and can easily dispatch of an enemy in one firing.

Three-Shot: Like the High-Five, the three-shot provides you with three high-powered shells that can do a good deal of damage.

Leveler: Honestly, I never liked weapons that affected the geological structure in Scorched Earth. However, given the 3D structure in Shelled, the leveler worked out pretty well when the mounds were too high.

Rocket: This was one of the baddest, most destructive weapons on the preview build. This mean rocket will give you the satisfaction of easily dismantling other turtle-tanks. The only down-side to this weapon is that it requires a good deal of accuracy to be fully effective.

Aside from the weapons, the battlefields were well designed, with moving clouds and well textured terrain. The music that played during the bouts matched the colorful environments and jolly looking tanks. Overall the destructible terrain, the amazing graphics and the colorful visual schemes produced by Red Thumb Games makes for a great presentation. With the release set for the third quarter of 2006, players can look forward to 20 battlefields, free battles on-line, and enough game options and death-matching fun to last for quite some time. Shelled is definitely shaping up to be a sure smash-hit.

By: William Usher
Posted: Tuesday July 04, 2006