I think the best way to describe Grey Goo is to point you in the direction of old-school RTS games such as StarCraft and Command & Conquer. Grey Goo is developed by Petroglyph Games, the developers of the superb Star Wars RTS Empire at War, so these guys have a good amount of experience in the strategy genre. The game revisits classic mechanics and gameplay styles that were more used in the 90’s which centralise on more on macro-management rather than micro-management. The game’s victor is decided not by who can manage their individual squads or vehicles best, but rather those with flawless supply chains and a constant stream of soldiers to enter the meat grinder. Grey Goo is a classic RTS through and through, and is right at home with the old-school fans and even newcomers to the genre.
Grey Goo is – at its heart – a game of actions per minute and building as many units as you possibly can. As soon as I can take over the controls, I’m building my refinery and beginning my supply chain, followed very closely by a silo to store my gathered resources and a factory to build my units. The second they’re done, I’m constructing as many units as the queue will allow (or my resources will allow!). Then, I do what any classic RTS commander does and send them out into the fog of war.
My first ever game in Grey Goo was in the single-player campaign, as with most single-player games it’s a one-on-one situation in which you have to complete set objectives, and sometimes it was wave-based defence. I found the campaign missions that I played to be quite enjoyable, with good voice acting, no intrusive big text boxes for when I wanted to concentrate on the battle, and outstanding cutscenes with impressive pre-rendered animations and graphics. Multi-player has the classic free-for-all or team based annihilation, with games lasting 30 to 40 minutes, sometimes an hour if it’s just an all out war in which all players are producing just as much as each other.
The way that Petroglyph handle resources are interesting, however, as there is only one resource type in Grey Goo – Catalyst. Catalyst is the life blood of everything you do, you need it to build buildings, build units, upgrade units, power everything, and research new technologies. This makes it stand out in the RTS genre, as usually there’re 2 or 3 resource types which go into building and maintaining your base (such as in Company of Heroes, where there’s manpower, supply, and munitions). As with most RTS games you can track how much you’re spending and losing, meaning you have to balance out our income/outcome rate of Catalyst to stay a contender in the war. If you’re spending too much, you might have to destroy some units or buildings, temporarily halt production of something until you can find another source to tap into. If you lose too much, you’ll end up running yourself into a total production block. No more Catalyst means, no more units. That makes it a good tactic to target enemy Catalyst production first, rather than their factories.
Grey Goo allows you to build multiple unit types. 4 in each of the 3 categories. Light units consist of regular soldiers, small scout battlesuits and so on. Heavy units are what you’d expect – tanks, heavy walkers, those fun toys. Air units are – again – self explanatory, with different aircraft doing different roles. There conflict in Grey Goo is cantered around two factions – the hardy warriors known as the Beta, and high-tech future humans. Each faction has their own unique look to them, the Beta has a very industrial look with traditional soldiers slinging their weapons over their shoulders, whilst the humans appear to have an aversion to the ground and love hover technology.
The Beta use mobile bases to set up new headquarters – much like the British did in Company of Heroes, and this provides a few uses such as being able to bring your supply lines closer to the main front. Humans prefer to be more centralised, they have a single reactor powering all of their sub-buildings, making it one giant base with what could potentially be long supply lines. Despite their looks being distinct visually, their technology trees and mechanics are very similar unfortunately. It’s understandable that some units will be similar in games like this – it’s a given, in fact, but there isn’t much in the way difference between the two armies. I had to consult the in-game encyclopaedia to learn that the units do have different stats, so if there was variation in the way of representing that then it’d make those armies even more interesting.
The final faction in the game is eponymous, they’re just known as ‘The Goo’. They’re interesting but frustrating to play, the ‘Mother Goo’ can be plopped on some resource pools and they replicate. The Mother Goo can split in that creepy-yet-fascinating mitosis style to form other units (or even another one of itself!). The Mother Goos serve as production bases, essentially. The developers have designed the Goo so that they are reminiscent of the Zerg from StarCraft, they’re the game’s rushing army yet the way they’re built and gather supplies is unique. Their looks are also something quite creepy, a mix of mechanical and biological, I’d imagine they’re actually quite terrifying to look at if you’re a poor Beta or human on the ground that’s been stuck facing one. The issue with the Goo is that they’re supposed to be a faction with whom you can rush and overwhelm your enemy, but there is no way to automate unit production unlike the other two factions in the game. Instead, the game forces you to micromanage which sort of goes against what the rest of the game shows off, and what I thought the playstyle was.
Ultimately, Grey Goo is strongest when it’s taking the old ideas and mechanics of RTS and refining them into a beautiful and modern game. Petroglyph – for the most part – have taken those mechanics and have managed to take away the micromanagement woes of older games and have left just the excellent strategy. Honestly, I do wish that the developers made the Beta and humans more interesting so that they matched the Goo’s mystery, however the Goo do present a new an interesting way to combat the other factions, as their playstyle is completely different. Grey Goo, as an RTS, is outstanding. It’s probably the best RTS to be released in recent years, even better than games like Company of Heroes and StarCraft II in my opinion, as it’s taken the best of both and combined them into one.