Total Annihilation

way ahead of its time and even today a gem of a game. the "3D" graphics without actual 3D acceleration don't just look really good but also offer pixel-perfect elevation / depression instead of fixed elevation levels like in [i]age of empires[/i] and [i]command & conquer[/i]. each shell and projectile is properly calculated & rendered and can be blocked by trees, mountains and wreckage. the rubble of destroyed aircrafts falls to the ground while keeping speed and trajectory, bouncing off the ground a few times before disappearing. seeing the burnt-out wrecks of cruisers, carriers and battleships semi-submerged in the shallow waters of beaches and lagoons was mindblowing for little me and i always kept them around as decoration instead of recycling them. barrels on tanks, artillery and battleships show actual recoil and specialized units can use indirect fire to deliver attacks over ridges and other obstacles while being shielded from return fire. radar / sonar shows movement in the fog of war and during each battle the air is filled with smoking and burning pieces of units flying everywhere. after the battle the wrecks of destroyed units can be reclaimed or kept as a trophy. not to mention the insane number of units per faction. not just on land, air and sea but even underwater bases are an actual thing! also did i mention hovercrafts and seaplanes already? maybe all that doesn't sound that impressive by today's standards but let me tell you back then it was the greatest thing ever. the dynamic music system and the epic orchestral soundtrack can't be praised enough. it's legendary and still stored as mp3 in my music folder. however old 2D graphics don't scale with screen resolution so playing at modern times 1080p resolution makes even battleships look a little small on the screen. i could never really get into [i]supreme commander[/i] as [i]total annihilation[/i]'s spiritual successor but playing [i]total annihilation[/i] recently had me hooked again right from the start. meanwhile i even came up with new tactics for [i]total annihilation[/i] while playing. 29 years after release and after another 100 hours on steam i got some new tricks! i can't even count how many times i played through this game since i first got my hands on it. it never gets old. 35 hours to finish the main campaign, 30 hours for core contingency (CC), 40 hours for battle tactics (BT) 108 hours in total with the legendary "krogoth" mission. game expansion in the old days meant an actual game expansion. not some sh!tty dlc with 2 missions and 10 cosmetics for 20 f#cking bucks. actually i still have the proper CD-ROMs in my gaming corner. usually i recommend really old games for actual retro fans only (and old folks like me) but this game is still going strong today. however if you like the look of this but you don't want to go full retro you should take a good look at [b][i]beyond all reason[/i][/b]. it's a community developed RTS game heavily inspired by [i]total annihilation[/i]. free on the interwebs but not on steam (yet). i haven't played it myself since i can't afford yet another addiction but it's totally worth checking out!

One score and seven years ago, my father bought Total Annihilation at the dollar store Now I play this game not only on a Windows 98 PC, but also on Steam

If you have not played Total Annihilation, I am sorry. Best 1997 era game for strategy ever made. They got it right with combining all the previous ones, like C&C, StarCraft, and so many more. I continue to play this game even today, almost 30 years later. Get the patch though, or your rez on higher bigger monitors wont work that well.