KKND
Kill the mutant!
KKND certainly doesn't add anything new or innovative to the real-time strategy genre, which is defined by Command & Conquer and the superb Dune 2, but as long as you go in with fairly middling expectations, you should have a decent enough time with it. It's got a fairly decent storyline, some simple but effective visuals, and enough fast-paced strategy action to keep everyone but the most demanding genre fan happy. The story here takes place after an apocalyptic war has split the world into two camps, the muties and the regular flavor survivors. The normal survivors managed to eke out an existence under the ground and have now emerged to to find the muties have evolved and a new struggle has begun, involving the most precious resource, oil. What follows is a fairly typical nineties RTS, and sees you playing as either of the two camps, in a series of missions where you must build up your resources by seeking out oil and creating buildings, while managing a variety of units to do battle with your enemy. KKND manages to include nothing new at all and although this might be disappointing, the game makes up for this by simply being a lot of fun. The Mad Max-style environments are atmospheric and interesting to explore, while there's a good range of unit types to play around with. The game is also quite challenging, with some pretty tough missions to take on, and the control system is about as simple to use as they come. There's also a nice line in humor, and overall this makes for a solid, if less than innovative, RTS.
Post apocalyptic strategy game, fun and simple
KKND might not have been much back in the day, when it first came out, in the sense in which some just want their games to be the best out there, the most feature full, the most audacious and smart. Nope, this game was a good RTS but one that never tried too hard. But you know what the advantage of these games actually is?! Well, when some portion o it is good, when some map is more interesting, or when the enemy makes a cool move, you are going to notice! Yes, KKND is not brilliant, is graphically a rather generic but alright top down 2D game, but, it works, and it does so without being overly pretentious, which is why you got to love it, at least today. So, when your nth skirmish in Brood War is no longer bringing you any joy, a few missions in this one might actually feel more refreshing and energizing. So try it, you'll like it, especially if you love Hogs of War or other simple, straightforward strategies. It's also a relatively long game, which means that you can keep it installed and play it when you have a breather, now and then, as a bit ofa more serious time waster.
Sci-fi RTS game
KKND is interesting and fun to play, but doesn't bring much innovation to the world of strategy gaming. Probably the best and only really good feature in this game is it's difficulty. This is a challenging game fit for the most fierce of strategy players. You have to be really careful about resource management and building and with a little effort, your can make your units into very effective killing machines. The game is designed very well, but I might object on the slowness of the game and especially map scrolling, which may put your excitement significantly. The graphics quality is on par with most games from this era, but not better than them. Overall, we get a good strategy game that is fun and very challenging, but otherwise quite average. Still, if you like the game, go ahead and play the game's sequels, KKND 2 and KKND Xtreme.
