Pretty Graphics... But where is the game?

Ground Control 2 is the only game so far that runs FSAA (full screen anti aliasing) without choking or slowing down. FSAA is basically rendering each frame twice and averaging across both frames allowing it to perform a visual trick that makes our eyes see diagonal lines as smooth rather than jagged.

Every other game that tries FSAA becomes unplayably choppy.

Too bad about the actual game itself : not very interesting to play, and the modelling and texturing of the UNITS themselves in the game is quite uninspiring... only the backgrounds and scenery is nice. Too bad, since there are several very unique innovations to strategy gaming here introduced by Massive Entertainment : different armour penetration profiles based on which side of the tank is hit by enemy fire, the concept of "pinning", concept of stealth and perception ranges. This feels far more like a strategy wargame than anything I have played before.

Damage taken based on direction of enemy fire makes sense : most vehicle armour is placed on the front. Even for infantry : when they take cover to fire back at the enemy, they position themselves in such a way that terrain features block lines of fire from the front.

Pinning : units under fire take a penalty to their attack accuracy and movement rate. Makes sense : for infantry they have to stay in cover, and even tanks crew to some extent perform worse under pressure.

Stealth and Perception : All units have a stealth rating which measures how hard it is to detect : a tank has much lower stealth than a footsoldier, while a sniper equipped in camo gear and lying perfectly skill in a forest has a very high stealth rating. All units can be detected if they are close enough, just depending on their stealth rating (modifed by environmental factors : direction of sun, cover, weather) and the perception rating of the detecting unit (expect that tanks have poor perception compared to a footsoldier, since you can't see as much and hear anything over the noise of the engines or insulated inside crew compartment, unless the tank is equiped with sensory gear).

Other neat features which weren't actually innovations : direct line of sight (LOS) engine allows for you to hide units within terrain features, like putting some soldiers in a trench. No one outside can see in, but you can't see out either : that's why you have that sniper lying in wait in the bushes out there.

All this serves to focus the game more on battle tactics : the need to flank an opponent (infantry anti tank rockets ineffective against tank front armour, must seek side / rear firing angle).. the need for spotters, having high visual range / high perception / high stealth rating units. The need for pinning weapons.

An interesting concept they introduced which isn't really relevant to most strategy games is shielding. Everyone has access to some unit with a mobile shield projector, which protects a spherical area around it from missiles and slow moving projectile attacks, like artillery and mortars. Two ways to get around shields : use weapons which ignore shields (like chemical weapons or standard projectile weapons) or overload them (they can only block a certain number of impacts per second). On the other hand the defender can overlap shields to give increased protection to the units inside.

It's an interesting game itself to get around the shielding : you can try artillery bombardment around the edges of the shield, hoping some energy blastback will injure the units inside... or you can time a massive artillery barrage with a missile barrage and an orbital bombardment and hope some will get through and hit enough shield projector units that subsequent attacks can get through.