In short, Perimeter is a very unusual old-school RTS. However, the real-time strategy genre has become exotic today. Although there was a time when, in the wake of the popularity of C&C, WarCraft and Total Annihilation, such strategies came out in dozens.

But Perimeter belongs to the “old school” not only because it has resource collection, construction and other elements well known from other strategies. But just the opposite, because these things work there completely differently from the usual rules. The developers tried to go beyond the genre and offer the player something, if not original, then at least non-standard.

Additionally, players back then weren’t conditioned to accept gameplay patterns for granted. On the contrary, developers of the old school tried to ensure that all the conventions and limitations were explained by technology and the world of the game, and sometimes these explanations even turned out to be important for understanding the plot. Therefore, the Perimeter universe is not only well developed. It is very closely related to the gameplay itself.

Geometry of War

In Perimeter you play as a Legate, whose task is to manage the Frame and command its troops and defense systems. Frame is a huge city where people live, and at the same time an interdimensional ship capable of moving through portals, as well as flying over the landscape directly during battle (sometimes you can’t do without it).

The only resource for constructing buildings and troops is energy. It is also spent on the operation of protective structures. It would seem an obvious thing, but this condition leads to the fact that reserves can be depleted simply due to uncontrolled fire from one’s own laser turrets.

Energy is collected by special generators (Cores) from a surface leveled to zero height (zero layer) and transmitted through a chain of cores (as well as transmitters) to collectors or directly to the Frame. And by the way, get used to the numerous sci-fi terms and jargon of the game world.

Commanding troops is also not quite usual. You can only give orders to the entire squad (squad) and the number of these squads is limited by the number of command centers you have built (but not more than five). Moreover, when ordering nano-soldiers, nano-officers or nano-technicians at the factory, you automatically attach them to the currently selected squad.

On the one hand, this limitation may seem like a simplification (even if it is logically explained) – only five (or even less) units, instead of dozens of combat units. But on the other hand, it forces you to make more strategic decisions – since you cannot disperse one squad across several points of defense, you will have to predict the actions of the enemy, or use other means of defense. And as a result, military planning begins to play a greater role than finger dexterity in handling the rubber frame.

And in case you were disappointed that there are only three types of factories and three types of troops in the game. That’s not entirely true. Soldiers, officers and technicians are just three basic robots. They are not alive, but consist of nanomachines. Therefore, they can be transformed into other types of troops by conducting the necessary research in the laboratory (another type of structure).

Derivative robots have certain advantages (some have higher speed, others have armor, others have more firepower), and sometimes special properties. There are flying robots, robots that burrow underground, machines that force enemy robots to be dismantled into basic soldiers, engineers and technicians. And many more.

A pair of "Gimlets" – underground kamikaze torpedoes that demolish almost any enemy structure. But only available to one faction.

But the “Scam Harness”, despite its power, is not impressive. It’s too difficult to get it to the goal.
Taking into account the fact that transformation can be carried out directly in battle (say, by penetrating an enemy base underground, turning a squad into robots effective against buildings and quickly destroying part of the base), the tactical possibilities are not so meager. But there still remains terraforming.

There are separate machines for manipulating the https://juicyvegascasino.co.uk/ landscape – Brigadiers. You indicate where the surface needs to be leveled to a zero layer, where it is not necessary, and where it is necessary to dig a deep trench. After which, each Brigadier releases a brigade of mini-buckets and begins to transfer scum (local soil), changing the height of the layer.

You can only build on the zero layer and from it the Cores collect energy. Therefore, creating and expanding the base is an important part of the strategy. You can even capture enemy structures if you build up, surrounding their Cores with yours. Or, on the contrary, by turning the surface of the world with a powerful weapon, you will undermine the enemy’s energy supply without even engaging in open battle with him.

The last, but by no means least, means of defense is the Perimeter itself. This is a system of protective fields that can be created around the Cores. They block almost all attacks, and also destroy enemy troops that dare to enter your territory. Moreover, you can activate each Core individually, or cover the entire base with a dome at once – the only question is how much energy is enough.

On the Edge of Fantasy

Now how all these intricate rules are explained. After all, you must admit that it’s somehow strange that material robots can be created from pure energy..

It’s just that things happen not on Earth, but in the so-called psychosphere. This is another dimension that people discovered in the distant future with the help of a group of scientists calling themselves Spirits. In this dimension there is no fundamental difference between matter, energy and even emotions. Imagine – with the power of just one thought in the psychosphere you can obtain real electricity and even materials!

Therefore, after the opening of portals to the psychosphere, humanity received a literally inexhaustible source of everything necessary. The speed of technology development thanks to the help of Spirits has jumped by an order of magnitude. And numerous seekers of new sensations went to explore the “sponge space”. The psychosphere received this second name when it turned out that it is porous, like a sponge. sponge), with many bubble worlds that have accumulated the emotional energy of people from Earth for centuries.

Even the landscape of the worlds is associated with images of human culture
The freebie ended when it became clear that human fears, anger and other negative emotions turn into real monsters in the psychosphere. Moreover, the presence of a person in sponge worlds increased the reaction to the order. And since people have never had a shortage of negativity, the appearance of truly terrifying and aggressive creatures was not long in coming.

Worse, gradually, along with the flow of energy, the physics of the psychosphere itself began to seep into the Earth. The area surrounding the portals to Spange gradually turned into an analogue of what was on the other side. It was only a matter of time before the Corruption caused by human (sub)consciousness would spill out into the “real” world and be able to exist in it.

The situation was further complicated by the fact that humanity, with its technology and overpopulated planet, was now entirely dependent on recharge from the psychosphere. But then the Spirits came to the rescue again. They proposed the Exodus project, which, according to them, would solve all problems at once.

In the three root sponge worlds (that is, directly connected to the Earth through portals), it was necessary to build huge city-ships – Frames. These structures, equipped to move between worlds, were supposed to create a chain of portals leading through the psychosphere to another “big” world. That is, in essence, it was supposed to get to another planet without resorting to interstellar flights.

And although it was possible that the search for a path would take more than one century, many people who wanted a different life and a better world liked the speeches of the Spiritists. They readily followed their new prophets and began building the Frames. At the same time, they all also underwent psychological treatment. Without this procedure, invented by the Spiritists, the negative emotions of so many people would simply have erased any Frame from the surface of any world of the psychosphere.

In fact, the basis of the new society was the cult of psychological cleansing and meditation. And the Spiritists became its leaders.
In general, this is the background. True, in fact, it is not known for sure whether all the people settled in Frames were volunteers. As well as what happened when the portals were turned off and communications with Earth were closed. The game begins more than two hundred years after the beginning of the Exodus, when people (but not Spirits) had already forgotten about their origin.
Frames opened dozens of worlds and linked them into a chain with portals. Technologies were developed for efficient energy extraction and weapons to counter the occasional Blight. To control Frames and armies, artificial creatures were created – Legates, almost completely devoid of emotions and completely controlled by Spirits. But the exit to the Big World was never found.

Starting point

As the game progresses, you witness the emergence of Return. This movement spans multiple Frames in which people seize power. Moreover, by subjecting the captured Spirits to mental scanning, they will learn some of the details about their origin. Considering the “Big World” to be nothing more than fiction, they decide to return to Earth.

And as if the split between the Exodus and the Return wasn’t enough, the Emperor comes to power on the Router Frame. Having changed his body with the help of nanomachines, he (whoever he was before) becomes a cyborg and proclaims himself the ruler of sponge space, and all people – his servants who are obliged to undergo “modernization”.

On behalf of the Legate (more precisely, several Legates managing the Frames of all three factions), you will have to carry out tasks on which the result of this three-way conflict depends. However, there are only two results – you cope or not. The story is completely linear.

And to be honest, the authors went a little overboard with the intensity of the “jumps” between factions. Yes, the story is really exciting. Yes, it turns out interesting when, having played for one side, you can immediately receive the task of destroying the fruits of your efforts, and at the same time find out what kind of noodles were hung on your ears in the previous briefing. But as a result, all three camps, their leaders and internal structure are never revealed to you in their entirety.

And the briefings are also all the same – just voiced text with portraits of characters.

The missions themselves rarely require the total defeat of the enemy. They are often like a puzzle – it is important to determine what exactly is needed to complete the task. And they entrust you with a variety of things. Then you need to charge gravitsappu Spiral (engine for jumping between worlds) before the enemy Frame, then capture the laboratory, sometimes it is enough to build Cores in certain places, or simply hold out under the attacks of Fel. By the way, creatures generated by the psychosphere are an order of magnitude more dangerous than any enemy nano-troops.

But unfortunately I have nothing to say about multiplayer. Nominally there is one, but I haven’t been able to find anyone to play with. And in general, the search for opponents for playing online is clearly not adapted for modern players who crave speed and convenience.

Curvature indicators

And unfortunately, the outdated interface for multiplayer is far from the only problem. As with many indie projects, Perimeter was not without bugs and shortcomings. For example, while paused you cannot issue a construction command. Moving troops, attacking, raising a protective field – please. But in order to indicate where to build a new laboratory, it is necessary to run the time at least at half speed.

There is no way to sell or otherwise get rid of “extra” robots in the squad. The button to go to the last event does not always work; Team Leaders sometimes send buckets to a completely different location than where you indicated the terraforming zone. Also, when saving, the game does not remember the position of the foreman’s buckets, or indeed all fired shells. I don’t know exactly how best to turn the latest bug to your advantage, but the very fact that cheating is possible using the save/load function is discouraging.

At least two missions, in principle, cannot be completed as the briefing and plot suggest.
But that’s not all. Not only does the training mission not teach all the basics, but the timings in the dialogues are also messed up, so you simply won’t hear some of the phrases. Descriptions of troops in general are only in the manual. And the formula by which damage is calculated (all attacks have two indicators and they somehow interact with armor) is not even there. Despite the fact that the calculation of losses was generally done somehow cunningly and this was written about in some document that was once on a website that is now closed. And I found out about all this by chance when I came across a comment in the steam forum.

As you can see, for every brilliant idea in the game there is a whole bunch of technical problems. Is it any wonder that with all its merits, the steam review rating for Perimeter is only slightly above average??

Therefore, with all the advantages of “Perimeter: Geometry of War” it is definitely not a game for everyone. Unfortunately. The unusual universe and non-standard approach to strategy are definitely worth the attention of anyone interested in both the rts genre and the sci-fi setting. But alas, the lack of a clear introduction, the bland presentation of the plot by “talking heads” and the already mentioned technical problems will not allow (or rather have not allowed) the game to become sufficiently widespread and take its rightful place in the history of games.