Carrier Command: Gaea Mission is ultimately a good (not great) game that blends strategy, tactics and action, but it suffers from the most god-awful annoying campaign I think I have ever played.

You'll hear a lot about the bad bad BAD script and voice acting, but the campaign is terribly paced too, being, as it seems it was intended, a very, very long tutorial for the Strategy Game option. Having said that, I persevered with the Campaign, and after you take Fulcrum and push into the enemy's territory, which is around the same time you unlock missiles for your Mantas—and around the time the AI starts pushing back!—the game finally lives up to its promise and gets awesome.

Taking the islands become a real tactical challenge each time, and your strategy of which islands should be Production, Mining and (oh so important) Defense becomes critical to success. When you get to that point, the Campaign is actually pretty good and the game finally lives up to its potential.


Whether or not you can stick it out that long is another story...I have a LOT of love and nostalgia for Carrier Command, having played it ad nauseum on my Amiga when I was a kid, but without that good will, I'm not sure I would have had the gumption to push through the bad bad BAD start of the Campaign game. If you can, though, I think you'll find you are rewarded.


Subjective Assessment: 7/10

+ Very nice graphics.
+ Command interface is easy to use.
+ Various gameplay improvements over the original.

- Tacked on "story" mode.
- No multiplayer.
- Broken pathfinding.

The Good
The original Carrier Command, while primitive by modern standards, was a really good game for it's time. A good combination of strategy and action. BIS has rebooted this game and fixed many shortcomings of the original's design...well, almost.

First thing I will say is that the graphics are very nice. There is a "film grain" effect you cannot turn off, but that aside, I have no complaints whatsoever. The models of the carrier look awesome and the animations are pretty solid. Good job BIS!

The interface has also had a huge overhaul since the original. Commanding units is very easy to do (once you get the hang of it). I get a feeling this was designed with consoles in mind, however it works fine on PC, so again no complaints from me.

I'd also like to praise the unit customisation added to gameplay. You can now outfit your Mantas and Walruses with different armour and weaponry to engage threats more effectively...but sadly, this is where the praise ends.

The Bad
The story mode is just a glorified tutorial with bad voice acting. Some parts of it are good for learning the game - the sole reason I played all the way through it was to prepare me for the REAL game; Strategy Mode.

The lack of multiplayer is also quite disappointing. Why this was not implemented is not clear - some forum posts suggest it was axed due to development costs, other say it was to be added in a later patch. I personally suspect the former was more likely the case. Either way, it's a pity as multiplayer could have probably boosted the sales of the game.

The Ugly
The Walrus pathfinding is so bad it's not even funny. Mantas are OK, but Walruses have trouble driving in a straight line. I've tried every patch released since day one and some third party mods, but nothing works. I'm not exaggerating here, feel free to look it up on YouTube.

Final Thoughts
The pathfinding is the deal-breaker for me. The lack of multiplayer and the lame story mode I can forgive, but not this. The amount of sheer frustration I've had just trying to get units to get from point A to point B is too much. It's highly unlikely that BIS will ever fix this - they've released seven patches already and still can't get it right.

VERDICT: Don't bother.

Pros:
- Love the look, graphics are neat (if a bit 2005), great atmospherics and an overall joy to look at - vehicles are well-designed too; not too gimicky and far-out future-feel, it's all nicely balanced.

- The whole concept of controlling your units from the carrier, but being able to control and individual unit when needed, is fantastic! Definitely needs a polish, but the core mechanic is down - and it's a joy to mess around with!

Cons:
- The AI in particular drives me up (and into) the f**king wall! Losing missions because your blonde-driver Walruses can't drive 10m forwards and shoot the enemy, without backing up 50m, turning around three times, getting stuck in a wall, and being slammed into by my other Walruses... ♥♥♥♥ gets old REAL quick.

- The infantry feel of the game is just horrid - ♥♥♥♥♥♥ guns, movement feels too fast, and still glitches in random places, slowing you down and making progress difficult. It doesn't even feel unfinished - it feels broken.


Conclusion:
Would not recommend. Too incomplete, and AI kills the mood completely.

A game that mixes the rts and fps genres and fails at both. Having finished the game, I would not recommend this even on sale.

Pros
-looks nice
-good unit customization

Cons
-terrible ground unit pathfinding
-controls are awful
-unit and item production takes forever, even when all islands are devoted to resources and production
-your ai unit's targeting abilities are very hit or miss depending upon its loadout
-the little bit of story and character interaction there is leaves much to be desired
-the soundtrack is around 25 minutes, and frankly doesn't come close to cutting it, considering the campaign can last 15+ hours

It was slow getting into and fealt like a buggy cheap shooter. But I stuck with it and they unveil new items for your arsenal frequently. In no time I had my own carrier equipped with 4 choppers and 4 tanks. Armor and lasers, grenade launchers and anti-air. If I'm lucky when I pull up to an island there is enemy air craft and I get to watch my deck guns going off. I particularly enjoy giving my units orders and then switching to their fullscreen camera view and watching the battle unfold as my units attack. This game mixes FPS and RTS action together. Manage multiple units and production/inventory.
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Pros: Unique perspective and variety of gameplay options. Non-linear design allows freedom of choice. The graphics look nice and the game runs very smooth. I look forward to a number 2!
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Cons: I have had save points crash, and I cannot load that game anymore. Luckily there is a lot of autosaves and I save often.
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TL;DR; I bought this on sale and I would suggest you buy if it goes on sale.

Carrier Command: Gaea Mission - game with a huge, perfectly wasted potential. This is one of a few games in my library that I regret much about not just buying, but even wasting time on completing it.

*This game buggy…very buggy, even after six patches
*Story campaign dull and boring, with cliched plot, poorly made dialogs and mediocre voice acting.
*In-game tutorials (if its possible to call them that) poorly done and explain nothing
*Terribly done, consolish graphics
*Awful, in a worst sense, arcade physics
*Dumb, ineffective AI
*Horrible tactical control options
*No multiplayer support, even LAN or splitscreen
*No real integration with Steam services
*Huge price tag for such crappy product

If you wish to play real 'futuristic carrier sim', buy much better 'Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising' or 'Battlestations' dilogy. If you are interested in quality tactical games - stick with original 'Operation Flashpoint' or 'ARMA' series.

'Carrier Command: Gaea Mission' - not a tactical game at all, its an awful arcade TPS with just four available commands that you can issue to a nearby troops, while global commands via tactical map could be issued only to one unit per time. No programmable behavior, no formation options, all you can do - solo every map in TPS style, or zerg rush and pray AI wont screw simple tasks.

Everything youll do in this game - roam same looking maps doing same objects on all islands, while trying not to stuck in small gaps\stones\crate piles\trees, enjoying 8999 types of rain, fog and sandstorm, which do nothing in terms of gameplay, just preventing player to move faster through this terrible game.

And last but not least - in this 'quality' game, even after 6 released patched APCs still cant cross straight metal bridges, because one doesnt simply climb a 1-inch ramp in Carrier Command...

I won't critize the game for its poor production values (voice acting, facial animation, animation in general, props, textures), but I will critize its A.I. because the game is based on it.

You see, if you make A.I. movement a core component of your game, you'd better make sure your A.I. systems and pathfinding are at least generally competent - capable of doing basic tasks. The A.I. in this game can be called many things, but "competent" isn't one of them. Which is a problem, because if you have to manually move every single unit because it manages to get stuck every 200 metres, the game becomes a chore (this gets borderline hilarious at the first muddy island - the one where you get the flying unit for the first time - where a more complex level topology and mud makes for a physically painful experience instead of fun). Now don't get me wrong, programming competent realtime A.I. is one of the hardest programming challenges, but that's the thing - if you can't do it properly, don't even try, because it will end badly. They could have try to work around the A.I. by designing the game differently, instead they went in guns blazing and just failed to deliver...

The Good
The original Carrier Command, while primitive by modern standards, was a really good game for it's time. A good combination of strategy and action. BIS has rebooted this game and fixed many shortcomings of the original's design...well, almost.

First thing I will say is that the graphics are very nice. There is a "film grain" effect you cannot turn off, but that aside, I have no complaints whatsoever. The models of the carrier look awesome and the animations are pretty solid. Good job BIS!

The interface has also had a huge overhaul since the original. Commanding units is very easy to do (once you get the hang of it). I get a feeling this was designed with consoles in mind, however it works fine on PC, so again no complaints from me.

I'd also like to praise the unit customisation added to gameplay. You can now outfit your Mantas and Walruses with different armour and weaponry to engage threats more effectively...but sadly, this is where the praise ends.

The Bad
The story mode is just a glorified tutorial with bad voice acting. Some parts of it are good for learning the game - the sole reason I played all the way through it was to prepare me for the REAL game; Strategy Mode.

The lack of multiplayer is also quite disappointing. Why this was not implemented is not clear - some forum posts suggest it was axed due to development costs, other say it was to be added in a later patch. I personally suspect the former was more likely the case. Either way, it's a pity as multiplayer could have probably boosted the sales of the game.

The Ugly
The Walrus pathfinding is so bad it's not even funny. Mantas are OK, but Walruses have trouble driving in a straight line. I've tried every patch released since day one and some third party mods, but nothing works. I'm not exaggerating here, feel free to look it up on YouTube.

Final Thoughts
Been on the edge for so long about this game, finally decided to buy it and can absolutely say it was worth it! What made me step back at the Summer sale was all the complain about the AI, but now when I'm playing it I see no particular problem with it. Yes sometimes its kinda dumb, but this is not really a strategic game like Starcraft, the AI is just a "helper", the point is that you are supposed to remote control the vehicles. You can't just assign all your units to advanced task and believe you can lean back and stay cool. No, in this game you have to take the lead. I haven't spend much time in the campaign, mostly in the strategic game mode, where I have found the most fun.

The the path following AI of the Walruses really is every bit as awful as people say, and the anti carrier torpedo (not a pivotal weapon) detonates on launch still attached to your Manta blowing it out of the sky. Pretty awful bugs not to fix. Very sad as they probably never will given the age of this game.

But despite that the game is actually very playable if you accept that you have to nurse maid your Walruses along, keeping them together until the last minute so that you can deliver them into engagement as a unit. Once middle/near field targets are assinged their idiosyncratic movement problems cease to be relevant (even or perhaps especially if the targets are moving). Admitedly the game would be faster paced if you could just plot a route and leave the Walruses to it, with less intervention. But the other aspects of this unique game combination, namely that of commanding a carrier and its compliment of remote drones, and the combinations of loadout, and logistical elements is unquie and exciting. (Unless you count it's illustrious and highly succesful ancestry going back to the Atari ST and Amiga.) The first 'personell' combat is not up to much but it's not the main point of this game, just an interesting interlude to help tell the story campaign.

You really can't go wrong at the sale price.

If you are listening Bohemia... please try again with a remake/relaunch. I'm sure if you got it right which you are definately capable of doing, this could be a viable and easy hit. Most of the work is already done. Just execute the AI properly (you've done it since for other games I am sure), and flesh out the load outs and missions.

So I played the original 16-bit Carrier Command quite a bit in the 90's, and I enjoyed it. It was primitive, to be sure, and almost certainly unwinnable without using cheat codes, but it provided some interesting strategic gaming and a nice diversion.

Carrier Command: Gaea Mission aims to provide a similar experience. The main game loop is much the same: control 4 + 4 air and amphibious units to overcome challenges to take over islands. There is some interesting resource management and unit production systems that expand as you conquer the islands.

Unfortunately, the game doesn't go beyond that and the core of the game, which involves a lot of your units being remote- or AI-controlled, is horribly broken. A unit that is set to "assist" your controlled unit could quite easily get stuck on a tree, or a patch of mud, or a rock, and spend a good few minutes working out how to negotiate its way around that. This is not a one-off, it is systematic. And then you have the air units whose armour is so paper-thin as to be useless and/or expensive.

In summary, I very much want to play an updated, modern version of the original Carrier Command. But alas, this isn't it.