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As most of you already know, Westwood Studios closed down for good in January of 2003 (funny enough, “C&C Generals” were released in the same year that Westwood Studios became defunct…), and the C&C series has more or less been dead since the release of “C&C Zero Hour” (it’s the expansion pack for “C&C Generals”). I mean, sure, we did get “Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars” (2007), “Kane’s Wrath” (2008), “Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3” (2008) and “Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight” (2010).

“Mars 2000” looks like the child of “Dune 2000” and “Command & Conquer Tiberian sun”.

However, I (with many others) thought that most of those games were nowhere close as great as Westwood’s old C&C titles. Furthermore, when C&C 4 launched back in 2010, I really felt like the C&C series was dead and gone for life (that’s also why I wrote my “The rise and fall of Command & Conquer” post back in April of 2017). As sad as that might sound though, I do have some good news to share with you all. You see, last night I found out about Space crab development’s (it’s a five-person big indie games studio from Russia) upcoming RTS game “Mars 2000” (the game is in development for Windows), and thank the Gaming gods for that! Because the game looks like a mix of “Dune 2000” and “Command & Conquer Tiberian sun“.

There will be three different fractions in “Mars 2000”, and those would be the following: 1. Industrial Cohort 2. Earth Liberating Force 3. Those Robots.

So, what exactly is “Mars 2000” all about then? Well, here’s what’s known about the game so far:

“We are a little group of old-school RTS fans. During giant period of time (over 6 years) we were practising in making game modes and total conversions so we reach some kind of perfection for each one of us in our directions of work. We are trying to make ideal strategy game for us and other people, who share our vision and we are working really hard on it. Our development is not sponsored, so we are doing all the things by ourselves – there is only 5 of us in our team. (programmer, 3d artist/backgrounds artist, gamedesigner/video artist, sketch artist and a level designer) we are trying to use modern technologies and we are working the best to our abilities, because we love our project . If you really like our realtime strategy or just want to support us we will be very pleased! (We don’t have any money – just bare enthusiasm). “ – Space crab development

I’m probably not the only person who thought of the flamethrower torrents from the C&C universe when I saw this picture.

Other than that, here’s what Space crab development has said about Mars 2000’s single-player and multiplayer mode (as of now):

What it is all about
This game offers you a brutal and balanced gameplay in a dieselpunk setting. Deceptively recognizable mechanics, that will show you lots of new tasty things, when you try them.

Single Player
Our single player campaign tells the player about confrontation of 3 forces – 1 Industrial Cohort, Earth Liberating Force and mysterious 3 side known only as “Those Robots” with a pretty good lore on each side. As our tribute to the C&C series we offer you a delightful thing: pretty cinematics with live actors and a storyline which blow your mind!

Multiplayer
As it was said it is easy to start (yeah friends, we know that there are lot of C&C fans here) and hard to master. We have done a big work to balance our rosters and give you opportunity to set up your own. There are a lot of combinations you can make using special theme packs – build your own deadly force. Also we have done a big work, developing our net code. Yes we know how annoying all that nasty multiplayer things and bugs are.

Afterword
We hope, that there are a lot of people who miss golden age of rts genre. But it is all in our hands, so let’s do it our brothers and sisters in arms! 🙂

I don’t know about you, but I feel like no RTS game is complete without base building elements. So I’m truly glad to hear that “Mars 2000” will allow its players to build bases and whatnot.

So “if” you like the sound of that, then you might want to support Space crab’s development of “Mars 2000” via Patreon (their first goal would be to get 300 USD per month via Patreon) because I have a feeling that they are going to need all the help that they could get (from what I understand, “Mars 2000” has been under development for over six years time now). As for me, I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve seen from “Mars 2000” so far. That’s also why I’m going to support the project =)

And with that said, what’s your take on “Mars 2000” so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!