Let's elaborate. StormRise puts you in the shoes of Commander Geary, one of the leaders of the Echelon Special Forces. You've recently been awakened from a deep slumber to find that the earth is in ruin. Due to some technological insanity years before, the world went straight to hell and the atmosphere became extremely hostile. The people that made it to shelter and hibernation, The Echelon, made it out okay and now seek to rebuild their once great human race. The problem however is that they have a new threat, the Sai. Mutated from the crazy storms of yesteryear, the Sai exist to annihilate the remaining humans, revenge for leaving them out in the chaos to die.
Let's be frank, post-apocalyptic settings are great, and StormRise is no exception. The concept behind the game is pretty cool, and much of the design of both factions looks quite nice. The problem however is the plot is an utter mess. Characters are introduced in the most abrupt manner possible, and you have no idea what you're fighting for half the time. Dialogue is a little too cheesy as well, with some absolutely cringe-worthy moments rearing their ugly faces. It's all great in theory, but the execution is mediocre at best.
Mechs: is there anything more awesome?
The same goes for the gameplay of StormRise too, which is a real shame. Featuring a new 'whip' system specifically designed for consoles, the whip is meant to make quick unit selection easy with the flick of your right analogue stick. By holding the analogue stick in the direction of your unit 'groups', you can select specific groups and upon letting go of the stick, the camera seamlessly flicks over to those units and gives you control over them. This works great... with small armies. But when it comes to big armies? Prepare for frustration. When you have so many units clustered together in a small area, the whip system just doesn't work - you will struggle to pick the one you want and this makes battles that could be epic beyond comprehension turn into infuriating and unenjoyable experiences.
Unfortunately the problems don't end there, as the game seems to have a bad case of bugs. From units not responding properly, to looping animations and entire system lock ups, StormRise seems to have somehow evaded QA in huge bouts. And it's a damn shame such broken mechanics and buggy gameplay are prevalent in StormRise, as the setpieces and unit variety are great, and the concept behind the mechanics is solid. Resource management is based off capturing nodes and keeping them defended, so matches can get quite tactical. It's just a shame that it's so hard to control your units in the first place, making tactical gameplay a very difficult endeavour to pull off.
Dropships on their way to the local McDonalds, we think.
Visually, StormRise is okay, with character models touting a decent amount of detail with a striking art style, particularly on the Sai side. Environments are quite cool too, with the post-apocalyptic feel definitely giving it a nice level of atmosphere. The problem however is that it doesn't exactly run smoothly. Framerate drops and stuttering is constant in StormRise, and when you add this in with trying to work with your units, you'll be conjuring up your own storm, and it will be made of a very large amount of rage.
On the audio side however, the game has a solid score, feeling suitably epic when need be, and works effectively in making battles more intense. Sound effects are quite solid too, with battlecries of soldiers and yelps of casualties heard all over the place. Voice acting on the other hand is terrible. It feels forced, and the dialogue really doesn't help it either, with massive cheese written all over them.
It's such a 'buggy' game. Ha ha ha.
StormRise is a game that could've been great, but unfortunately isn't. The whip system in place, though working well with small groups, breaks down completely when controlling a large army, and will only cause more frustration than you can chew on. With unit control being so important in an RTS game, this flaw essentially breaks almost all enjoyment out of StormRise. There are definitely some moments in the game which are pretty good, but they are far outweighed by the endless frustrations that the game throws at you. With so many holes in the game's balloon, StormRise is destined to fall for everyone bar from the most patient of gamers. Conceptually great, ultimately broken.
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