Total Annihilation is a science fiction real-time strategy video game that was released in September 1997 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS by Cavedog Entertainment. GT Interactive distributed the game internationally. Two expansion packs were released in 1998: The Core Contingency on April 29 and Battle Tactics on July 20. A medieval-themed spin-off called Total Annihilation: Kingdoms was released on June 25, 1999.
After Cavedog Entertainment’s parent company, Humongous Entertainment, was bought and shut down in 1999, the rights to the game passed to Infogrames (later known as Atari). In July 2013, Wargaming purchased the Total Annihilation franchise from Atari’s bankruptcy proceedings.
The game has been re-released on Steam and GOG, but it is no longer actively supported. The creators of XTA, a mod for Total Annihilation, independently developed the open-source 3D graphics Spring game engine. The Total Annihilation 3D project started in 2006. Chris Taylor, the former lead designer of Total Annihilation, later founded Gas Powered Games. This company created Supreme Commander in 2007, which is considered the "spiritual successor" of Total Annihilation.
Gameplay
Total Annihilation is a game set in the distant future during a war across many planets and moons. Players build a base to defend themselves and create an army to defeat enemies. They must collect resources, scout enemy areas, and plan strategies based on the terrain. The game includes a story-driven campaign where players fight against computer-controlled opponents, as well as a mode where players can compete against each other.
At the start of a game, players control a Commander, a powerful unit that can destroy enemies, become invisible, and move through water. Building structures and units requires two resources, Metal and Energy, which are always available and collected continuously. Units are grouped by technology levels; higher levels mean stronger units but require more resources and time to build. Players can give units multiple commands, like patrolling, building defenses, or attacking enemies, and the units will follow these orders automatically, reducing the need for constant player input. In multiplayer games, the goal is usually to destroy all enemy units, while single-player missions may have specific objectives.
Resources in Total Annihilation are collected at a steady rate rather than in batches, and they never run out. However, if a player uses resources faster than they are collected, their reserves will decrease, slowing down production. If Energy is completely used up, certain structures like radar towers and factories stop working. Destroyed units and structures leave behind wreckage that can be reclaimed for Metal. Some maps have plants or other organic structures that can be reclaimed for Energy.
Players can control many types of units, including soldiers, vehicles, ships, and a large robot called the Core Krogoth. Units vary in size, speed, and strength based on their technology level. Stronger units take longer to build and cost more resources. Each unit has specific strengths and weaknesses, and success depends on using them wisely, managing resources, building strong defenses, and understanding enemy strategies. The game’s interface includes buttons for building and commanding units, information about unit status and resources, and a minimap showing the battlefield. Some areas on the map are hidden until explored, requiring players to use scouts or radar to reveal them.
Two factions, Arm and Core, have similar units but with slight differences. Arm units are faster and more agile, while Core units are tougher and can withstand more damage. For example, Arm players can build a fast robot called the Zipper, while Core players can build a heavily armored robot called The Can. Arm units also have advantages like faster aircraft, better weapons, and repair units that speed up construction. Core units have stronger naval weapons and bombers that drop more bombs, but these advantages are often outweighed by Arm’s overall speed and efficiency.
Total Annihilation introduced features like radar that showed enemy units on the minimap, allowing players to detect and avoid attacks. Players could also build radar jammers to hide units from enemies or make cloaked units invisible. The game allowed for large battles with hundreds or even thousands of units, far more than earlier games. A physics engine controls how projectiles, explosions, and wreckage behave. Terrain is shown as a 2D image but has height values that affect movement and visibility. Hills can block artillery fire, and steep terrain changes how units move. Structures can be built on hills for defense or to create narrow paths. Some maps have wind, tides, or gravity that affect gameplay, and plants can be set on fire for energy.
The game includes different maps that represent various planets. Core Prime, the home world of the Core faction, has metal structures and dark seas, giving players unlimited access to Metal for faster building. Other maps have unique features that influence strategy and resource collection.
Plot
The game's start-up credits describe the story of the game:
In the distant future, the galaxy is governed by a kind and fair central government made up of humans and artificial intelligence called the Core. The Core's technological and economic achievements have allowed humans to settle most of the Milky Way, creating a time of peace and prosperity. However, this peace is broken by a new technology called patterning, which enables a human's consciousness to be safely copied into a machine, offering the possibility of living forever without disease, aging, or pain.
After the Core required all humans to use patterning as a health measure, a group of people refused and started a rebellion. These rebels left the Core's controlled areas and settled in the galaxy's remote regions, becoming known as the Arm. As tensions grew, the Core began copying its top military leaders to create many intelligent war machines, while the Arm responded by cloning pilots for their own machines. This conflict, lasting four thousand years, began.
The game's two campaigns follow the last remaining military leaders, called Commanders, from each side. Each Commander controls a large, human-like battlemech equipped with weapons, a powerful energy source, and advanced technology that allows a single Commander to build an entire army on a planet. The story of each campaign begins with defending the Commander's home world from a surprise attack, marking a turning point in the war. The player then fights battles on various planets and moons, connected by complex faster-than-light (FTL) travel systems called Galactic Gates. These Gates are difficult to build and require large amounts of energy, so most FTL attacks involve a single Commander with little support, who then builds a military system from scratch on the far side. However, the speed of these attacks has helped change the course of the war.
As the player progresses, more units become available to build, either through the story or by completing missions focused on specific units. Mission goals include protecting important structures or areas, destroying all enemy units, capturing key enemy units, or seizing a Galactic Gate. The different planets and moons where battles take place require the player to change strategies. For example, fighting on a planet made of many islands requires building a strong navy. Some planets have unique weather conditions, like high winds, which make wind energy very useful, while others lack air, making flying impossible. Other planets have dangerous storms or meteor showers. Highly developed planets may have no metal left in their crust, as it was mined long ago, forcing the player to gather materials from the ruins of destroyed cities. Both campaigns include 25 missions, with the final mission ending the war through a decisive attack on the enemy's home world—either the peaceful planet Empyrrean or the artificial world modeled after Jupiter, called Core Prime.
Expansions
In 1997, Cavedog started providing extra free content that could be downloaded for Total Annihilation, adding new units, maps, and scenarios over time.
Cavedog released The Core Contingency one year after Total Annihilation was first released. This expansion includes 25 new missions and 75 new units. It continues the story that happens after the Arm campaign ends. The expansion also includes the Total Annihilation editor, which allows users to create maps and missions.
One month after The Core Contingency was released, Battle Tactics was introduced. This expansion includes four new units, 100 additional missions, and a new way to play Total Annihilation with less focus on building bases.
Spring Engine is an open-source General Public License engine designed for real-time strategy games. It includes games based on Total Annihilation. The engine works on multiple types of computers and uses Lua scripting to allow users to customize nearly every part of the engine. It supports online, local network, and offline play.
Total Annihilation 3D is a fan-made 3D real-time strategy game engine created to move Total Annihilation into a three-dimensional format. The engine has versions for Microsoft Windows and Linux and is programmed using OpenGL and C++. While the engine aims to recreate Total Annihilation’s original engine and gameplay, it also supports various modifications. TA3D uses the original 3D game assets from Total Annihilation and is created under the General Public License (GPL).
Robot War Engine is an open-source real-time strategy game engine that works well with Total Annihilation’s data files. It is designed to replicate what Total Annihilation does using the original game data, but with fewer limitations. As of 2019, RWE had reached several development stages.
Soundtrack
The game features an original orchestral soundtrack created by Jeremy Soule and performed by the Northwest Sinfonia orchestra, which has 95 musicians. The music changes based on what is happening in the game: during battles, louder and more intense music plays. When repairing damage after a battle or during construction, calmer and more mysterious music is played. The game disc includes the original soundtrack in CD-audio format, which can be played on regular CD players. A standard music CD can be used once the game is running to replace the original game music with different tracks. It is also possible to set up custom CD tracks to match different battlefield situations, such as conflict, construction, or defeat, just like the default music set.
Reception
Total Annihilation was marketed globally when it was released. It was launched at the same time in 14 countries with translations in English, French, and German. In the United States, it reached position #19 on PC Data’s computer game sales chart for September 1997. It moved to position #15 the next month, with an average price of $48. However, it was not listed in PC Data’s top 20 by November. By the end of October, over 250,000 copies were sent to stores worldwide. An analyst from Merrill Lynch noted that the game was selling well by December, which she believed was a good sign for GT Interactive’s financial recovery. According to PC Data, Total Annihilation sold 83,900 copies in the United States by the end of 1997. PC Gamer US reported that this performance placed it behind Age of Empires but ahead of Activision’s Dark Reign: The Future of War during the same period.
Geoff Keighley later wrote that Cavedog would not share exact sales numbers for the game, but insiders estimated sales were more than half a million copies. By 2002, the game had sold over 1.5 million copies.
Critics praised Total Annihilation, and it won many awards, including GameSpot’s Game of the Year for 1997. It was named GameSpy’s Top Ten Real-Time Strategy Games of All Time in 2004, finishing second to StarCraft. It was also listed in GameSpot’s 50 Greatest Games of All Time in 2010. GameSpot editors said, “It is not as famous as Warcraft or Command & Conquer, but Total Annihilation may be better than any other real-time strategy game so far.” The game received an average score of 86 out of 100 from Metacritic and 89% from GameRankings.
Next Generation reviewed the PC version, giving it four stars out of five. They said, “Total Annihilation will likely remain the best real-time strategy game for now. It is expandable, and if updates are added as promised, new unit abilities may be included through expansion packs and downloadable patches. If you want a game that offers a lot of challenge and variety without copying C&C, this is the game for you.” GamePro said the game “offers a deep challenge and excellent replay value.” Like Next Generation, they were excited about future updates and praised the line-of-sight features and soundtrack, though they noted the unit artificial intelligence required close player attention.
Total Annihilation was a finalist for “PC Strategy Game of the Year” at the AIAS’s first Interactive Achievement Awards, which were won by StarCraft and Age of Empires in a tie. It was also a runner-up for Computer Gaming World’s 1997 “Strategy Game of the Year” award, which went to Myth: The Fallen Lords.
In 1999, Next Generation listed Total Annihilation as number 49 on their “Top 50 Games of All Time.” They said, “Innovations like the field commander, unit waypoints, and true line-of-sight based on elevation added new depth to a crowded genre, making Total Annihilation stand out among many real-time strategy games.”
Total Annihilation has won several awards, including:
• GameSpy’s Number One Real-Time Strategy Game of All Time (2004)
• GameSpot’s Game of the Year (1997)
• GameSpot’s Best Strategy Game (1997)
• GameSpot’s Best Multiplayer Game (1997)
• GameSpot’s Best Music (1997)
• Included in GameSpot’s “The Greatest Games of All Time” (2010)