Impossible Creatures (PC) Relic
Riding high on the critically acclaimed Homeworld (GameSpy's "Strategy Game of the Year" in 1999), Relic Entertainment really wanted to do something different with its next game. Alex Garden, Relic's head honcho, decided to create a game that he had been toying with since high school.
Psylancer's take on Impossible Creatures: "mate an alligator and a sperm whale."
Originally dubbed Sigma, and unveiled behind closed doors at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2000, the next big thing was an RTS game that was one part Island of Dr. Moreau and two parts 1930's pulp-fiction campyness. The premise was genetic testing on animals gone mad. Two animals could be cross-bred with each other, allowing players the chance to create literally thousands of breeds, each with their own unique characteristics of attack, defense, stealth, etc. A cheetah's body could be melded to a killer whale's head for an extremely fast unit with a literally killer melee attack. It promised to be an RTS where players could develop their own armies to cater to their style of play. The possibilities were nearly endless, and the insane animal combinations were a marketer's dream. Most publications (ourselves included) were drooling over Impossible Creatures virtually sight unseen.
What was released was by no means a terrible game, but it was nothing revolutionary. The multitude of animals didn't alter the same basic strategy: gather resources and develop your armies quicker than anyone else and beat the rush. Gamers quickly shrugged this off as just another strategy title destined to collect dust on a shelf.
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Warrior: I really wanted this game to be good. The concept was so interesting and the company pedigree was so promising that it was easy to see why the hype was there. Garden's cool and confident persona also added to the mystique. Could the man behind Homeworld pull off an even more ambitious project? In short, no. The game concept sounded so right, but was executed so wrong.
To Relic's credit, it did end up releasing a free add-on pack called Insect Invasion, but by that time, only the diehard fans clung to their mutant armies.
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Psylancer: Here's another game with a really cool concept that was executed poorly. It's also another game with a developer praised to the point of rock stardom (Garden). Impossible Creatures' concept of letting you blend parts and characteristics of different creatures was awesome ... in theory. Before the game was an RTS, it was a virtual mad-scientist's lab. Unfortunately, the concept wasn't implemented well, leaving gamers with a fairly run-of-the mill RTS. At its best it was pretty average; at its worse it was tiresome.
Mr. Garden, on the other hand, was riding high off the success of Homeworld. Former Computer Gaming World Editor-in-Chief, Johnny Wilson, went as far as to call Garden "the gaming industry's next Sid Meier." With all due respect to Alex (a very nice guy these days), Impossible Creatures wasn't half the game it should have been. People were expecting Alex and Relic to serve up another Homeworld, but instead got the results similar to what would happen if you were to actually mate an alligator and a sperm whale.
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Delsyn: If I learned anything in this game, it's that the lobster should really be king of the beasts. Every unit I ever created always seemed to need some lobster in it because it offered the best stats-to-resource cost ratio and you could crank out a ton of anything with a lobster component. As for Alex, remember that infamous PC Gamer cover with "The New Game Gods" on it? Yeah, the one Stevie Case was on -- it seems to me that Alex Garden was on that too. Learn from her example, Alex, and don't drop off the edge of the Earth! One great game doesn't make you a game god!
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Fargo: I hate to come across too heavy on Alex Garden -- we in the media are always looking for people to talk about, and Garden is easy to talk to and always has great ideas so he fits the bill. The problem with Impossible Creatures is that it falls into the same trap as games like Black & White: A high concept that falters when it comes to the core game. Creating monsters? VERY cool. What do you do with them? Same thing you do in umpteen other RTS games? Well, that's the problem...
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