Grey Goo

This game would deserve a neutral rating. The last update was in 2016. I’m writing this review in 2026. It’s a functional game that built its existence on combining retro gameplay from the CRT monitor era at 800×600 resolution with the modern era, where, at the expense of gameplay, you create an environment filled with every possible and impossible effect so that even the top graphics hardware of the time can barely handle it. The result is a functional (everything works, it never crashed once) but uninteresting game, where you don’t have a strategic view; even the maximum zoom-out doesn’t show your entire base, and the zoom-in is so close that if it weren’t a top-down view, you’d be looking straight into the units’ anal cavities. Three uninteresting to outright repulsive factions, a cluttered, overwhelming environment — a jungle. I gave this game many chances, and always ended up at the same point. Who plays on a 14" monitor today? Not me. Today, 27" and larger monitors are common, with QHD resolution and higher. If you have a standard desk, you’re looking at the monitor from a distance of 60 to 80 cm. Instead of implementing a strategic zoom so you could view the entire map — something that has been standard for many years — you’re staring at something like the face of a cat that came to rub against your nose. You try playing in windowed mode, but you’re still constantly zooming, and it just doesn’t work. I tried a laptop. A 15.6" screen. Here’s the other extreme. You have an Intel Core 5 Ultra processor with integrated Arc graphics versus a 10-year-old game. You have to turn off almost all effects to get above 30 FPS. You have a base, nothing is happening, just jungle — yet the GPU runs at 2200 MHz and nearly 100%. And it all looks blurry. I tried the campaign several times. Why force yourself to play a game that its own creators abandoned after a year, that almost nobody plays in 2026, with ugly environments and factions, when there are both old and new RTS games — many of them free — that are alive, clear, undemanding, and fun? Why spend time on the dead Grey Goo, which preserves gameplay built for the 800×600 past, when there are things like cncnet.org with C&C and Red Alert (or the original bundle of all C&C, Command & Conquer The Ultimate Collection)? When there’s Supreme Commander? When there’s Zero-K, Beyond All Reason, and many other truly high-quality RTS games that weren’t made just as technological demos to show how many graphical effects can be used at the expense of gameplay? Grey Goo could have been a good game. But that strategic zoom that Supreme Commander has had for 20 years — Grey Goo instead used 30-year-old limitations and layered ultra-demanding, unnecessary graphical effects on top, giving the impression that 90% of the time was spent only on making the environment more complex and more demanding. The result is a boring, blurry-looking, unremarkable, dead RTS game with a dull story, created in the same era as Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation — a game whose developers still support it, and which, if nothing else, was used as a benchmark in its time. So I don’t end on a negative note: The most satisfying feeling Grey Goo can give you — and it truly is an almost uplifting feeling — is confirming the uninstall and watching even the last remnants of this “gem” disappear from your system. That feeling of cleansing is priceless.

Radiant Strider Trident Clasher Klaxon Overpowered Forgotten Pretty Good Starcraft Xcom RTS Command and Conquer with unique Sci fi story Forgotten Gem and Game Really wish there were creep camps like Warcraft and Starcraft Don't think they Should Have named them Beta and Named the entire Game after one faction Reminds me of Halo Wars Playing as the Grey Goo Really made me realize they are the Zerg the Mother Goo can run around the map and absorb anything dealing alot of damage to enemies by eating them move your base around the map I suck at RTS btw except Total War

classic resource, base building & unit creation rts games.

Ok. i was playing only campain and this game is not bad, but so annoying that i must write my opinion abot it. First of all, its looks like copy of Earth 2160, very simple copy. Your HUD is so basic that it hurts. Your troops, are idiots, i was loosing whole armys while figthing on two fronst where i set troops to go with attack and was bussy checking other front, when i come back to see how "go with attack" went, i saw that artillery troops without attacking anything was pushing forward while leaving behind fighting tank troops, yea they wanted only attack defense structures, why bother shooting troops. Hiding troops in forest, good idea, howerer there will be always some funny guy that dont like where he stands and will push from forest anyone who stands next to him. Next thing you look at your troops, someone attacking one of them, if enemy is not in attack range, why bother move 1 pixel to help friend, but leave them under enemy defense structures outside of enemy attack range for 1 min. When you come back they are running to attack walls and let defense structures (that actualy can attack) kill them all. Its funny that someone was trying to make game like Earth 2160, cinematics are great, face animations in mission brief looks amazing, but gameplay is not very good i would give it 6+/10 score.

solid old school RTS. not the biggest story line, but good. mechanics are sound, three factions, different strategies. i wish there was a longer story line. im old these days, and want more casual play, so a calm easy mode campaign would do me good.

Cool factions good quality cinematics could be a interesting story but just ends up as diet starcraft which is a shame and the gameplay is overall mediocre.

This is one of the slowest RTS games i have ever played! Building anything feels like it takes an eternity. i couldn't play anymore of this slugfest

Grey Goo is a competent RTS that genuinely impressed me with its asymmetric faction design — the Goo in particular are unlike anything I've played, with their mobile Mother Goo economy and nomadic playstyle feeling completely fresh. The production values are top-notch: Frank Klepacki's soundtrack slaps, the CGI cutscenes are stunning, and the hotkey system is one of the most intuitive I've encountered in the genre. That said, the campaign is disappointingly short at around 15 missions, individual units lack personality and are hard to distinguish within factions, and the story never really sticks its landing. Multiplayer is essentially dead, so you're looking at a purely singleplayer experience that feels just a bit too thin to justify full price. If you're an RTS fan who can grab this on sale, the Goo faction alone is worth the price of admission — just don't come in expecting the genre revival it was marketed as.

At one point IGN claimed this game was "the best RTS not made by Blizzard in the last five years." Apparently this is because at the time only Blizzard knew how to make a good RTS. Tiny maps and very limited unit selection for all four factions leaves this game feeling restrictive and incomplete. Planetary Annihilation released one year prior to this but feels far more satisfying to play, so I guess IGN was just dead wrong.

Very immersive story!