Oil Rush is a real-time naval strategy game based on group control. It combines the strategic challenge of a classical RTS with the sheer fun of Tower Defence. Fight the naval war between furious armies across the boundless waters of the post-apocalyptic world. Pump the ever-so-precious black gold by oil rigs, capture platforms and destroy the enemy in the sea and in the air. Be ingenious to unlock super technologies and quick to send your squads straight into the heat of the battle!
I have played through all the single-player missions now, so I think I'm qualified to write a review.
Beautiful graphics, and some very good music. The story is no better or worse than expected (cliches plus some logical holes). The voice acting is not very good. The game itself is somewhat fun, but is lacking in both the tactical the strategic department, and contains some very frustrating missions - one escort mission in particular (Zhuang, why aren't you sailing _AT FULL SPEED_ away from the enemy, you MORON!).
The tactical department - it is frustrating to not be able to control your own forces better. The game already contains elements of micro-management, so why not let us do some _useful_ micro management instead of the incredibly blunt 'send forces to platform' and 'send forces back'. While enroute between platforms, it's not possible to redirect them to the nearest platform - the one that is being attacked only about 50 yards from my path. If it had been a space sim, with ships in hyperspace, I might have been more forgiving. However the ships here are sailing plain old water.
The strategic department is also lacking - you can capture all the enemy production platforms, and STILL have enemy reinforcements pop up (from outside the map). And it is virtually impossible to establish a safe zone because of the frustrating routing/control of forces.
Still, a very welcome Linux release - we're not exactly swimming in games and game engines developed by actual game studios.