Earth 2150: Lost Souls is the third in the Earth 2150 trilogy.  It features a story that can be best described as the history of a futuristic war.  Earth is in certain peril, having been knocked off its standard orbit from several large explosions.  You take control of one of three organizations, one of which planning to escape earth—but not if the other two can help it.  Allies change occasionally as the story progresses and different countries are visited to propel the storyline, which is told from mission briefings and FMVs.

The gameplay adds some elements not seen in other RTS games.  The unit customization area allows you to design units of your liking, an awesome feature that adds some nice depth to the game.  You can choose from different vehicles, including tanks, choppers, and boats, equip them with shields, rocket launchers, chain-guns, lasers, or even a flag to motivate other units to fight better.  You must be strategic when doing this—don’t send an expensive, slow helicopter to scout out new land, create a new chopper without shields and weapons so you won’t be losing as much money.

The game also features a cool system where you can swap between maps of your main base and the battlefield.  You can send units and money from one base to another via a large ship.  In times of dire emergency, one could stock the transporter with powerful units and hope to the heavens they arrive in time to save your camp from destruction.  Or transport an important unit to a safe area where it can’t be attacked.  Pretty cool idea.

But sometimes the game only frustrates when it tries to be original.  Case in point: units do not have unlimited ammunition.  While that’s not such a horrible thing, wait until you see how long it lasts—not very.  You’ll often find yourself attacking a base, and then having to retreat to refill your ammo.  Good luck pulling another sneak attack on that base.  While there are other ways to refill your ammo, I was still bothered when many of my units were being destroyed because they couldn’t attack.

Lost Souls’ graphics are rather nice, for the most part.  Units, buildings and the environment are all rendered in crisp 3D.  Textures do start to look degrading when the camera is closer to the ground, but there isn’t a good reason for the camera to be that close anyway, so don’t worry about it.  The animation is rather simple most of the time, but still quite smooth.  2D effects such as smoke and the fog of war could look better, but it’s not too distracting.  All in all, while you won’t be mesmerized by the graphics, they won’t give you sore eyes, either.

The sound is well done, even though it seems to come in at the wrong times.  Wouldn’t a more pleasant tune be appropriate while you’re waiting around at your base for income?  I never knew just waiting around was so intense...

The games interface is very well done.  The intuitive control panel keeps the bottom of the screen free for tasks and other statistics when you need them.  A construction panel only appears when you select units that can construct, thus saving precious screen space.  Designing units is a cinch.  The game will pause and give you the whole screen to create them.  It’s not too hard on the eyes either, and there are six or so color schemes to suit your preferences.

What it all boils down to is a solid real-time-strategy game with some cool features.  RTS fans should give it a go if they’re looking for a new title, but others might want to try out a demo first.  The game is, admittedly, a bit slow compared to games like StarCraft, but it’s more complex than that, as well.  Either way, Lost Souls is a game that tries new things, and even if they don’t always seem that great, at least it’s a breath of fresh air.

Gameplay: 7.5

Some may not like its somewhat slow pace, but one can agree that Lost Souls is full of complexity and depth, with unit customization, transferring between maps, and more.  A few hassles are to be found, such as refilling ammunition for each unit, but overall, not bad.  Included is a map editor to design your own adventure after the thirty or so missions.

Graphics: 7

While not breathtaking, Lost Souls’ graphics work well.  Animation is simple yet elegant, and everything is rendered in crisp The fog of war and other 2D effects like smoke could look better, however, and the FMVs, while short, aren’t very good.

Sound: 7

The score found throughout is very nice, mostly instrumental work, but I dug it.  The only thing I question is the timing of it.  It should come in during fights and attacks, not while you’re just hanging around your base.

Difficulty: Medium

Even on the easy difficulty setting, I still had a bit of a challenge playing.  The AI is not fantastic, but it does the job.  Taking your time and organizing are key here.

Concept: 8

I really like how there are some cool new things implemented in Lost Souls: unit customization, transferring units and money from one base to another, and the interface while playing is very well done.

Multiplayer: N/A

At the time of this review, I could not log into Lost Souls’ servers to try out an online game.  The feature is there, however.

Overall: 7

Those looking for an action packed, sci-fi adventure should probably look elsewhere.  But for those of us looking for an original RTS with a sci-fi storyline, Earth 2150: Lost Souls fits the bill quite nicely.