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Dropping into a skirmish in Petroglyphs Grey Goo for the first time felt like opening the door to my apartment on an otherwise normal day... and finding a swimming pool. Its a base-building RTS in the vein of Command & Conquer and all of its ilk. You gather resources and make little dudes to kill the opponents dudes and blow up their buildings. I figured I knew what to expect. And yet, I was taken by surprise by the very goo that lends its name to the title.

This particular interstellar war is set in a sci-fi future where humanity and a scrappy alien race known as the Beta are threatened by grey goo. It may sound like an unpalatable-but-not-life-threatening European sandwich spread. But the term actually refers to a hypothesis in science fiction and futurism which speculates that advanced, self-replicating nanobots could theoretically get out of control and begin converting all matter in the universe into more nanobotswhich may appear, to human eyes, as a sort of grey goo. Humans, Beta, and the Goo are all playable in the 15-mission campaign as well as AI skirmish and multiplayer. While the anthropoid factions build, expand, and fight just about how a veteran RTS player would expect, the goo the proverbial swimming pool in the room is a totally different animal.

As the goo, you have no buildings. Rather, you begin with a large, mobile blob called the Mother Goo that serves all the functions of a well-stocked base of operations. This maternal pustule of destruction parks itself over any of the resource nodes scattered around the map and begins to gain mass. Once a certain amount is acquired, it can split off a part of itself, reducing its health and size, to create either another Mother Goo (to slither off and found an expansion base), or an amorphous lump called a Protean that can morph into a variety of military units.

While most RTSes these days make an effort to introduce asymmetrical factions with unique resource-gathering and base management mechanics, the goo are probably the most mold-breaking army Ive ever gotten my hands on. Regardless, its the first time Ive been able to switch my faction and almost feel like I was playing a totally different game. No part of your army or economy is ever fixed to one spot, and it takes some mental gymnastics to get into the rhythm of what you should be doing at any given point in a match especially if your mind is pre-wired for more traditional RTS gameplay.

Apart from the oozing originality of the goo, there are some other, cool innovations stuck to the formula. Maps feature obscuring brush not unlike that in Dota and League of Legends, which blocks vision of units within to any player who doesnt have a spotter unit inside the brush themselves. It also serves as a twist on the traditional air-vs-ground struggle, as air units flying over brush are unable to get a read on whats inside without ground support. Many can cut loose blindly on anything that looks like a tree with the hopes of decimating whatevers lurking below, but a clever opponent can bait your aerial fire into an empty grove while the real army marches around to your back door.

The goo are probably the most mold-breaking army Ive ever gotten my hands on.

The three campaign missions available in the preview told the tale of the alien Beta having their homeworld invaded by technologically superior humans. Said humans were, presumably, fleeing from the Grey Goo, the origins of which were not revealed. But Im pretty sure it was the humans fault. Campaign maps and objectives were not particularly outstanding, but the story presentation is just about as polished as anything else in the genre. Full CGI cutscenes introduce key narrative points, and the principal characters are well-acted and animated. The Beta, portrayed by a talented cast of South African voice actors, were particularly endearing.

Well all be able to see the rest of the story of Grey Goo unfold on January 23. The remaining campaign missions will launch alongside ELO-based matchmaking for 1v1 and 2v2, as well as custom games and a map editor. I, for one, am looking forward to it. But Ill probably try to wear gloves next time.

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Grey Goo: An Unclean RTS (in a Good Way)