Impossible Creatures

In the 19th century authors theorised about the creation of new hybrids from different creatures. That's the goal behind the real-time strategy game Impossible Creatures. The story concerns adventurer and hunter Rex Chance and his skirmishes with a mad scientist bent on world domination through animal engineering. Rex has to gather DNA from animals and combine it in his Creature Lab, giving rise to such oddities as Shagles (shark eagles), Eleph-Ants (elephant ants), Bull-o-Diles (bull crocodiles) and whatever else you want to come up with.

The missions of the single player game are linked by a pretty good tale, nicely flavoured with touches straight out of the adventure serials of the 1940s. But the game's limitations are also clearest in single player: it's just a regular old real-time strategy game at heart. The creature gimmick is cool, but once you figure out what critters you need, it becomes dull.

Multiplayer is a different story. In multi you can load up to eight creatures into an army and those are the beasts you can use in the match. If you load the wrong beasts your opponent can swarm all over you. The fun comes when you start working out how to beat your enemy's army with the Creature Combiner interface. The only problem here is that to get that point you have to play the same person more than once. That's not an easy task, thanks to a lacklustre multiplayer matchmaking service (as compared to that in, say, Age of Mythology). It would be better if you could customise armies during the game, but real-time pacing precludes that.

The graphics and audio are great and you can't beat the concept. It could be a better game, and there are better real-time games out there, but none of them let you make a Skant (skunk ant) or a massive Sperm Grizzly (sperm whale grizzly bear) and who wouldn't want to spend time doing that? --Andrew S Bub

Set in a fantastic 1930s world, Impossible Creatures is a 3-D, real-time strategy game that pits the player against an evil villain in a desperate campaign across a chain of remote and diverse islands. Using Earth's most formidable animals as building blocks, the player must create an army of genetically altered mutant monsters in a titanic struggle to protect an unsuspecting world.

The game promises a unique multiplayer experience where up to six Impossible Creatures players will be able to wage war in real time using Zone match. Multiplayer games are designed to be fast and furious with a streamlined RTS approach. Micromanagement has been minimised to allow players to focus on the aspects of the game that are the most fun and compelling-combat and strategy. With more than 20 multiplayer maps, and the ability to refine your armies and strategy, multiplayer RTS gaming will never be the same.

Impossible Creatures is a real-time strategy game of combat and discovery, where imagination and experimentation are your biggest allies in a struggle against evil.The year is 1937 and you are Rex Chance, renowned world adventurer and war correspondent. You have spent your life exploring the wilds of Africa, the ice shelves of Antarctica, and the sultry jungles of the Amazon. You've seen every beast on earth… or so you thought. You've just received word from your long-lost father, scientist Dr. Eric Chanikov, who disappeared many years before. Suddenly, he now begs to see you. So you fly to the Isla Variatas in the South Pacific where he works in the employ of wealthy industrialist Upton Julius. But what begins as an innocent reunion quickly turns sour as you come face-to-face with the Sigma Technology. What is the Sigma Technology? Imagine possessing the ability to combine any two animals into a single creature. Flying elephants, giant ants, amphibious sharks - anything you can conceive. The possibilities boggle the mind! What benefits might it bring? What evil might be wrought?