Earth 2160 is the third in the Earth series of sci-fi flavored real-time strategy games from Reality Pump Studios. Following in the same vein as it’s predecessors, Earth 2140 and Earth 2150, Earth 2160 is an ambitious real time strategy game centered around an imperiled earth and its inhabitants, a population under siege in 2150. Now, ten years later, the remnants of once species struggles to find a new home in the universe. A place to plant roots and rebuild.

2160 divides the forces into factions, the Eurasian Dynasty, Lunar Corporation, United Civilized States and the Aliens. As with all RTSs, each faction supports a number of unique abilities and units. What these are exactly remains to be seen, but if the rest of the features are any indication they will certainly be interesting.

Key features to look for with Earth 2160 include a truly unique system of independent Agents. An Agent can be hired by any player to work for their faction. Agents are truly freelance and therefore can drive a high price of their services. Those services include industrial espionage, research and development, production efficiency, intelligence and counter-intelligence.

What really makes the Agent system unique is their “personalities”. That’s not to say the Agents themselves are burdened by a heavyweight AI and need an ego stroke from time to time, no, what it actually means is that Agents can react and alter their behavior and services based on the presence of other Agents. Agents can express emotional responses to other Agents by driving up the prices of their services if a hated rival Agent also works for the player or driving their prices down just for the chance to stick it to a rival Agent in the employ of another player. Agents can love and hate, like and dislike, any other Agent.

Of course 2160 runs out all of the latest technologies for this 3d strategy. Bump mapping, spectra maps, dynamic shaders, dynamic materials and an impressive lighting system are just what the android ordered for a game that screams for a solid 3d engine. The Earth-4 engine to be exact.

Similarly, the AI could prove to an interesting feature. The documentation claims the AI is based on a “self-learning AI that uses linear back framing algorithms.” All this really means is that uses a series of math functions to teach itself how to perform certain actions better in response to the most common events encountered. How this works in practice remains to be seen, but it could make for some really interesting pathfinding and group combat. Let’s say you have a penchant for a “cheap rush” attack. In theory the AI can learn that it’s human opponent exhibits a similar behavior in each combat and structures its strategy based on this knowledge. Then again, it could just be marketing fluff.

Modders can begin drooling. Earth 2160 is slated to include full Unicode support, a native programming language (EarthC) with SDK and a World Editor. Without some hands on it is impossible to tell what these tools really mean, but the documentation certainly gets the thumper pumpin’.

By far the feature I am most anticipating is the Modular Unit Construction System. Before you groan and shake your head you jaded gamer, take it from another jaded gamer that this one has potential. Again, without the hands on it’s tough to tell how well this has been implemented, but the spec calls for some pretty hefty customizations to both units and buildings. Units can be constructed with from a modular chassis with armor, engines, boosters, cannons, shield generators and particle weapons. Need a fast attack unit? Don’t rely on the limitations of someone else's design, strip the armor down to tissue paper and bulk up the engines, and cannons. Similarly, the construction of each building can be customized for your individual needs.

And that’s it for my sneak peek at Earth 2160. While I certainly can’t get too excited about a game that I haven’t even touched yet and Earth 2160 is promising some bold goals to boot, I can say that I will be following this one closely. In the meantime, check out these Earth 2160 screenshots , and then visit www.earth2160.com .