A war four thousand years old, ravaged planets, and machine armies that no longer know how to stop.

No preference ranking here, so let us read the criteria. And the picture is harsh: Total Annihilation lands right at the bottom on nearly every line. The desert island ahead of only 7% of games, the connection, the rediscovery and the art style all around 13%. One thing stays afloat, near the median: the fun and the soundtrack, right in the middle. But careful, all of this rests on one or two votes per criterion, so first impressions more than sentences. The gap makes sense: this is a pure strategy game, and questions built for emotion, attachment or beauty do not measure what makes it great.

In the history of real-time strategy, Total Annihilation left its mark through its scale, its thousands of units and its real ballistic fire. None of that gets captured by criteria designed for today.

So, who is it for? You, if you love commanding entire armies, planning, encircling, crushing. Much less so if you want a game that touches the heart or dazzles the eye.