espite the large number of untested concepts in Perimeter, at the end of the day it’s an enjoyable play, albeit a slightly rough one. Because seriously, who doesn’t enjoy the power to literally make the land over as they see fit?

The story of Perimeter is weird enough to do Philip K. Dick (of Blade Runner fame) proud. It’s also told oddly, with the player jumping between three different factions (who unfortunately play almost identically) at seemingly random intervals. That’s okay, though, because it sets up the myriad mission objectives well enough. The campaign switches up between variants on escape, survive, and conquer regularly, which keeps things fresh.

Three innovative concepts also serve to differentiate Perimeter. Impenetrable force shields, morphing units, and terraforming all work together rather well, and make for a unique flow of play. Enemies tearing apart your helicopters? Turn them into tanks. That didn’t work either, and your squad is done for? Fine – create a big chasm or raise your Perimeter to buy yourself a little time. As you can easily tell, Perimeter has a strategy all its own, and it’s a lot of fun to explore.

A general lack of polish holds Perimeter back from being a real contender for top dog in the RTS genre. Unit AI is often wretched, enemy AI is worse, and framerate suffers during camera pans or intense battles even on a beastly PC with settings set around medium. Cool concepts, excellent graphics, and good mission design save it though, and the new ideas alone make it worth a look. Don’t be surprised if that quick look turns into a lot more; the gameplay is tight enough to glue any RTS fan to the monitor for a good long time.