Our first Review was very short, because we tested an unfinished game.
Here is the old Review:
This is not your ordinary RTS! Meridian: New World is the work of one single dedicated man. From worlds changing according to players decisions to other interesting innovations for the RTS genre. Meridian even packs a state of the art level editor and scripting tools. This one man team definitely deserves your support. If you are into RTS games, Give “Meridian: New World” a try!
Here is an Update of our previous Review:
As previously reported, a Special Edition of Meridian: New World was released in a retail box. This game was developed by Ede Tarsoly, founder of the one man studio Elder Games. The publisher is Headup Games. The Special Edition comes with an exklusives Poster, various digital premium content like trailers, digital expansions and videos about the development, a second digital poster and the complete soundtrack of Meridian.
About Meridian: New World:
Slip into the role of Daniel Hanson. He is the Commander of the first mission to the remote planet Meridian. He believes that the planet is entirely not populated, then unexpectedly receives an emergency call from the surface which could mean many things, but nothing you are prepared for… Why was an individual man successful with something, that game-studios did not get right for years? This game is great compared to other expensive produced games. There are no masses of units, buildings or fractions you have to handle.
Instead of a huge multiplayer, this game has a strong solo campaign, which includes various simple game mechanics. In some classic missions you have to build up your base and destroy the enemy. Sometimes you have to sneak between the enemies’ sensors to pass your way, because your radar does not work anymore. In other cases thanks to a traitor you can find your enemy on the map. In the meantime you can make decisions, which will influence further missions. If you prefer to interrupt the communication of the enemy you can. Its also possible to destroy the enemy’s Air Force. Would you like to attack the enemy directly or would you prefer to irrupt the network?
Meridian: New World is not a game without mistakes. Most of the times its hard to differentiate between the individual units. Most players only see the differences of the units when they fire their weapons.
An old school RTS should have a level editor. This game is available on Steam so it also should support the Steam Workshop. Every player has the option to download maps other players released. Remember you have to put in a lot of work to deal with the editor. The manual has more than 50 pages and is really detailed.
The retail version confirms our positive first impressions. Meridian: New World is a classic RTS. Those are rarely produced in our times of big hit games. This great success is made by only one man. So we have to ask ourselves, what could he have made if he had the budget and time that big companies have. Ede Tarsoly could be the right man to save franchises as the Command and Conquer series or other games alike. We do not want to name all the mistakes that this game has, because with only a little bit of money for the Steam version you get a great game. And if you are still double minded, download the FREE demo! It is worth it!
Tested and written by Lias Kudla & Marcel Krafczyk