Grey Goo was one of those (many) games that I heard about, learned a bit about, but just had yet to make time for. When recently given the chance to play it and the new Emergence DLC, I was happy to finally try and do so. In the last several days, I have worked my way through several of the base game’s missions and the DLC, on Normal. Along the way I re-acquainted myself with the RTS genre in general and with Grey Goo’s unique mechanics. On that note, I should add that the timely tutorial system with its seamless integration into the main game was super helpful and well done. Indeed, it has been (too) many years since I played a RTS, and no doubt some rust showed, but it doesn’t take very long to get swept into Grey Goo’s universe and its controls and mechanics thanks to the tutorial and the well-organized encyclopedia that you can access anytime during a mission.
Anyway, with my alloted time for Grey Goo running out, I’ve had to go “pencils down” so to speak and get this review punched out as more projects loom on the horizon. The takeaway from my experience and from what you may glean from this article should be simple: I have, and plan to continue, to enjoy Grey Goo. The DLC is just three missions long, but should net you a good 3-4 hours of play depending on your skill level. At $8, that’s a good value for DLC that continues the story of the base game, giving insight into the origins of the Goo and Singleton’s intentions, too. Being able to play as Singleton, the first hero unit for the series, is pretty cool too. That it took “this long” for Petroglyph to unveil a playable hero unit I think is more of a sign of patience and maturity than being lazy or trying to score extra sales from DLC, so kudos to them for that.
The DLC also packs new cinematics created by Axis Animation Studio. As part of an all-around impressive presentation, the cinematics in Grey Goo were a high point, and the quality of these is not compromised in the DLC. The soundtrack from the base game, which is so good you can buy it separately on Steam, is intact. As far as I can tell there are no new audio tracks, but I’m still really enjoying the original score, so no complaints there. Some tracks are a little too techno for my taste, but most of them have that powerful, sweeping intensity that I still associate with the classic Westwood Studios C&C games.
Emergence is a brief, but worthwhile DLC that players of the base game, especially those that finished it and are current on the story, should check out. With that’s lets get to the summary…