Draft:Beyond All Reason (Video Game)

Beyond All Reason (BAR) is a open-source, fanmade, video game inspired by the real-time strategy video game Total Annihilation. It is currently in development and aims to release on Steam upon completion. The game is currently in open alpha and can be downloaded from the official website on both Windows and Linux.

Gameplay
The game offers the choice of two distinct factions, Armada and Cortex. The former focuses on speed and stealth tactics while the latter focuses on brute force tactics. Each faction has it's own set of robotic infantry (bots), vehicles, aircraft, and naval units. The game is played by starting with one unit, The Commander. Similarly to a king in chess, the player who eliminates their opponent's Commander unit first wins the game. Beyond All Reason features multiple game modes including 1v1, team games up to 8 players per side, horde modes against computer controlled opponents as well as single player scenarios for offline play.

The game features two different resources, energy and metal. The player can acquire the energy resource by building windmills, solar collectors or nuclear power generators. Metal can be acquired by building extractors over metal deposits or by reclaiming the metal in the wrecks of defeated enemy or allied units. In contrast to many other other real-time strategy games, Beyond All Reason features a streaming economy where resources on the map are not finite, but instead can be scaled up infinitely with resource production buildings and units. This is intended to afford players the use of increasingly destructive units over time which are more expensive and effective at their roles.

Physics and terrain play a role in combat and strategy. All projectiles are simulated in real time, for example, a unit that fires rockets may be able to see an opponent's unit on top of a cliff, but can't actually deal any damage due to the cliff blocking the rocket shots. However the unit on top of the cliff has no obstruction and can fire down without being impeded, thus heightening the importance of positioning. Additionally, the different unit types interact with terrain in different ways as well, whereas bots could scale a large hill, vehicles would have trouble on such a steep incline. This allows for a choice trade-off between manoeuvrability and firepower when choosing what units to build.

Development
Beyond All Reason is based on the Spring Engine which allows all aspects of the game to be open-source. There are currently 16 people working on active development of the game with multiple contributors that can help due to the open-source nature of the project.

Reception
Despite being in open alpha, Beyond All Reason has received a notable amount of attention from online game publications.