A.R.S.E.N.A.L is a 1998 Real-Time Strategy game by the company Tactical Soft, featuring vehicles led by some nasty faction. In 2002, it received a patch, called Exteded Power. A very crude self-published game, but earned a cult following because of its solid gameplay.
This game provides examples of:
- Ace Pilot: What your most experienced fighters can become.
- America Takes Over the World: If you play as the Schyzo faction.
- Construct Additional Pylons: Housing for citizens, which can be taken by advancing enemy troops.
- Cosmetically Different Sides: Mostly so, excepting for the unique units.
- Damage Is Fire: Sufficiently attacked buildings will start to burn and suffer burning damage. And there are firebomb planes tha just set them on fire with one sortie.
- David vs. Goliath: Building a Superweapon or a group of supertanks and heavy artillery can be defeated by an adversary who manages to cleverly use combined arms, air support and supply lines disruption.
- Death from Above: One of the possible ways of leveling the enemy camp...
- Defenseless Transports: Barges (and petrol ships) have no weaponry of their own.
- Disproportionate Retribution: An adversary starting to build in your turf, allowing you to declare war? Do it and punish him with a rain of Toxic Missles over his housing and factories.
- Easy Logistics: Shells are unlimited, but failing to transport enough fuel to your troops will often result in your most powerful units becoming sitting ducks right over enemy lines.
- Geo Effects: Rubble may block any other unit than the bulldozer from passing.
- Glass Cannon: The Rocket Launcher, and also the ramps for the Buzz Bomb.
- Nuke 'em:The Americans(Parano) can build an Atomic Bomber and the due Atomic Bomb.
- Permanently Missable Content: Ore rigs and oil stations are not rebuildable. The resources they have are lost forever in this case.
- Rock Beats Laser: Not so much. Yes, tanks beats artillery, fighters beats bombers, submarines beats carriers and destroyers beats submarines, but not always.
- Russia Takes Over the World: If you play as the Parano faction.
- Schizo Tech: More or less. Its possible, albeit impractical , to have a full army of 1930s 1.5 inch gun tankettes defending your home base while having an air force of jet fighters and a navy of submarine-immune hovercrafts barges to transport support troops to allies which are invading your enemies with real tanks.
- Shown Their Work: Spite of lacking any type of infantry, the game portrays somewhat realistically mechanized combat in the Second War.
- Take Over the World: There are multiplayer maps in the form of the world.
- Technology Levels: Averted. There is, in fact, a intertwined techology three related to the three main military branches.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Your units have names and ranks. You will feel sorry for sending Private Pavlov and his Sherman team against a enemy beachhead protected by four rocket emplacements. Also, you lose points by having units and citizens die, and by commiting acts of cruelty or war crimes.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Even if a player has amassed a lot of resources, if his citizens get annexed by the enemies, his production of new units will slow or even stop completely. As annexing an enemy housing unit would involve cleaning all his active units near it, and keeping yours alive, it often can be more game-wisey to just blow up all people and then build your own housing afterwards. Which, if the tide turn or a former ally become a enemy, can happen to your own people as well...
- And there is the possibility of self-destructing buildings to avoid them being taken... which also eats points from the perpetrator.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: The points system punishes for war crimes and acts of agression done in game, and also for the death toll of your units. Is possibly to win the game and have a negative score for having thrown an atomic bomb right in the middle of a enemy housing concentration full of co-belligerent units of another faction that never weren´t at war with you. And then, after obliterating your common enemy and their best troops, do a surprise attack on them without declaring war and firebombing their HQ and most of their housing just for sure.
- Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Averted. There is not flamethrower per se, but firebombing the enemy housing and resource buildings can be a efficient way to divert attention and resources.
- Was It Really Worth It?: Any player who wins by the most cruel and insidious ways possible.
- We Have Reserves: It´s possible to defeat an attack by super-artillery and super-tanks by just queuing a factory with medium tanks to their path, specially if you have static defenses and some air support.
- Worker Unit: The bulldozer, which also destroys rubble and takes enemy H Qs. And the Fire Truck, which besides from putting off fires, also repair your and friendly buidings.
- Zerg Rush: Its possible to use medium tanks to zerg bigger ones. Or flak trucks to do the same, with a little less sucess, against air invasions.
