A 1997 3D video game released by the now defunct Cyclone Studios, Uprising: Join or Die is a hybrid first person/real time strategy. The player takes the role of a member of the Uprising, piloting the Wraith, and experimental command tank. The player is tasked with capturing planets and eventually the Imperial homeworld itself. Planets are generally captured by occupying all the command bunkers on the map, which is done by calling down a citadel, a massive armored and armed tower that acts as both guardian and command center. Of course, not all command bunkers are unoccupied, and Imperium citadels are heavily defended, requiring the player to deploy infantry, tanks, AAVsnote and bombers to clear them off the command bunker.
The game was generally well received, but had poor sales due to marketing unable to properly sell the game's hybrid nature. Two more games were released, Uprising X, a PlayStation game where the near defeated Imperium turns out to have an ace up the sleeve, and Uprising 2, in which you fight against the alien Trich.
Uprising 1 and 2 are now available on GOG.com, while Uprising X pretty much remain abandonware at this point; finding actual working copies, let alone disk images, is pretty much impossible.
Uprising features the following tropes:
- Awesome, but Impractical: The K-Sat is powerful, can take out most citadels in one shot, but requires you to have two existing power buildings, and costs about 800 power per shot.
- On the Wraith itself, the mortar. It allows you to deal respectable damage to buildings, which are otherwise near impervious to most of your arsenal, but accurate firing requires a lot of guess work.
- The anti-matter disk also counts, as though it allows you to rapidly annhilate anything you come across, including citadels, its low ammo count limits its usefulness.
- Boring, but Practical: Arguably the two most useful weapons in the game are the Helix missile and your standard laser cannon. When fully upgraded, and at full weapons energy, your basic laser cannon fires at a truly blistering rate, allowing it to chew through almost anything, and the Helix is an agile, fast moving projectile that tracks anything under your crosshairs, making it invaluable for killing AA Vs.
- Infantry too fall under this category, being cheap, plentiful, and only one of two ways to take out a building, the other being slow moving bombers.
- Death from Above: The K-Sat obviously, but most commonly bombers, which are always preceded by a deep rumble.
- Diverting Power: That's how the Wraith's Power Triangle works. You can allocate power to speed, shields or weapons, depending on the situation.
- Kill It with Fire: The Wraith can mount a flamer.
- Kill Sat: The K-Sat superweapon, which can only be built if you have two existing power buildings, fires a beam of energy straight up that comes down on whatever you're targeting and fries it. The manual explains it reflects the beam of energy off an orbiting satellite.
- La Résistance: Obviously.
- Lethal Joke Weapon: Conquering the Imperial capital and then going back to pick up any missed planets will net you the Anvil, which drops an anvil on anything you target. Suffice to say, it is the most powerful weapon in the game.
- Life Drain: The Spline weapon allows you to repair the tank by draining the life of a target; upgrading it improves the rate, damage and ammo count.
- One-Man Army: The player. You are dropped in your Wraith and expected to take over a world. And you generally do it. That's not to mention the fact that the Wraith itself is packed to the brim with heavy weaponry including, and not limited to mortars, flamethrowers, laser cannons, heat seeking missiles, rockets and vampire beams.
- More Dakka: Upgrading your standard laser cannon gives you this. Boosting AAVs and bombers nets them with fast firing laser cannons, with the higher tier bombers getting up to three such cannons for AA use.
- Power Ups: Two types exist - booster buildings, and traditional powerups that appear periodically around the map, generally near the Wraith. The player is generally alerted to the latter by a loud, steady beeping sound. Booster buildings, which can only be built after two factories for the corresponding unit type exist, upgrades that unit type. Each unit type has a particular boosted weapon.
- Infantry and tanks gain a one shot anti-tank missile, giving the former limited effectiveness against enemy armor, and the latter an early edge.
- AAVs gain the ability to fire mole torpedos, which are underground projectiles effective at taking out land units and buildings. Higher tier AAVs also gain a laser cannon, or if they already have one, get a faster firing version.
- Bombers gain one or more AA laser cannons. Higher tier bombers flying in close formation can fill the sky with lead.
- Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: The gameplay of Uprising and its sequels is based on driving around your tank to capture command bunkers, upon which can then deploy structures for producing either combat vehicles, or power with which said vehicles can be bought.
- Super Prototype: The Wraith, which is explained to be a command tank, designed to lead attacks on enemy positions by calling in reinforcements around it while supporting them with heavy firepower.
- The Empire: The Imperium. Said to be corrupt, selfish, and concerned only with subjugating its subjects instead of their well being.
