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Sigma at E3 2001

The Specs

In the latest RTS from Relic, the guys who made Homeworld, you use animals as building blocks to create an army. Each of Sigma's fifty or so animals will consist of up to six body parts: legs, torsos, heads, tails, wings, and so forth. You choose two animals, and then combine their various parts to make a hybrid creature whose stats and special abilities are determined by the combination of body parts. For instance, below you'll see a tiger with a lizard's head, an eagle with praying mantis claws, and a monkey with a zebra's butt. A shark cheetah is a fast amphibious unit. A dragonfly hippo is a hefty recon unit. A skunk hyena gets a bonus while fighitng in packs and can drop a defensive stink cloud. You assemble an army of ten hybrids and then start a scenario, in which you gather scrap to make buildings, including an electricity generator that creates your animals. The base building is minimized so the gameplay centers around the animals. A full battle should take around thirty minutes.

The Speculation

Tom's Comments: The guys who made Archon, Star Control, and Unholy War once said their formula for a game is "weird things beating each other up". Everyone loves weird things beating each other up. This partly accounts for why Sacrifice was so good. And it's partly why Sigma is my favorite game from this year's E3. Not only are the hybrids laugh-out-loud funny, but they also have considerable tactical depth. The design is at once ambitious (the number of potential combos is staggering) and focused (with bases and resources put in the back seat, games are supposed to be short and bloody). Sigma is a clear example of genius at work.

Mark's Comments: Relic's version of a Mr. Potatohead computer game is filled with charm and whimsy the way Pamela Anderson's bra is filled with silicon and more silicon. What other game lets you make flying hippos, sharks with tiger legs, and thousands of other permutations, and then send them into battle? It looked extremely impressive at E3. I have no idea if Relic and Microsoft can balance this game to keep players from gravitating to just a few hybrid animal types and rushing one another, but if they pull it off, this could be a big game. It's one of the few games I'm really looking forward to.

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May 22, 2001