Grey Goo

Grey Goo is an RTS for players who still like base building, resource pressure, and the old contest over map control. By our assessment, its neatest idea is the three-faction setup, especially the strange balance among the Goo, the Humans, and the Beta, which gives the game a distinct identity inside a crowded genre. The downside is that it never fully escapes comparison with the giants of real-time strategy, and that makes its ambitions look a bit narrower than its premise suggests. In play it is all about expanding, scouting, defending, and trying to keep production moving while fronts shift. It sits in the long shadow of classic command-and-conquer style games and modern competitive RTS design at once, which is an awkward place to live. Grey Goo is most appealing to players who want familiar base-first strategy with a few unusual ideas, and less so to anyone expecting a huge reinvention.