There are over forty different unit types in Dark Reign, each with different strengths, weaknesses, and costs. Each side has its own units, although some are very similar to units from the enemy contingent. Many are similar to units in other strategy games, but many are unique or offer capabilities not seen elsewhere.

Some units can morph into enemy units and even surroundings, like rocks and trees. You can use a morphed Scout to spy on the enemy or be a spotter for your artillery. The Saboteur can morph into a rock, sneak into camp, and quickly reduce the building to 50% health. The Infiltrator can morph into an enemy unit, sneak into an enemy base, and steal plans for a unit or a building. If successful, he enables you to build that item once the plans are returned to your base. The Tachyon Tank has a nice self-destruct feature in which causes severe damage to all enemy units nearby. There are also mobile buildings that can be packed up and moved, and even decoy units and buildings that can be built to deceive your enemies.

If the twelve missions aren’t enough to keep you busy, Dark Reign has excellent built-in multiplayer support. it allows you to play over the Internet on Activision’s own Dark Reign server, over a LAN, dial-up modem, serial/null modem, or via manual IP connections. The only one of these I tried was the Activision server, and I was able to successfully connect a number of times, and always found plenty of people to play against. Activision’s multiplayer servers seem to be getting better and better with each game release.

There is also an excellent mission editor that comes with Dark Reign. With it, you have every item you see in the game available for your own use. Every texture, unit, building, rock, hill, and tree are there so you can create the mission of your dreams (and battle against your friends/enemies on them). Dark Reign Missions is slated for release in February of 1998 and, according to sources at Activision, there will be more games covering every genre that will be based in the Dark Reign universe.