Earth 2150: The Moon Project

Earth 2150: The Moon Project is a sequel to the real time strategy game Earth 2150. While the game is in fact a stand-alone game, many consider it an expansion pack because it does little more than provide new missions, and weapons. The story takes place alongside the original game's story. The Moon Project was released in 2001 by Strategic Simulations, Inc.

Story
Earth's final war is in full swing. The United Civilized States, Eurasian Dynasty, and the Lunar Corporation fight over what is left of the world’s resources in order to escape the blue planet before it is destroyed. Meanwhile, on the Moon, the Lunar Corporation discovers the remnants of an alien tunnel system. In it, they find the plans for an orbital super weapon, with the power to attack the Earth from the Moon. While beginning the process of building the weapon, code named "Sunlight", a United Civilized States army appears ready to try and stop them. It's up to the player to decide how it will play out, and who will win.

Gameplay
The Moon Project is a war strategy game. What sets it apart from other games in the genre, is the full three dimensional play. You can rotate the camera to view the battlefield from just about any angle. It also includes an experience system for your units, indicated by a green and black line under the unit's health bar. Higher levels means higher damage, health, and armor. You must mine resources in order to build units and structures, and must create power plants to keep your structures working. The game includes a 10 level campaign for each faction, and multiplayer support is provided.

The Factions
The game includes three playable factions. Each has its own unique style and army.

United Civilized States: UCS for short, consists of the American continents. Their society relies heavily on machinery and robotics, and is ruled by an Artificial Intelligence. Machines do all tasks for the people and as a result the population is lazy and hedonistic. Their army consists of Mecha without human pilots. When playing as the UCS, the player takes the role of a commander working for the President but more directly to GOLAN and another AI called NEO. The UCS has long been at war with the Eurasian Dynasty. The main weapon of the UCS is the Plasma Cannon and the larger Heavy Plasma Cannons. While very powerful, shields can stop plasma before it can make it to the hull of target vehicles.

Eurasian Dynasty: ED for short, controls Europe and Asia. They are ruled by a descendent of Genghis Khan and seem to follow old Soviet ideology. They are somewhat primitive (by 22nd Century standards) at first, relying on 21st century vehicles and weapons, such as tanks and helicopters. They do however have some advanced technology in the form of the Laser cannon and the Ion cannon. The ED dual 120 cannons are very powerful and can also punch through shields, a very useful property in the end game.

Lunar Corporation: LC for short, are descendants of lunar colonists. Since 2084, they severed contact with the Earth when it became apparent that a full-scale nuclear war was about to occur. Since then they have lived peacefully on the Moon. Because of their isolation from the wars of Earth, their society has evolved into a pacifist form. The technologies of the LC are far more advanced than that of the other two factions. The main weapon platform of the LC is the hovercraft. Not having been at war for many years; the LC military machine is almost non-existent. They catch on quickly however, and build some of the more exotic weapons of the game including the Electro-cannon, which emits an electrical pulse to destroy targets, and the Sonic-cannon, which emits a moderately powerful radial effect that damages all enemies around it. Another thing to note is that the LC is comprised mostly of females.

The game
The game plays nearly the same as Earth 2150 with a few key differences:

1. Both LC and UCS campaigns take place on the Moon, with the exception of the first UCS level.

2. Several new vehicles and weapons have been added to the game including mobile transports, Artillery, antimissile systems which fire automatically in order to take down incoming enemy missiles and "Anti-air" weapons (ED: AA Gun, UCS: AA Plasma Cannon, LC: AA Rocket Launcher), which do incredible amounts of damage to aircraft.

3. The ED campaign introduces an "Advancement system" which allows you to gain rank (and a cut-scene) upon earning a certain amount of points, which are received when objectives are met in missions.

4. The shield system has been changed to even out the defense capabilities of the 3 factions. The power of the shields has been halved.

5. The campaign no longer revolves around sending resources to your home base for the construction of an evacuation fleet. Instead, all the resources on the map are added to your home base funds when you successfully destroy all enemy units in the mission and return to your base. Unlike the first game, which required careful conservation of resources to complete a mission and the game, funds are nearly unlimited on each mission.