If you thought there were crazy units in "Command & Conquer Red Alert," you haven't seen "D.O.R.F." yet.

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If you thought there were crazy units in "Command & Conquer Red Alert," you haven't seen "D.O.R.F." yet.

D.O.R.F. is becoming the spiritual successor to Command & Conquer that I dreamed of. The grainy, isometric sprites are impressive, and the look and feel of a golden age real-time strategy game is well replicated.

Many of the spiritual successors do justice to the aesthetics of an era. Still, D.O.R.F.'s latest trailer, released at the PC Gaming Show, shows that developer DORFteam has it all down, from the industrial synthesizer-heavy music to the washed-out color palette.

D.O.R.F. takes place in a dark future Earth ravaged by genetic experimentation, endless warfare, and extraterrestrial anomalies, and the attention to detail in the stylization of the game, including the UI, is impressive. The trailer shows a retro wireframe build menu, with static video effects of an old analog TV screen over an awkward close-up of a selected unit.

Each of the game's three factions has a separate story campaign: the industrial crumbling empire, the advanced New World Order, and the Mad Max-esque barbarians. The latter appear to have the most outlandish weaponry (giant steel rolling dead balls that penetrate enemy defenses). My favorite is the manufacturing wing, shaped like a giant dieselpunk skull. Every faction has unique weapons, such as the ground-based cannons of the Collapsing Empire that wipe out entire settlements with a single blow, or the New World Order battle tanks that look like they came straight out of a future battle in the original Terminator, which are basically chunky robot torsos rolling on caterpillar treads.

D.O.R.F. is the work of only two developers: John Williams (not the composer) and Thomas Van Less. Development funding to date has been raised through Patreon, and the game will be released on Steam and GOG. You can sign up to purchase the game now.

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