KKnD series

KKnD, or Krush, Kill 'n' Destroy is a series of post-apocalyptic real-time strategy games by Beam Software. KKnD was released in 1997, while a sequel - KKND2: Krossfire was released in 1998. Towards the end of 1997, KKnD Xtreme, an expanded version of the original was released, which featured extra missions and enhancements.

All games in the series feature a campaign for each of the different factions in each game, alongside multiplayer capabilities.

Contents

Games in the series

Story

The year 2079 AD realized Mankind's ultimate nightmare: an all-out nuclear war exterminates a quarter of the world's population almost instantly. Infrastructure collapses, as mutagenic viruses infect humans and animals alike. Most of the survivors of the attack (aptly named the Survivors) live underground, but those who don't are mutated by the viruses and nuclear fallout (what they call the Evolved). 2141 saw the underground dwellers breaking through the surface after living underground for decades. Soon enough, the "Evolved" and "Survivors" will meet. The Evolved and the survivors do battle till the survivors are surrounded at their main HQ bunker and the war was about to reach a climax. The battle ended into a stalemate though and both the Evolved and the Survivors retreated to lick their wounds for 40 years.

The Survivors return into underground, go through their strategies and ponder on why they were nearly wiped out by the "freakers". Thus they begin to regroup and build newer and better weapons, to make it sure that next time, they will win the war for the surface. The Evolved retreated far into the wastelands and pondered on in turn, why they suffered such a loss against the "symmetrics" at the final hour. The Evolved council had dictated that use of pre-war technology had angered their gods which is why they were denied victory. Now the Evolved began to favor beasts of nature to do their bidding, from resource gathering to warbeasts and aerial warfare.

As the decades pass and the two finally meet again, they have a new opponent unexpectedly entering the fray: Series 9, series of agricultural robots, turned into advanced combat machines, having developed their own unique set of advanced farmer-themed weaponry..

Once the war of 2079 AD had silenced, the Series 9 agriculture robots realized their reason for existence was wiped out along with the withered crops. In time, partially malfunctioning due the nuclear exchange, they somehow developed an emotion, a deep-seeded hate towards all humans. First Series 9 would attack and destroy remaining Series 5,6,7 and 8 robots, while Series 1-4 where destroyed in the bombed cities in 2079 AD. Now Series 9 moved to attack humans, only to realize that during 2140's the Survivors and the Evolved held sway over the surface, fighting eachother with far superior weaponry compaired to their pitchforks and shovels. While the war for the surface raged on and had ceased for some 40 years, Series 9 developed their own weaponry in silence, only to emerge before both the Evolved and the Survivors to challenge them.

But the Survivors and Evolved are more than happy to accept new challenges with the new killers on the block around...

Gameplay

The gameplay in the KKnD series is similar to that of other real time strategy games, such as Command & Conquer and StarCraft, created by Westwood and Blizzard respectively. The player uses resources to manufacture buildings which can create units and vehicles, which are used to exterminate opposing forces. Like the Z series of games, KKnD is tongue-in-cheek, not taking itself too seriously.

Armies

In KKnD and KKnD Xtreme, the player can choose from either the "Survivors", humans with access to technology, or the "Evolved", mutant survivors of the nuclear blasts. In KKnD 2: Krossfire, an army of technologically advanced robots are also available, the "Series 9". Each army has a selection of units and vehicles, though they fall into equivalent groups. Every army has its own perks so to speak: The Evolved may sacrifice infantry at a structure known as "The altar of the Scourge" to summon forth demons and Series 9 infantry cannot be overrun with any vehicles, granting them more advantages over enemy vehicles and beasts.

Like mentioned above, the Survivors rely on technology, pre-war like machines to do war with while the Evolved mostly use tamed mutated fauna to do their bidding, such as gigantic insects, craps and mastodons. The Evolved still reled on some machinery such as motorcycles, monster trucks and other automobile machinery in their war for the surface in 2141. After that, in KKnD 2: Krossfire, the Evolved rely solely on fauna, from resource gathering to doing war, taming more different beasts for their armies.

A number of special units are also appearing in all KKnD games, usually scattered in few maps waiting for the player to activate them. They are located in "tech bunkers" and whoever gets to the bunker first, receives a special pre-war robot that has superb strength in both durability and firepower, usually defeating any single enemy unit of any army in combat. These units cannot be repaired however which makes these units more high valued and prestige. In KKnD 2: Krossfire, the selection of units are increased from ground units to two special aerial units; a flying saucer with ability to attack ground targets and an extremely fast and mobile dropship.

External links