Only a few thousand humans managed to escape from the Earth before its collapse in 2150 A.D. They spent the next few years on the terra forming of the red planet, developing new technologies and building up new civilisations. Somehow each of the three factions "Eurasian Dynasty", "United Civilised States" and "Lunar Corporation" did this independently and separately from each other - but in the year 2160 something strange happens in this new world. If ED, UCS and LC join forces or continue their old war against each other - is possibly now, up to the player. Beside the usual venues in the solar system, there are some strange looking locations: planets with moving and reflecting liquid surfaces. And beside the standard RTS - resources acquisition, base building and destruction of enemy bases, the year 2160 will have some adventure inspired tasks for the players.

Your convoy is being hunted, your scout has gone missing and just before your final assault on the enemy base. When you think nothing more can go wrong sirens sound with warnings of an imminent attack on your city's battlements. Your next move is vital! Do you risk zooming your cursor to the other side of the map costing valuable seconds to save your depleting fleet? Or maybe you track down your special agents to see if they've found how to penetrate the opponents' gates? If only you could be in two places at once?

Demonstrating the impressive capabilities of the Earth 4 engine, the innovative Earth 2160 provides players with 'Picture in Picture' mode. With 'Picture in Picture' you can keep a close eye on integral units in one region while engaging war in another. Undoubtedly 'PIP' will become an integral part of your gaming experience and the best way to keep out a watchful eye, even when in the heart of battle. Tactical manoeuvres can be carried out with finesse as you are able to assess a situation from multiple view points, simultaneously. Counter attack an enemy ambush or switch to a first-person view to see not just what lies beneath your feet but what also flies overhead. Two places at once? Now you can be.

PLAYABLE PARTIAL CONFLICTING BASIC PARTIES:

• ED (Eurasian Dynasty) - after the destruction of the EARTH, the leaders of the Eurasian Dynasty escaped on board an evacuation fleet. Now they are fighting for the survival of the human species. Their base is one large building comprising of smaller variable parts.
• LC (Lunar Corporation) - This peace loving Matriarchal society has to fight to find a new base and home after the destruction of the Earth. LC buildings are built one on top of the other, similar to a skyscraper, but with one big difference. They have the ability to defy all the laws of gravity to move quickly to a new location.
• UCS (United Civilized States) - these machines evolved from the UCS battle machines. During the long flight to Mars, the computer decided to kill all human survivors and then initiated a plan to conquer the Solar system with its own mechanical army.
• Aliens - alien renegades were imprisoned a long ago, deep in the unknown history of Mars. In 2160 landing UCS ships awoke them from their deanimation. Now they are trying to escape their prison and to establish new bases in the solar system.

All character parties have the possibility of developing new technologies. Work on technology is done in research centres on the planet surfaces. Each species can develop as many technologies at one time as they have technology centres.

VIRTUAL AGENTS:

A whole new dimension will be added to the game by using virtual agents. Agents are freelancers available for hire who help a player during the game. Each agent has different abilities (they can help with research, unit commands, increasing mining efficiency, spying out enemies, stealing technology etc.) Agents can be hired and fired during the game. Hiring agents is done during an auction where different players can make their bids for the agent. This creates an opportunity to economically defeat an opponent by raising the price of the agent he wants to hire. Each agent remembers his old contracts with the player. The History of old contracts has a strong influence on the price of the agent. A player has to take care of his hired agents otherwise they may not want to work for him in the future. Agents also have relationships between each other. They can like, dislike, love or hate other agents. Those relationships also have influence on the price of a contract with an agent. For example: it is possible that an agent will work for a player for a really small amount of money because an opponent has hired the agent he hates the most. Not all agents are available all the time. If an agent is under contract to one player, he or she will not be available for the others.

FEATURES:

• 4 playable parties with different basic technologies and abilities
• Each party consists of more than 13 basic buildings and more than 13 basic units
• Various enemy races, special units and NPC's
• 4 single player campaigns, each with 7 missions.
• Skirmish mode with 10 maps
• 4 Multiplayer modes with 10 maps
• Multiplayer game saves and joining of running matches
• EarthNetTM Server with ladder and league support
• Modular Unit construction system. Each unit can be created from modular parts: chassis, armour, engine, boosters, cannons (up to 8 cannons), shield generator and modulation of particle weapons and shields. The number of different unit configurations is uncountable
• Units can be stored inside hangars. Hangars can be abandoned quickly to surprise an enemy.
• Units can be produced directly in hangars.
• Realistic, formable multiple textured terrain
• All cut scenes are displayed by the game engine and rendered in real time
• Holographic, transparent interface without the classic panel
• Multiple Window Cam display with first person view
• Main menu with story driven cut scenes (rendered on the fly) in the background.
• 12 virtual agents. These special characters have strong personalities and a great influence on the game. Each agent has special abilities. There are 20 ability categories for the agents.
• The economy is based on 3 main material types: water, metal and silicon. For each material there are 3 different sources. Metal types vary on the different maps. Color, HP, speed and armour of the units depend on the metal used. Number of all material sources is 18 (3 for water, 3 for silicon and 12 for metal).
• Multiplayer matches for up to 8 players per match
• "Save game" available in multiplayer.
• Possibility to connect to a running game.
• MP Spectator mode, Replays
• 4 game modes for multiplayer games.
• Possibility to join an AI player in multiplayer games
• E2160 World editor as an external program
• Per Pixel Shader 1.0, 1.2, 2.0 and 3.0 native support
• EarthC (programming language) SDK for Mod teams
• Full Unicode support