Impossible Creatures

Impossible Creatures is a wildly imaginative real-time strategy game that trades traditional unit rosters for a “mad scientist” toolkit. Developed by the RTS veterans at Relic Entertainment (of Homeworld and Dawn of War fame), the game is set in a pulpy 1930s world of island adventures and fringe science. Its defining legacy is the Sigma Creator, a revolutionary system that allows players to genetically engineer their own armies by fusing different animals together into bizarre, formidable hybrids.

The Sigma Creator: Genetic Warfare

The heart of Impossible Creatures is the ability to build your units from scratch. Before a match begins, players enter the “Sigma Lab” to combine any two of the game’s 70+ base animals (ranging from Great White Sharks and Elephants to Dragonflies and Snowy Owls).

The combinations are more than just visual; they are deeply tactical:

• Anatomy Matters: Choosing which animal provides the head, torso, legs, or tail determines the hybrid’s stats (health, speed, armor) and abilities.
• Special Traits: Fusing a Cheetah with a Skunk might give you a lightning-fast scout that can emit a debilitating stink cloud, while a Lobster-Elephant hybrid becomes a massive, armored tank capable of regenerating health.
• Billions of Possibilities: With the Insect Crusade expansion and various mods, the number of potential combinations reaches into the millions, ensuring that no two armies are ever truly identical.

A Pulp Adventure Campaign

The single-player story follows Rex Chance, a 1930s adventurer and war correspondent who travels to a remote archipelago to find his estranged father, Dr. Eric Chanikov. He discovers the villainous Upton Julius has weaponized his father’s “Sigma Technology” to create an army of monsters.

The campaign serves as an excellent introduction to the game’s mechanics, tasking players with collecting DNA from wild animals in the field to unlock new “parts” for their lab. The 15-mission journey captures the spirit of classic Saturday morning serials, filled with dramatic betrayals, ancient mysteries, and, of course, giant flying piranhas.

Traditional RTS Roots

Underneath the radical unit customization, Impossible Creatures remains a solid, classic RTS. Players must gather Coal and Electricity to power their bases and fund their genetic experiments. The gameplay emphasizes a “Tier” system (levels 1 through 5), where players start with cheap, small hybrids and eventually escalate to massive, world-shaking “Level 5” behemoths. This creates a strategic push-and-pull between rushing the opponent early with “Ant-Rats” or turtling up to produce a fleet of “Killer Whale-Eagles.”

Key Features

• The Sigma Creator — Engineer your own army of 50-70 units by combining the DNA of over 70 different animals.
• Vast Tactical Variety — Choose which attributes to prioritize: flight, swimming, poison, camouflage, or raw physical power.
• Pulp 1930s Atmosphere — Immerse yourself in a vibrant, stylized world inspired by classic adventure films and comic books.
• 15 Challenging Missions — Battle across a variety of biomes, from frozen tundras and tropical jungles to smoking volcanoes.
• Multiplayer Creativity — Bring your custom-built “army list” into online matches to surprise and overwhelm opponents with unique strategies.
• Steam Edition Refinements — Modern re-releases include support for high resolutions, improved multiplayer lobbies, and the Insect Crusade expansion content.

Summary

Impossible Creatures remains a unique outlier in the strategy genre. It successfully turned the “unit list” into a creative puzzle, challenging players to find the perfect biological balance between cost and power. It is a game of delightful absurdity—where a “Chameleon-Bull” is a perfectly valid frontline soldier—backed by the deep, polished RTS mechanics that Relic is famous for. For anyone who ever looked at a zoo and thought, “That Lion needs wings,” this is the definitive experience.

Release Platforms:

• Microsoft Windows (PC) — January 7, 2003
• Steam Edition — November 11, 2015 (Modernized for current hardware)