wonderful variety of terrain, mission types, and scenarios". William Wong of Computer Shopper called it "a great game that is backed by good graphics and sound, and will keep you going for hours"; he also praised its cutscenes. He concluded, "If the [upcoming] multiplayer pack is as good as the standalone version, Terra Nova could be a strike force to be reckoned with." PC Gamer UKs James Flynn praised the game's graphics, sense of realism, and free-form missions; about the latter, he wrote, "There's no right or wrong way to complete any of the missions in Terra Nova, and this is one of its strongest assets." He noted that it was "virtually impossible to recommend" the game to those with lower-end computers, but he believed that it was also "impossible to condemn Looking Glass for programming the game this way, because it feels so real, and its authenticity is what makes it so much fun". Daniel Jevons of Maximum approved of the graphics but disliked the focus on long-range combat and the use of the mouse to move a crosshair rather than the entire viewpoint. However, he concluded that the game "has a degree of depth that most robot combat games lack, the plot is strangely involving and despite the initial control difficulties, with perseverance most competent gamers will soon be stomping around the battlefields". Michael E. Ryan of PC Magazine praised the game's artificial intelligence and called its graphical quality "spectacular", but found its movement controls to be "awkward". He concluded, "Terra Nova is an exceptional game that combines frenetic, fast-paced action with real-time squad-level tactics. It doesn't get much better than this". Terra Nova was named the 15th best computer game ever by PC Gamer UK in 1997. The editors called it "exactly the kind of dynamic, risk-taking, intelligent game we've been asking for". In 2000, Computer Games Strategy Plus named it one of the "10 Best Sci-Fi Simulations" of all time. Legacy The New York Times has cited Terra Nova as one of the first 3D games with squad-oriented gameplay. GameSpy's Bill Hiles said that the game "preceded the 'tactical squad-based, first-person shooter' action genre by a full two years", and that "In 1996, ...Terra Nova didn't feel like any other game out there". Hiles called Tribes 2 "a spiritual descendent of Terra Nova if there ever was one". Project leader Dan Schmidt later said that he