Original War

Original War is a strategy game that was released in 2001 as a budget title. It is noted for including RPG Elements, a resource system built around scarcity and a very high difficulty. Being an obscure game overall, it has achieved cult status since its release. The story is loosely based on the 1981 novel The Last Day Of Creation by German author Wolfgang Jeschke.

The titular war revolves around a rare mineral called Siberite. Originally found in Siberia, it is discovered by US agents along with an alien artifact, EON. The artifact and a small amount of Siberite is smuggled out of Russia, and experiments eventually determine that Siberite is both a catalyst for cold fusion and fuel for EON - which is revealed to be a Time Machine. With no safe way to acquire the priceless Siberite from the Russians, another approach is decided upon: to send a task force back in time 2 million years on a one-way mission to transport the Siberite over the then-intact land bridge between Alaska and Siberia. Upon arriving, however, the task force members are scattered in both time and space, and much to their surprise find themselves beset by hostile Russians.

"Meanwhile", in present day, the Soviet Union is fuming over America's monopoly of Alaskite, a mineral with strange properties first discovered in Alaska. During an excavation in Siberia, however, trace amounts of Alaskite is found buried with what is determined to be 2 million year old modern American technology along with an alien device dubbed TAWAR. Experiments determine that TAWAR is a Time Machine capable of sending objects back in time 2 million years - leading to the realization that the US stole the Alaskite deposit to begin with. The Russians, enraged, determine to take back what is rightfully theirs, and thus send their own task force through the TAWAR.

Oh, and there's an Arab faction involved as well.

Tropes featured include:

 * Action Bomb: Arabs love to strap apemen with explosives. Or brainwash them into driving exploding vehicles...
 * Action Girl: Lisa Lawson.
 * Army of One: Check Harder Than Hard below.
 * Awesome but Impractical: Most of Arab weapons. Come on, motorised ballista?
 * Bad Boss: For both campaigns! The American general Ron Harrison is actually a Reasonable Authority Figure, but gets quickly replaced by Arthur Powell, a stubborn Jerkass. The Russians have it even worse with Major Platonov and his belief in We Have Reserves.
 * Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Ron Harrison and Arthur Powell.
 * Cool Car: American morphing chassis, a mix between a tracked and wheeled chassis, utilising the speed of its wheeled mode when moving on plain ground, and switching to tracked mode when encountering more difficult terrain.
 * Easy Logistics: Averted. Vehicles may run out of fuel unless using Siberite/Alaskite engines and each individual base has its own resource pool - supplies have to be transferred from one outpost to another. Guns have unlimited ammo, however.
 * Everything Fades: Averted. Corpses remain where they fall, grass can regrow and explosions leave permanent craters. In 2001 game.
 * Five-Man Band: Americans seem to follow this trope
 * The Hero: John Mc Millan
 * The Lancer: Frank Forsyth
 * The Smart Guy: Peter Roth
 * The Big Guy: Lisa Lawson
 * The Chick: Joan Fergusson
 * Friendly Sniper: Frank Forsyth. That is - if you equip him with sniper rifle.
 * Green Rocks: Alaskite/Siberite, no doubt.
 * Harder Than Hard: If current mission is unbeatable, don't worry. The next one is even worse. American campaign has probably the best examples of it. Just after one of the missions starts, you have to get to your base on the other end of the map. On arrival you find out that the base is almost completly razed. While you are busy rebuilding and repairing, the enemy have already a steady attack force, driving (yeah, with tanks) toward your location. After pushing them off and off, researching quite a lot, gathering loads of resources and building bunch of your own vehicles you actually have to attack 2nd best fortress designed in-game, tearing it to the ground. With conventional weapons. And here comes the best part - all of that with just TWO characters. One of them being a scientist.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: John Mac Millan and Frank Forsyth, which is lampshaded in few missions.
 * Hidden Heart of Gold: Arthur Powell. But he's such a Jerkass it's really hard to spot.
 * Infinite Supplies: Oh how averted... in some missions you not only don't get supplies from the future, but also from bigger bases in "present", being forced to conserve what you get at start. Every. Single. Crate. Sometimes it's even necessary to dismantle your vehicles to get enough supplies for needed buildings or sufficient defences.
 * But you can never run out of ammo.
 * Instant AI, Just Add Water: Both Americans and Russians research and use unmanned defences and vehicles controlled by AI, producting them en-mass. 2 millions years BC, using supplies sent from early 2000's.
 * Late Character Syndrome: Pretty common in both campaigns with characters non-important for the plot.
 * Mecha-Mooks: Humans and apemen are strictly limited in numbers, but each faction has access to a (depending on resource availability) potentially unlimited amount of disposable unmanned vehicles: AI units for Russians, remote-controlled for Arabs, both for Americans.
 * Nintendo Hard: Most of missions tend to be like this. Having 6 characters under your command is almost like hitting unit-limit in all RTS games.
 * Non-Entity General: Averted. The American protagonist, John Mac Millan, is something of a Warrior Poet, while the Russian Jurij Ivanovich "Burlak" Gorki is more of a Boisterous Bruiser.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: The American campaign can finish before it even starts for real, if you refuse to enter EON. For the Russians, staying loyal to Platonov when given a chance to betray or usurp him has... unpleasant... consequences.
 * Nuke'Em: Staying loyal to either side of the conflict leads to developing a Siberite/Alaskite bomb. It may be used by the player.
 * Oh Crap: Happens frequently as newly-arrived time travellers rarely land where and when they were supposed to. The first mission of either campaign involves a lot of careful sneaking around enemy patrols. And it gets only worse.
 * Our Time Travel Is Different: EON/TAWAR don't have any kind of control panel. It sends anyone and anything you put inside (and fits inside - it's no bigger than a regular doors) exactly 2 million years into past. With accuracy of 4-5 years. In radius of 15 miles around it's stand in the "present day". So just imagine how gathering your troops and resources (they are sent from the future) looks like. And it works only one way - to the past. Not to mention you need Siberite/Alaskite to even run it.
 * Reinventing the Wheel: Zig Zagged. Most upgrades will stay researched between missions, but some will have to be researched second time and then they will too be passed to next missions.
 * Rock Beats Laser: Laser-based weapons can tear down any kind of vehicle in their range. Strangely they do almost no damage to humans and apes, so you can simply take down laser turrets even by dismantling them. Providing they are not covered with some real firepower. Also, you can  easly retake those vehicles.
 * Slap-On-The-Wrist Nuke: While Siberite/Alaskite bomb isn't a classic nuke, it's portrayed as something much, much more powerful. Being the most powerful weapon in-game, it is able to take nothing bigger than a dense-packed medium-sized base.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: While not a happy stroll in the park in any way, the American campaign is much more idealistic than the Russian one, where several important characters are unceremoniously killed off (including, and remaining loyal to your Bad Boss earns you a firing squad rather than his respect.
 * Soviet Superscience: Soviet tanks at the beginning. Then Soviet time-displacement technology, teleportation and probably out of all mecha armed with all-kind-of-possible-weapon build like a factory, not in a factory. Not to mention being build 2 millions years ago by bunch of car mechanics.
 * Stealth Based Mission: At least one is obligatory stealth if you are even thinking about finishing it. That's right. A stealth mission in RTS game. And you would be suprised how well it is made.
 * Take a Third Option: The Russian victory means they invade United States in the present day, while the American victory creates an Alternate Universe where they oppress the whole planet and the USSR still exists. To avoid this, Peter Roth hopes for both sides' scientists to cooperate in understanding. The Arabs have their own third option as well, although a rather... extreme one.
 * The Aloner: Tim Gladstone, a scientist, who arrived as first time-traveller and spent a year alone.
 * The Cynic: Cyrus Parker.
 * Trapped in the Past: EON/TAWAR only goes in one direction. All characters are aware of this.
 * Video Game Caring Potential: Every human unit in the game is a unique individual with RPG-like stats, and when they die, they are Killed Off for Real. It is often better to deploy inferior remote-controlled or computer-controlled vehicles just to avoid risking your precious soldiers.
 * Not to mention risking missing the dialogue, which is often hilarious.
 * Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Heavy guns does more damage and don't require to get so darn close.
 * What Could Have Been: For unknown reason the original plot was heavily changed, What you got in game is military expedition on both sides with lots of weapons, fighting equipment and trained soldiers. The original premise was that the Americans sent back miners, geologists, sciencists and few hunters and gave them just the basic survival equipment, with no professional soldiers to aid. And they get hard beating from Soviet well-fitted and trained armed forces, being there just to protect the Siberite/Alaskite from those damn capitalists. Just imagine how hard it would get in such setting. One of old concept arts is used as background in American campaign menu.