Not only is the scripting hilarious, but the wonderful lines are perfectly delivered, serving to only make the cut scenes even funnier. Detailing any of them would either lose all humour value in the re-telling or spoil the surprise, but suffice to say some cut scenes had me laughing for minutes. It's almost worth playing the game just to reach cutscene after cutscene, but then most of the time you'll hardly exactly have to force yourself to play Giants. Each of the three races (Meccaryns, Delphi the Sea Reaper or Kabuto) offers almost completely different play styles. You start off controlling one of the Meccaryns and, as you progress, further AI-controlled Meccaryns will join you. For those of you currently cringing at the prospect of more AI controlled sidekicks (after all, not even Elite Force managed to get this gameplay feature right) rest assured – they're done particularly well in Giants. Your fellow Meccaryns provide supporting fire by simply shooting at whatever you're shooting at, or following one of two simple commands issued with a ctrl+left click (to tell them to attack) or a ctrl+right click (to tell them to go somewhere). They stick with you whether you're on foot or jet-packing through the air, and if they die, they'll either disappear for a short time while they “rest” or will “die,” which just means they're gone until the next mission. Far from being a major hindrance like in some games, your Meccaryn buddies are damn useful allies to have around, even if they each only pack twin pistols rather than devastating weapons like your Proxy Missile Launcher or devastating Millennium Mortar.
Delphi's only weapons are a surprisingly useful sword and different types of bow such as sniping and homing bows. She can also “turbo” across large distances at the click of a button, warping through the air to the point on the ground that you targeted. Although Delphi is a surprisingly tough little lass, if you want to survive the hordes of well-armed Sea Reaper men you'll have to use spells, of which she has a fair number. My personal favourite is the Slow Time spell – when cast, a glowing dome appears over the targeted area and the movements of any enemy creatures within it slow to a crawl. Whip out your sword and in seconds you'll have Mince Meat Ala Delphi, especially if any of the tougher creatures within the Slow Time dome also had the Shrink spell cast on them. Also included in her spell arsenal are more offensive spells like Firewall, Hail Storm and the massively powerful (and equally visually impressive) Tornado spell.
Both the Meccaryns and Delphi have to build up a base, but it's an incredibly simple affair that only diversifies the gameplay in Giants rather than making it tiresome. Pick up a few Smarties, keep them fed with intermittent deliveries of freshly carved Vimp meat (Vimps are wild creatures that wander around The Island in herds) and with a few clicks you can get them building your base and its defences in no time. Warcraft it ain't, and that's a good thing – it lets you concentrate on killing the enemy rather than spending much time building a base.