Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/09/24/games_review_ruse/

RUSE

Time for some tactics

By Andrew Bailey

Posted in Personal Tech, 24th September 2010 10:46 GMT

Review “Time is everything,” said Horatio Nelson. “Five minutes make the difference between victory and defeat.”

Ruse

Risky move

It's a war quote repeated several times in RUSE's loading screens. But it could just as easily apply to game release schedules. Arriving just a few weeks after Starcraft II on the PC, and almost simultaneously with Halo Reach on the 360, it's a title that has its work cut out to achieve anything resembling victory in sales figures.

Indeed, pop down to your local games shop and you'll see RUSE already tumbling down the top ten list. And with gaming's silly season almost upon us, it's only going to get worse for Eugen Systems' innovative real-time strategy title.

Ruse

When in Rome...

Time isn't the only enemy. RUSE fights a second front against PC players who will struggle to get excited by yet another World War II strategy game, and console players who have traditionally struggled with the RTS genre, owing in no small part to the limitations of gamepads. Which is a pity, because there is a lot to admire about RUSE.

True Strategic Depth

Confounding expectations of cross-development on PC and console, Eugen Systems has managed the seemingly impossible feat of marrying interface simplicity with true strategic depth. A clever zoom technique allows the battlefield to be seen at any scale, from the steel and blood of concentrated action between individual units right up to a bird's eye view, where it is revealed as an unfurled map in a war room, complete with ambient Morse Code bleeps and the murmurings of radio operators.

Ruse

Lock'n'load

As the camera zooms and pans, units are stacked up like casino chips to be moved en masse. But unlike the turn-based board games from which RUSE so obviously draws inspiration – most notably Axis & Allies – combat occurs entirely in real time.

The system isn't without minor flaws, however. With no alternative to cursor selection, you have to scan the battlefield visually, making it difficult to quickly select units by type. And when combing units the area-effect cursor lacks a mouse button's drag-and-select precision.

Ruse

Burning down the house

As with other RTS games, success requires constant consideration of the micro and macro. Ample maps and side objectives promote war on several fronts. And economy and resources are, naturally, an ever-present concern. But individual encounters and skirmishes also need close and careful observation, as the ebb and flow of battle means that retreating and regrouping is often more effective than out-and-out attrition.

This means WAR

Appropriately for a game based on World War II, RUSE is not won on resource and will alone. Subterfuge is a major element of gameplay - and sets Eugen System's game apart from many other RTSs.

Ruse

Farmville it is not

Selectable Ruse cards provide temporary strategic advantage. Enemy units are revealed by spies, or your own concealed by radio silence, for example. And decoy units are assembled to lure your enemy from your intended front, or whole sectors of troops and armaments bestowed with blitzkrieg speed.

Introduced in the single-player campaign, most Ruse cards have oddly limited impact on scripted AI, but employed against human intelligence in multiplayer they can deal devastating blows. The standard RTS battlefield is instantly transformed from one in which engagements are decided by the twitch reflexes of resource building and deployment, to one where mind games and posturing rule supreme.

Ruse

Barbecue season got a little out of hand

That's not to say the single-player campaign is any less enjoyable. Although often feeling mere training ground for multiplayer, the re-enactments of World War II's major operations provide excellent strategic variety, from the tension of limited supply lines and resurgent Nazis at The Battle of The Bulge, to the race to secure German scientists and technology after the Allies' handshake at the Elbe bridge in Torgau.

Total Annihilation

The single-player campaign will challenge noobs and hardened RTS players alike, even on its easiest setting, which takes around 15 hours to complete. Operation mode adds to replay value by offering additional, one-off re-enactments of other famous World War II battles. But it's the game's Battles and Online options that will keep the disc in the drive for weeks to come.

RUSE

Tanks a million

These modes provide a dozen or so fictitious maps to wage war against AI, or up to three other players on the consoles, and up to seven other players on PC via Steam. Starting out with limited cash and territory, the objective is total annihilation of your enemies. With the massive array of weaponry and Ruse cards available, these modes show off the game's true depth of strategy - available to all and limited only by imagination.

Ruse

'I'm goin' down'

Verdict

RUSE is in danger of being caught in gaming's no man's land. On its left flank it faces console gamers wary of RTS games and PC gamers weary of World War II titles, and on its right flank it faces the winter onslaught of Triple-A titles with Triple-A marketing budgets.

But while its novel solution to RTS on consoles isn't perfect, and while its theme may be overly familiar to many, RUSE deserves accolade for advancing the RTS formula in a solid, enjoyable and comprehensive package. ®

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