RUSE Review

Every so often all of that talk about bringing Real-Time Strategy to consoles actually results in a game, but give it a few months and everyone wanders back to their keyboards to play StarCraft. That intrinsic link between PC and RTS still hasn't been sawed through, not because of lack of innovation in the genre, but because the Real-Time formula is at its best when you've got one hand on a mouse and the other on your keyboard.

So when R.U.S.E. was marketed as a WWII RTS for consoles, it sounded like a grim combination of unnecessary revision and a been-there-done-that Nazi plotline. A quick glance at a few forums and you'll see the reservation from genre purists, calling out console-based RTS as over-simplified and dumbed-down.

R.U.S.E. is simplified, at least insofar as it caters to the controls of the console pad. Any significant action in the game can be carried out using the analogue sticks, with the right allowing you to zoom and pan, and the left controlingl movement. Point the camera in the direction of a unit and you're given the option to select it, or any of its unit-types within range. The total precision of the mouse is replaced by controls that feel intuitively simple considering the scale of the game. This is simplification in the best possible way.

The game consistently plays with scale; in fact that's its main visual conceit. Zoom out and the battle is shown as a board on a commander's table, affixed with figurines of tanks and soldiers. Zoom back in and you're dead centre of that battlefield terrain. A cutscene will take you back from the field to a close-up shot of a chess board. Despite the fact that you're thigh-deep in WWII warfare you're consistently reminded of that R.U.S.E. Warfare is less about taking out enemies and more about thoughtful strategy. It rewards the placement of your forces, not the number of units you've churned out. In a game about defending and attacking on multiple fronts, you're encouraged to direct your tanks and soldiers as a general would.

So, regardless of their numbers, soldier units will be annihilated if they're left out in the open for long enough. But move them into the woods and they can surprise-attack a passing Panzer with such force you'd think the Krauts built their tanks out of polystyrene.