More Gameplay

Other Modes

There's also a skirmish mode when you just want to fight it out with the computer. You can play against up to 7 computer opponents. The game ships with over 40 maps to choose from, as well a map editor, so new maps should be popping up on the net pretty soon. In skirmish mode you don't have a hero character to start with, just your basic keep structure. From here you make peasants who can harvest resources and build you more structures, which will train your army.

The multiplayer game is an online version of the skirmish mode against up to seven human opponents. You can play across a LAN, or through the gaming service Wargate. Once you have a user name you can log onto Wargate, chat with others, find games, and play. The interface is simple and easy to figure out. You start out in a chat room where you can edit your profile, check out the profiles of others in the room, or chat. Your stats show up beside your user name and you can immediately tell how many wins and losses everyone has.

Welcome to the place of depair.

Stat screen.

Hitting the "Join" button shows you all available games and the levels being played. Just click on one and you're in. You also have the opportunity to start a game yourself for others to join. Since I reviewed a gold master of the game before it's release, the Wargate rooms were generally pretty empty. This will change when the game hits the shelves. I had no complaints about Wargate. It was easy to navigate, I could always log in, and there was no noticeable lag when playing. The ranking system is also very cool.

Units

Each side of the conflict has a relatively small selection of units to choose from. This is by design however, and not a flaw in the game. Instead of gaining the capability to build better units as the game progresses, you are able to add to the abilities of your existing units. For example once you have some archers, you can spend resources to give them all better bows, or flaming arrows, or longer distance to their shots. The same can be done for all unit types and it's a pretty good idea. Once you upgrade a unit type, every unit built or yet to be built will benefit from the upgrade.

Wyverns are nasty critters.

Royal audience.

The problem with the units is the lack of variety between the Humans and the Dark Legion. Each side has a similar selection of ground troops, ranged attackers, flying creatures and magic-users. The variety of attacks comes only with upgrades and training. This is unfortunate and is never as satisfying as a game like Red Alert 2 where each side has completely different unit types that still manage to be perfectly balanced. The balance is here, it's just lacking in variety.

Rush strategies worked best for me, and most people I played against seemed to agree. Since the units are pretty much evenly balanced, you want to have a lot of them out there. In most cases a rush attack with the lower cost units, supported by some training upgrades such as long-range arrows would win the day. I personally like this better than "first-to-get-the-really-big-bomb-thing-wins."

Curien looks a little tense.

Have at thee!

Control and AI

Control over your units is similar to most other RTS games. Select units, and tell the where to go and what to do. Your units do the usual stuff - attacking, guarding, and holding their ground. You can select groups of units, make one of them the leader and then have them line up in a number of formations to better control them - at least in theory.

The problem is that they rarely form up in the direction you'd like, then as soon as they start moving they run all over the place, forgetting their formation completely. The other problem is that you can only select sixteen units at a time. This is really frustrating when you're trying to mount a huge attack and you have to do multiple selections to move troops. You can assign groups to hotkeys, but you're still constrained to the sixteen unit ceiling. I found this incredibly annoying.

Other annoyances include the computer AI and pathfinding. The battle AI is not terrible, but it is perhaps a bit predictable. Computer opponents will search the level for your camp, then mount waves of rush attacks. The pathfinding is worse. Your units will constantly wander off and get lost in the twisting mazes of hills that most levels present you with. Sometimes my troops would get themselves someplace so bizarre that I couldn't even find a path to guide them back into the battle.