Warrior Kings: Battles

New package, old game

While Warrior Kings: Battles appears as familiar as an old friend, the real-time strategy game often seems like a stranger, even after many hours of play. Part of this problem could be chalked up to developer Black Cactus' devotion to traditional RTS gaming, complete with lots and lots of resource gathering and the necessity of hurling massive armies against the enemy. We've all seen this sort of thing many times before, so it's hard to get excited about yet another epic battle that begins with vigorous wood chopping.

Kenn was a Spear

Halberdiers

Army camp

It's equally hard to understand why developers continue to structure games like this. Strategic depth is preferable to dumb-as-dirt clicking. Nobody wants to stage one tank rush after another until the computer cries Uncle. But while it's great to find a game that isn't just frenetic map-scrolling and herding troops with a cursor, that doesn't mean action should be an afterthought. Depicting the prelude to battle as more important than the actual battle may be true to medieval life, though it certainly isn't a hell of a lot of fun to see realized on your monitor. If these guys had made Gladiator, the opening sequence would have told us about Roman farming methods.

Boring people sign up here

Still, accountants, civil servants, and others for whom the conventional and routine are staples of life will really appreciate what has been accomplished here. Okay, that may be overstating the case. But Warrior Kings: Battles does a great job of jazzing up the usual stuff while not changing things so much that wizened Age of Empires addicts will scratch their heads. Consider this the gaming equivalent of a trip back to your home town after Daddy's farm has been bulldozed for a strip mall—almost everything is still right where you left it, although nothing quite feels the way that it used to feel.

Those with such proclivities for the old stomping grounds will find themselves rewarded with some of the best enemy general AI in the business. Even the dumbest computer-controlled opponents here are more astute than the usual foe you'll find on GameSpy. They scout efficiently, feint enthusiastically, and can be counted on to launch sorties on your fortress and villages from every direction on the compass until they find a weak spot.

Character stats

Another character

Martin the Fat - flattering name

In some ways, it is a great training program for all real-time strategy games, as the AI forces you to become good at defense. Along the way, it forces you to become pretty astute as offense as well, as you simply cannot rush into combat here. You have to build your forces carefully, with an attention to the big picture, because trying a tank rush is tantamount to suicide. Leave your fortresses undefended and you'll pay a high price. Just as your conquering army is heading out your front door, your enemy's conquering army will be preparing to slam a battering ram through your back door.