[PS3] R.U.S.E - Review

The Art of War by Sun Tzu states that battles are won not by cheer power and numbers but mostly out of deception and cunning. R.U.S.E. takes the book into a gaming level.

Most strategy games nowadays rely on RPG elements such as special moves of characters to change the outcome of the battle and by making absurdly gigantic army that will take over the screen and presumably your enemy, RUSE however only makes a commander have special orders that might make you win the war, but not only that, lets take a closer look just after the break.

R.U.S.E, released on September 10, 2010, created a new atmosphere to the so overplayed world war two scenario and started with an inventive story of Major Joseph Sheridan (yeah the guy who got a tank named like other WWII famous generals) and the spy Prometheus, the story obviously sounds like a great deal of explosive cliffhangers and misconceptions but unfortunately it's not.

The Game

R.U.S.E is setting a new standard to all the RTS made around, creating new and interactive way to deliver a new experience and frankly a breath of fresh air much needed.

"The story obviously sounds like a great deal of explosive cliffhangers and misconceptions but unfortunately it's not."

The game itself can pass through two views, the battle itself, and the strategic map table, both very distinct views and helpful either way. In the battle view you can see the troops more accurately, you can see the battle develop in a more detailed view and see more animation like troops retreating, small  forests, other things are more visible and to move around your troops in a more detailed such as single units. The more far you want to play the more your units and your enemy units get together, and you start seeing them as markers, the more you have them together the more layers of units it piles up.

Right in the action!

In the strategic table view,  things get a bit more complex, you can grab those piles of units and move them in large distances with ease, and you can also deploy your RUSE's more effectively. Ruses are special commander capabilities that change the tide of battle, from a silent maneuvering from your troops making them invisible unless in contact with either a scout or some other unit, to a complete fake assault towards a sector you designated. Also the strategic view is that you can see the sectors that divide the map in each sector you can deploy two ruse's to simplify commanding, of course the more you advance in single player the more the game gets complicated and the more ruses you need to put in place, making you decide critical moments of the battle with little room to mistake.

Strategic View of R.U.S.E

The economic system of the game is made by supply lines, sometimes behind our lines, sometimes behind enemy lines, each of these lines have a supply depot and convoys that go through the road, they are extremely fragile and can be destroyed by everything you have, except simple scouts. You need the money to build vehicles, and that money as to go somewhere for you to receive it, so you also need to set up a base. The base can be set up around any road and sometimes where you deploy your base is crucial to winning the game. Each type of unit needs a special building, and when you want something deployed its the closest building that gets the task done. The buildings are armored but most of them are extremely fragile which needs to be defended by either troops or bunkers that you have at your disposal. 

The Combat

You are in control of four types of units, the scouts, the infantry, the armored and the air support. The scouts which can mark terrain and enemy movements, that making it hell for ambushes and other type of attacks, the more advanced type of scouts can mark better the terrain but can also be fragile. Infantry units seem to be the weakest but when used correctly are more deadly then any tank on your inventory, infantry units range from the simplest infantry to also anti tank placements, they can sneak into the woods and cover in anything your supposed to cover. The Armored units are your bulk of the army without it you might as well surrender, your units range from the simplest of tanks towards the most heavily ones, like the German king tiger who can mow down a couple of Sherman tanks before it can be badly damaged to the tank hunters who specialty is to... hunt tanks, armored units cannot go into the woods but  here's a beginners tip, scouts and tanks can be deadly in the woods. The air support is also a critical in the game, units range from air scouts to heavy bombers, when in doubt of something is always better to bomb the hell out of it instead of following in for a trap, and trust me your column of tanks might look invincible but its more fragile then you think, specially when there are woods or other things that might look like trouble. Getting control of the air is more troubling then it looks because its not always the planes that can ruin your game, but also the anti air guns that sometimes lurk in the woods, you might see a lot of scouts getting destroyed while passing a swamp or a city and then you know something is wrong in there.

"The Armored units are your bulk of the army without it you might as well surrender"

The battles can work out as simples ambushes, to full grown skirmishes specially in the last chapters of the game, you are either attacking a large force that might go horribly wrong, or you are defending, outnumbered and out gunned in every single way possible, making ruses and your cunning to destroy your foe critical.

Multiplayer Action 

The multiplayer doesn't seem different from the single player skirmishes, there are a couple of things you have to know. You can either play ranked or un-ranked matches. The Ranked matches you can unleash your wrath in a 1vs1 or 2vs2 matches, the game is set in the 1945 and its a 25 minute match, who as the biggest score or destroy's the opponent. The un-ranked matches can be played 2vs2, with the same objectives either get a score percentage above your opponent  or completely destroy him. The only difference is that in the unranked matches you can choose the time period in the war, from 1939 to 1945.

In cooperative or in allies in un-ranked or ranked matches, your allies will be marked green.

You have 6 factions available for you to pick it from each one with a strength and weakness to diversify what you choose, and these factions are the United States, United Kingdom, Nazi Germany, Italy, France, and the Soviet Union. 

Also worth mentioning is that there is a co-operative mode which is the same as your allies in versus matches, your allies will be again like the campaign green and can assist your in a devastating attack against your foe, your units will be marked as blue.

The Bugs

There are some bugs in the game, some not even worth mentioning, but the one more annoying around might be in the campaign were the computer A.I when in distress might start mass producing everything not giving you most to work with, happened to me a lot of times and it started to be more absurd when i saw a massive column of tanks unending unless I destroyed the enemy building (which unfortunately might be a secondary objective).

The console version differs a lot from the PC version, which unfortunately gimps the console version, not really a bug but very worth mentioning if your reading this to get your decision to buy the game or not. The PC version doesn't have a unit limit and the console version reduces it to a maximum of 100, the cap limit also counts the buildings and bunkers as ones so you really need to rationalize your army.

Other thing you might notice in the console version is that there is a constant glitch in graphics, you might notice that the game slows down when there is too much going on in the screen and the lack sometimes of music.

These things add more and more if you read online, somethings you could see in the trailer that effectively don't work in the game, and since the console demo came out sometime earlier then the real game, your actually playing the full version in the demo. 

Conclusion

The more I play, the more I feel like the console version is really a small version of the game and unfortunately  it makes an impact to what we wanted out of a game. All in all, it's still fun and the DLC keeps the replay value high, but sometimes the bugs get on your skin and you might be thinking why are you still playing such a game. Even with the support of Move the game still makes you want for more, and sometimes i keep going back to the controller due to the move either doing something i don't want or doesn't working correctly in critical times.

Verdict:

• Presentation – 7
• Graphics – 5
• Online Experience – 6
• Sound – 4
• Gameplay – 7
• Lasting Appeal – 5

Average Overall Score – 6