Style elevates battle game

Settings seem to be influenced by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon film

By the BBC's Damian O'Neil

In order to survive and flourish amongst the turgid morass of clones that is the real-time strategy genre, a game must really have something new and fresh about it.

Fortunately for its developers, Battle Realms manages to shine.

At its heart, it is the same game as Age of Empires or Red Alert, requiring you to micro-manage your natural resources, build up an army, then knock seven bells out of each other using a scissors-cuts-paper model to largely determine the winner.

But while the form may be very familiar, the style and substance are sufficiently superior to elevate this title above its competition.

The setting and character units appear to have been influenced by Ang Lee's movie masterpiece, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Slaying

Just as much of that film's appeal lay in the stunning choreography, Battle Realms keeps you playing just so you can watch your characters fight it out like so many miniature Bruce Lees.

The 3D units are beautifully animated, and the terrain on which you pitch your armies is detailed and authentic-looking.

You have four different clans to choose from, each with their own distinctive appearance and approach to hacking and slaying.

Each clan has its fair share of unique units with their own special abilities, and in theory this should make for some real head-scratching generalship on the player's behalf.

Strategists and tacticians will enjoy this side to the game, discovering which unit does well against the other, and will be able to use the differing abilities to their best advantage.

Subtle touches like line-of-sight and terrain-height advantages really add to the depth here.

Stylish

But in practice, as with every other real-time strategy game, there are times when it becomes impossible to manage your battles with such precision.

At such moments, you simply gather up your whole army and throw it at the other one, hoping yours are the last men standing.

The real-time strategy genre is getting a bit long in the tooth now, but fans of this sort of game will absolutely love Battle Realms.

Even those who have grown tired of the form will find enough here to make it worth buying.

It is probably the most stylish game of the year, and in an area which needs all the help it can get, that is certainly no bad thing.