Review | R.U.S.E

It’s World War II all over again, the battle lines are being redrawn and your leadership qualities and tactical savvy will decide if the Allies or the forces of Germany will win the day.

Oh, another bloody WW2 game… and an RTS at that, like the PC isn’t swamped with the like already! But just before we all collectively roll our eyes and move on to the next game there is something a bit different about R.U.S.E despite its groundings in the familiar war scenario and the name of the game itself is the hint to all this. You get the opportunity to fool your opponent… all the while avoiding being fooled yourself.

R.U.S.E offers a pair of campaigns, one American, one German as well as a swaft of ‘what if’ scenarios. These involve the likes of Germany winning the battle of Stalingrad (arguably the turning point of the war) or actually launching their cancelled invasion of England. When it comes to the basics it plays out like a typical RTS game. You build your buildings, find resources (in this case supply dumps) and spit out a variety of military units.

R.U.S.E has a number of factions to make do with. There is the United Kingdom, Nazi Germany, the United States, Soviet Union, Italy and France (and no the latter tragically does not come with a comical universal surrender option). Each of these factions makes use of a variety of units, ranging from infantry types, fighters, anti tank games, medium to large tanks and so on. While each of the units is unique to their respective nations the variation is slight when it boils down to it. For sure each nation has stronger and weaker exceptions but they naturally balance each other out – vital when it comes down to it when you go online naturally.

Where R.U.S.E makes its mark is in the use of ruse powers. These range from ones which reveal information, such as Spy which identifies enemy units in a certain area; to ones which hide such as my beloved Radio Silence and of course the deceptive, which create fake units or buildings – think plywood tanks and you get the picture. This allows for a fantastic game of second and third guessing. Is the mass of units heading directly towards your main base the enemy attack, or is it the one heading down your flank towards your weakly defended supply dumps? It’s up to you to make use of your own ruses to uncover these deceptions if possible and to pull one off on your opponent.

Not only are they more than just a gimmick but vital to victory. Playing a defensive game in R.U.S.E actually works. Infantry dug into buildings or hidden in a forest can for example decimate enemy tanks. This means when you’re on the offensive you need to be heading for the right target – which hopefully means bypassing the bulk of your opponent’s forces.  Naturally this plays out much better when playing online against real opponents due to us human types being able to adapt and try new strategies. The single player side of things perhaps does not do this well as you tend to see the same pattern of senseless attacks time and time again. To me the campaign played very much like a typical RTS…it took another thinking mind to turn R.U.S.E into a more than ordinary game.

The game also differs itself by appearing on consoles as well as just the PC. The great news is that the controls have been fantastically adapted. The end result is probably the best working RTS to be seen on the PS3 or Xbox 360. Graphically the game looks grand. Maps tend to be huge which means when you’re zoomed out getting the overall perspective you’ll be looking at and directing markers much like a board game. Zoom in though and you can get up close to the action and enjoy watching units being gunned down and vehicles explode even as your micro manage the tactical aspect of it all.

R.U.S.E by its nature won’t appeal to all. Non strategy players probably wouldn’t find much to enjoy. Anybody else that’s spent their gaming life enjoying the bijillions of real time strategy games out there though should give R.U.S.E a go as they might be pleasantly surprised to find something a little unique and satisfyingly fun.