Recreation Uses Strategy Effectively- R.U.S.E. Review

For two generations, developers have desperately tried to entice console gamers with the RTS genre. Two factors are widely attributed to the lukewarm response by players: the difficulty of adapting a robust mouse and keyboard control scheme to a controller intended for action titles, and the belief that most video gamers have an aversion to complexity. Recent Ubisoft release R.U.S.E. moderately succeeds in refuting both opinions. By eradicating many real-time strategy axioms- from a reliance on micromanagement to encouraging massive unit surges, the title is well-suited for consoles. But beyond these changes, R.U.S.E. does little to court mainstream appeal; expect the game to have a fervent, yet niche following.

Those troubled by the homogeneity of the RTS will enjoy R.U.S.E.‘s exclusions. Gone is a landscape-obscuring ‘fog of war’. Rationally, the game assumes players have a map of the terrain and the capacity for rudimentary reconnaissance. Units which haven’t been positively identified by  players are shown as board game-like markers, with a diameter to reflect the magnitude of the threat. With only one resource to extract, a relatively diminutive tech-tree, and briskly-built structures, R.U.S.E. is able to focus on delivering a battlefield occupied with combat on multiple fronts.

With simultaneous skirmishes occurring in R.U.S.E.’s theater of war, a potent, yet intuitive control  is essential. Fortunately, the title goes an admirable job, given the constraints of the Xbox 360 controller. Players use the two analog sticks to shift, rotate and zoom in on the game’s arena. Skillfully, the game’s compulsory settings balance the ability to whip around the playfield without sacrificing accuracy. A simple press of the “A” button selects the unit underneath the cursor, while a second press designates a move-to location or target. Tactics in R.U.S.E. concentrate on the Rochambeau mechanic of fighters, talk, artillery, and ground troops, as well at the range of each unit. The former is indicated on each page on the production menu, while the latter is shown with a convenient blue outline whenever a unit is selected. At first, it can be a bit overwhelming, especially when it may seem that individual units aren’t obeying your commands. However, once the players adjust to the title’s cadence, they feel secure in knowing each anti-air battery and tank will unhurriedly shift into position, and usually do its best to strike out at attacking foes. For some reason, the AI displays passivity to nearby foes whose unit type has all but been determined. I’ve watched several times as a distinctively small marker of a band of grenadiers approached my Shermans with malicious intent.

To offset these sporadic moments of incompetence, R.U.S.E. offers players a diverse set of decoys, techniques, and intelligence gathering aids. By selecting a ruse card and of effect area, gamers have the ability to launch decoy assaults, conceal unit or structures, and even deliberately invert intel- making tanks appear as infantry units. Although the abilities will be squandered during the first few hours on play, players will learn to conceal soldiers within cities or deep forests or cloak their production facilities-bound bombers.

While the game’s customizable skirmishes and online multiplayer tussles are gratifying, the same isn’t entirely true of the game’s single player campaign. Marred by a tutorial which is prolonged far too long, and a decidedly aloof protagonist, R.U.S.E.‘s cutscenes are often overly dramatic, and rely on WWII cliché. By the time the single-player is completed, players will be well-versed with the repertoire of ruses; it’s unfortunate the developers didn’t offer allow for a few more story-driven maneuvers which permits the game’s full feature set. Visually, R.U.S.E. maintains a fluid framerate and level of responsiveness by limiting the amount of polygons in each model. Typically, players won’t notice the graphical economy when they have a panoramic view of the battleground.

Unlike many console titles, satisfaction isn’t immediate in R.U.S.E. Despite the removal of a handful of RTS platitudes, several new nuances await mastery. While the title may not garner mass-market appeal, I do expect a constituency of tacticians to embrace the game; like any superior stratagem, expect elements of R.U.S.E. to be scrutinized and even reproduced, by rivals.