Assignment 1: Game Review
The Specs |
| Game |
Battle Realms |
| Genre |
Fantasy Real-Time Strategy |
| Publisher |
Crave Entertainment |
| Developer |
Liquid Entertainment (note: Flash Player required to view the website) |
| Rating |
Teen (for animated blood & gore and animated violence) |
| Minimum Requirements |
Recommended System |
- Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
- Pentium II 400MHz, AMD K6-III 500MHz or equivalent
- 64MB RAM (192MB or more for Windows XP users)
- DirectX 8-compatible 16MB 3D accelerated AGP video card
- DirectX 8-compatible sound card
- DirectX 8 or higher (Included on the CD-ROM)
- 4X CD-ROM drive (Not recommended for use with CD-RW drives)
- 800MB hard drive space
- Keyboard and mouse
|
- Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
- Pentium III 750MHz or equivalent
- 128MB RAM (256MB or more for Windows XP users)
- DirectX 8-compatible 32MB 3D accelerated AGP video card
- DirectX 8-compatible sound card
- DirectX 8 or higher (Included on the CD-ROM)
- 4X CD-ROM drive (Not recommended for use with CD-RW drives)
- 900MB hard drive space
- Keyboard and mouse
|
|
|
The Story
Due to some difficulties my system had with DirectX, I could not play the Campaign mode. However, for those interested in the story, this page covers it in detail. Basically, this game is set in a world quite similar to feudal Japan. Geisha, samurai, monks and ninja are among the units which populate this world in a blend of Japanese lore and the game designers' own fantasy.
The System
This game generally fits the mould of your typical RTS. However, some points deviate significantly from the usual.
Yin and Yang points
Each clan has an alignment towards Yin(dark) or Yang(light), and as such, amasses the appropriate type of points when they kill enemy soldiers. These points are used to pay for technology upgrades, and form part of the cost of special units, analogous to Heroes in Warcraft III.
Infinite resources
A war of attrition in this game is generally a bad idea, as it's pretty much impossible to run out of rice and water, the two resources (other than Yin/Yang points) that make this world go round.
Population control
Unlike most RTSes, population growth in Battle Realms is generally out of your control. There is only one kind of structure, the Peasant Hut, which produces units regularly, and only one of them will release peasants whenever it's time for the population to increase. This means that you have to consider the proportion of military units to harvesters/builders at any given time. The rate of population control is not constant either, but decreases as your population nears the limit. However, it is still possible to rush your opponent if you are put out the strongest troops quickly.
Unit alchemy
Peasants are trained into all the different kinds of military units, whether ranged, melee or siege. In addition, a unit which has already been trained at one structure, perhaps for basic melee, can be upgraded by training it at another, say for siege capability. Generally, given 3 training structures per clan, there are 7 units which can be created - 3 of the basic, 3 by retraining the basic in a different structure, and one by training at all 3. This means that you can also modify your strategy midway by starting with basic units to harass your opponents early on, and then retrain them to employ another (hopefully more effective) strategy later on.
Battle Gear
Units may also be enhanced by the application of Battle Gear, which give units an additional ability which generally augments their basic attack capabilities. The Dragon and Serpent clans confer theirs with one of 2 structures, the Lotus through Hero-type units known as the Brothers, and the Wolf clan has something in between. Unlike the other clans, the Brothers expend stamina rather than resources to enhance other units, and are the only units which cannot recharge stamina except by killing enemies.
Rotatable structure placement
Not many RTSes allow buildings to be placed in more than one orientation (with the possible exception of Command & Conquer: Generals, if I recall correctly). The alignment is not merely aesthetic, unlike that of Age of Empires, where the alignment of houses changes whenever the technology level (Age) changes. Depending on where the "door" point is, your units may be quickly shuttled from one training structure to the next.
Personal Comments
On the whole, this game provides a fresh interpretation of the RTS genre. However, players of other such games may find it annoying that features you take for granted in other games are either absent or differently implemented. For instance, only unit/building selection and activity selection/Battle Gear activation/choice of building to construct/technology upgrade are done using the left-click; all targeting (what to repair, which building to go train at, setting of rally point, etc) is done with the right button, which makes it counter-intuitive to most players. Besides that, one feature it lacks, which can be found in Warcraft (any), is the indication of hotkeys in an obvious fashion. Aside from attack/stand ground/move type commands, nothing is given to indicate the appropriate hotkey for such activities as building a new structure or upgrading technology, and even those hotkeys given are simply stated as "Hotkey: F", rather than using a different colour to highlight the letter as it appears in the command, which would have been more intuitive. The game is generally quite balanced, with the exception of the Lotus clan, which many players have noted is somewhat stronger than the others. In my past few days of playing skirmish games against one opponent, I was consistently slaughtered by the Lotus clan, and with the same clan against some other, I quickly picked up a victory against the AI opponent.
Conclusion
This game is worth a look at if you are interested in RTSes. However, be prepared to adjust to the sometimes less intuitive user interface, and, unless you like a good challenge, start off by taking on specific clans other than Lotus to avoid the frustration of being pummelled into the ground before you have even begun to appreciate how it all works.
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