Battle Realms Review

The Samurai are a special treat. The process of evolution from a simple peasant to a knight is a hard one and requires him to pass many trials. Once he becomes a Samurai, however, he is your most powerful unit capable of defeating a group of dragon-warriors. One more thing: if you sacrifice four samurais on a statue of dragon, you can summon the dragon god, which will cast a rain of fireballs on enemy troops.

Battle Realms are more of a tactical than a strategic game, so I was more than surprised that it doesn't have formation controls. You will be able to issue the common commands (guard/defensive stance, aggressive search), but your soldiers won't blindly stick to those, as they mostly rely on their personal unit AI. Fortunately, the AI is one of the best I have seen in a RTS, and your units will always find the optimum route to the enemy. You can lead them step by step, but this would be absurd in a massive battle, with a couple of dozen units on screen.

Unit behavior is unbelievably good. Each unit or hero has a set of moves which directly show his combat competence, and what he is best at. Even though they are relatively small, all characters have been perfectly animated. The entire game takes place on a number of different frequently imaginary terrains. Manny special effects are not only there for your visual enjoyment, but also take active part in the gameplay: rain will extinguish fires in the village; birds will alert you of approaching forces, etc. Each wounded soldier will leave a trail of blood, and maps will be littered with corpses and severed limbs after the battle.

The camera is good and zoomable, but only if you own a wheel mouse. In any case, the maps are clear and beautifully drawn with a lot of fantastic effects.

There are many other elements that make this title a great game, especially the fact that it will put you in the position to make moral decisions. The game is sufficiently hard to give you long lasting gameplay, yet never frustrating (not including the frustrations that might arise from the way fog of war is implemented). In spite of the several remarks I made, Battle Realms is simply one great game!