Real War: Rogue States Review

You simply cannot argue with it... Simon & Schuster's final market reports for their Real War (very good market reports) came around about the same time as the announcements of the US imminent attack on Iraq, the number one rogue state. The developers linked the two, and created a sequel to this highly successful low-budget game telling the tale of the US opposing all the states that endanger world peace and spread terrorism.

Rogue States is a stand-alone product, which somehow makes you believe that we are going to see the third part of the serial. It is practically identical to the original game, but it does include a large number of minor novelties and improvements, some of them based of user feedback.

The plot behind this game continues the plot of Real War. The Independent Liberation Army (ILA), which is, of course, still alive and kicking, is about to become more powerful than ever, and in turn imperil world security more than ever. Fortunately, there's the US army to sort things out.

The first thing you notice in the game is the large number of options that determine game rules and the course of the game. These do not only let you set the basic things like the level of difficulty, starting resources, victory conditions and number of enemies; they also offer a large number of options that will allow you to fine-tune the game to your own specific taste. Apart from this, the game already offers four predefined styles of play, which are actually setting bundles. The predefined styles vary in the style of gameplay and tactics required.

The required credits are gained by building storage facilities and establishing supply lines. The supplies that come by plane or chopper are the credits you use to make units. Rogue States features new defensive units ranging from SAM sites to bunkers, mounted machine guns and artillery, which now let you establish a powerful defense line in front of your main base.

The game features beautiful cut scenes both before and during the game. The in-game graphics, on the other hand, are still displayed using the old engine, which means 2D backgrounds with 3D objects and units. The backgrounds are good and vary from inhospitable snowy slopes to deserts and tropical islands. The HUD can be minimized or hidden, and you can use the mouse wheel to zoom the picture in or out. As for the units and buildings, they do look better; some of them have been completely remodeled, and others simply have more frames of animation. Ground units have been totally redesigned and are now objects rather than sprites they used to be.

AI was probably the worst segment of the original game; so naturally, it came to be the segment where the development team decided to make the most improvements. And indeed, your units will now actually do what you tell them to do without spending minutes bumping into each other and getting lost in a forest consisting out of three or less trees. Path finding was substantially improved (or should I simply say: path finding was finally introduced as a feature) and the units will now more efficiently decide which nearby unit to attack. The slightly refreshed interface combined with an advanced AI will let you choose your tactics more wisely and concentrate more on playing the game than on being frustrated by it.

Rogue States has advanced support for multiplayer and skirmish modes with 20 maps on all types of terrain. Each map has a set of default parameters, which will let you start playing instantly, but all these parameters can be changed, letting you tweak the gameplay to your heart's content.

Real War: Rogue States is a game that turned a low-budget project into one of the most respected products on the RTS market. This is a proof enough that a cliché rather than an original idea and a decent in stead of excellent code and design can sometimes be sufficient for achieving success.