Set during the Second World War, a time period we’re all very familiar with by now, R.U.S.E. is built on the idea that information warfare is imperative to success, that battles are not just fought with men, but with ideas and deception. It is here we find the core gameplay concept; the ruse. Unlike so many other strategy games that bank heavily on unit management and super abilities, R.U.S.E. is all about getting to know your enemy and manipulating them to your advantage. Players are given access to a list of ‘ruse’ abilities that allow them to not only spy on the opposition, such as seeing all of their available units in a sector as well as their given orders, but also disguise their own commands and fool opponents into attacking decoy armies and structures. Training a formidable force is not enough; you must understand your enemy’s intentions, learn to predict their tactics, and lure them into traps of your own, and it’s all done without even pushing a single soldier out of the barracks.
An effective method of clearing out the hippy protestors.
However, just because there’s a considerable focus on deception and informationm this does not mean the complexities of unit management have been neglected. A plenitude of varied historic units make up the military might of six factions; foot soldiers, tanks, recon, artillery, flamethrowers, bombers, bunkers, and much more, each with their own set of meticulously balanced speeds, strengths, and weaknesses. The archaic ‘tank rush’ tactic of amassing an army of the most fortifiable unit is useless here, with exploitable weaknesses that allow you to rip a haphazard mess of enemies to ribbons with a few select units of your own. But it doesn’t stop there, with mastering the environment just as essential to victory. Roads must be kept safe to allow the transportation of resources, forests can be used as ambush points, and securing bridges and other bottlenecks can spell the difference between an impenetrable blockade and shoestring defence. It’s all remarkably easy to manage and control, too. Units can be selected and given orders with just one mouse button, the ruse and building construction menus are always just a single click away, and just like all good strategy games there’s support for more advanced control, such as unit grouping, specialist hotkey’s, and queuing multiple orders.
It is in the controls and design that we find one of game’s most important achievements; just as it is deceptive in nature of literal gameplay, it is deceptive in depth and accessibility. Strategy newcomers will find the simplistic controls and easy to understand nature of building construction and unit balance very welcoming, made even more-so by a campaign that gradually introduces gameplay concepts without ever putting too greater burden on the player, yet strategy veterans and masters will discover a web of intricate balances and complex tactics that make full use of all the game has to offer. Success is not weighed towards those with quick fingers, but those who are quick thinkers, and the most skilled of players will be those who can not only plan complex tactics, but those who can adapt on the fly, twisting an opponent’s devious scheme into giving you the upper hand before they’ve even set it in motion.
The little wooden tank that couldn't.
R.U.S.E. accompanies this deep design of gameplay with a robust package of content that will keep gamers busy for months. A lengthy military campaign with a mystery story premise, as if ‘World War II’ wasn’t enough, is situated at the core of the single player offering. The story is forgettable, due to B-grade pre-rendered cuts scenes and woefully stereotypical characters, such as the upper class tea sipping English general and the young, hot-headed American, but the variety and polished pacing of the campaign, which takes place from multiple perspectives across many maps, including some historic battles, really delivers an engaging experience. Each chapter operates under a theme that drives most of the primary objectives, and allowing more adventurous players to discover challenging secondary objectives scattered around the map. Alone the campaign should take around twenty or so hours to complete, and if the single player itch persists there’s a handful of ‘Operation’ missions with predetermined variables, and a standard ‘Battles’ mode that lets you join in with up to eight AI opponents across a wide variety of maps and conditions to wage war at your own pace.
Once the single player options have been exhausted there’s a full multiplayer offering waiting, including all of the previously mentioned ‘Battles’ mode maps and variables available for random and hosted games, and a stat tracking ‘Ranked Matches’ that puts you in your place courtesy of a worldwide leader board. Sadly, and for some bizarre reason, the PC version of R.U.S.E. is region locked, which may make finding Australian games very difficult. This is easily bypassed by changing your Steam application download location to another region, such as the United States, but it is an unnecessary restriction that will hopefully be patched in the future. There’s also a concern as to the popularity and longevity of the multiplayer portion, due to an audience that might be far too preoccupied with the strategy behemoths StarCraft 2 and Civilization V to populate servers, but the high quality of gameplay is destined to keep at least some dedicated gamers around waiting for a challenge, and the lengthy worldwide leader board is more than enough proof that a good amount of people are already hooked.
In the land of Nazi Germany, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Hitler forged in secret a master race.
On the presentation frontlines R.U.S.E. can be quite a beauty to behold, particularly the scaling of units and the environment. Diving the camera perspective down to ground level presents highly detailed units, fields of grass, destructible buildings, dense towns, wildlife, and gorgeous lighting and weather effects, all rendered across sweeping horizons that evoke a true sense of authenticity to large scale warfare. Pulling the camera up minimises and removes the little details, adding faction icons and displaying units with draughts board pieces and detailing regional borders. At the highest point the battlefield changes to something that resembles more of a war planning board, complete with busy staff and communication officers working in the background, going the extra mile to convey the sense of being a military commander. Sound design is standard war game stuff; thunderous booms from exploding shells, roaring engines of circling bombers, and stomping feet from a soldier’s march. None of it will blow your socks off, but does a good job of comfortably fitting in with the game’s historic equipment and machinery.
The technology engine is solid, so mid-range hardware should be able to crank up many of the graphical options to high without a significant impact on performance, and those with more state-of-the-art systems will be able to minimise level-of-detail scaling, increase shadow and texture clarity, and play with a number of other hardware melting options to achieve an amazing level of detail. Advanced graphics settings are highly scalable, which is helpful for those running older systems, and there’s a benchmarking option to aid tinkerers in find that sweet spot between visuals and performance.
The crafty one-two punch of the old Spy 'n Bomb.
As a complete package, of design and content, the worst thing R.U.S.E. could have been is a copy-cat clone of the more popular strategy titles currently out in the market. It’s a fate too many real-time and turn-based strategy games succumb to, cashing in on the style and design of whatever is best known and more popular. Instead, R.U.S.E. is the complete opposite. It deviates from the norm and does something new, introducing war concepts and tactical formula that are a rarity in the genre. It’s smart, original, accessible, and deeper than a spy stuck behind enemy lines.
But best of all it does all of these things with the confidence of a well established franchise. It might be the new kid on the block, but it knows very well exactly what kind of game it is, where it’s best qualities lie, and does a phenomenal job of presenting these qualities in the most appealing and addictive manner possible. The result is a well polished gem of strategy gaming that earns the highest praise for its boldness and originality. Don’t be deceived by the familiar strategy faces. Give R.U.S.E. a chance and you might just find yourself pleasantly surprised.
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