fantasy

Graphics- Battle Realms is one of the most beautiful RTS games on the market. Every unit has several fighting animations, so battles always play out differently and never look the same. Units also have various idle animations, some which have an effect on gameplay. The terrains and maps are very detailed, with fish and frogs in the water, birds in the woods that fly out when disturbed, and insects in the desert.

Sound- The orchestrated soundtrack flows dynamically, changing depending on the current situation. Each Clan has several different songs. Overall the voice overs are fine, except for a few "weird" clips.

Gameply- Battle Realms features totally innovative gameplay. Every unit, even the strongest and most expensive have a counter and can easily be killed if they are not paired with different troops. This prevents newb- tactics such as massing. Most units have two special powers, battle gears, that can drastically affect the outcome of a battle. Since even a level 1 unit can have a very effective gear, there are no useless units in Battle Realms. There is a semi- long branching campaign with a map similar to the one in Emperor. The AI in Battle Realms is also exceptional. Units will automatically attack their last attacker, and often have two different attack types ( samurais have piercing bows and cutting swords). They alternate between weapons to maximize damage to the enemy. The unit AI never has problems with pathfinding.

Conclusion- I have played both Battle Realms and the WC3 beta extensively, and although WC3 is only a beta I can say that BR is far superior. It is a fresh addition to the tired "mass up the strongest and wipe out the enemy" formula of modern RTS games, instead focusing on micromanagement of a small amount of units. BTW, even once you reach 20 units, you will feel like you have a huge army. Thus, most games are decided by early game skirmishing of 6-8 units. The only negative thing I can name is the multiplayer, which uses Gamespy. Gamespy has the laggiest servers ever, so don't expect to find more than 10 games at a time. However, once you get into the game the lag will clear up. I give Battle Realms, Liquid's first game, a 5/5.

What a fantastic game -- I am a die-hard fan of the real-time strategy genre, and never thought I'd ever match the goosbumps I got the first time I played Warcraft years ago. Starcraft came close (I still play that game with my brother-in-law online...timeless), Kohan and C&C Red Alert 2 were fun while they lasted, but Battle Realms really does take the cake. Who'd have thought that Ubi Soft, notorious for releasing horribly untested games, would make something as great as BR? True, the game does have a slight tendency to bomb occasionally, but a patch should fix that shortly. BR's 4 clans are extremely well-balanced and unique with special "battle gear" that improves combat acumen. Populations are limited to 30 -- including your peasant class -- and there are built-in discouragements to the rush tactic. I know you don't know me, but trust me: it you've ever liked an RTS game, you owe it to yourself to check out Battle Realms.

This game is pretty fun, but there is little variety. I haven't finished the game, but so far, every level is just building up enough forces and wiping out the enemy. This is like Command and Conquer, only the natural resources are unlimited (rice keeps growing, water keeps flowing) and the number of units you can have is limited. In each level, you can only have a certain number of men, around 20 or 30 so far. So it's difficult to have enough men defending the village and still have a large enough attack force. That may increase the challenge, but it is frustrating. It is more involved, too. You have to activate abilities for them to do anything, so you have to watch the fight and use the abilities at the appropriate time. In C&C, it was more getting together a large force and just leaving them to it, or going by stealth and capturing buildings in the enemy base. A problem is that units sometimes don't react very quickly. Some abilities cause this, but they also do it without being afflicted by anything. Also, it allows you to choose to save peasants from tyranny or force them to submit to your will at the beginning. But that seemed to be the only time, which disappointed me. Battle realms is fun, but only some of the time. It doesn't require much attention and can get old quickly. It's cheap, so give it a try.