The single-player story is pretty solid, and with the help of all the real-time cut scenes ends up being pretty entertaining. The story involves a murdered lord’s exiled son who is returning to find his father’s land divided up by various clans. It is suspected by some that he had a hand in his father’s death, but he still has some trusted friends and it is with these few that he begins to retake the lands that are rightfully his.

I find it somewhat disheartening that developers in general have taken an online/skirmish or nothing attitude towards some of the latest real-time strategy titles. This is why a decently scripted campaign that by standards set two years ago would be routine, is actually a very welcome sight. I am happy Liquid Entertainment didn’t waste the fantastic amount of atmosphere Battle Realms on a weak single-player experience.

The look and style utilized in Battle Realms is pretty unique in terms of aesthetics and also very impressive technically. I have played many RTS titles and very few, if any, have used the lands, as well as the mythos, of the Chinese so well. The angle Liquid Entertainment seems to be going for is not for historical accuracy, but rather to create a very detailed universe for the player to really feel a part of. From a technical standpoint Battle Realms is one of the more polished real-time strategy titles I have come across. Empire Earth has some similar attention to detail but overall it doesn’t seem to show the same amount of detail to every unit and every structure in every area of the map.

I think if I had to describe Battle Realms with one word it would be ‘creative’, because this is the only thing that comes to my mind when I look over the five different clans in Battle Realms. A sort of balance is struck with Battle Realm’s unit progression system. Most of the structures for each clan, while different, serve similar purposes. A few clans have a few extra structures that serve to modify units in some way unique to that particular clan. For example the Serpent Clan has buildings that give them glass swords, a very lethal special attack.

I want to break away from the talk of structures to get into the more important part of Battle Realms, how the military and economy is managed. The game begins with a Peasant Hut. This hut produces peasants automatically at periods of time that only get longer as more peasants are available to you. This means early game you might get plenty of peasants, but late game, with a lot of units at your command, peasant production will slow down considerably.

Peasants harvest rice, gather water, build things, and most importantly, are trained as military units. Once a specific type of training building is constructed the peasant just needs to be directed to enter it and after a short period of time the new unit emerges. Now that you have this unit you can either direct them to upgrade buildings that will equip them with special abilities, or you can create a stronger unit. Most units only have one ability at their disposal at any given time, but these can be swapped for other abilities. To create a second or third tier unit you simply direct your low level attack unit to a different training ground, creating a stronger and more versatile unit.

Since peasants have become a resource themselves, the balancing of economy and military has become a totally different ballgame. Too large of a military force and you won’t have many peasants gathering needed resources, too many peasants and they will get mowed down as the enemy breaks through your lines.

This is all really good, but combat, the essential element in a real-time strategy game, is where Battle Realms stumbles a bit. Granted, because of the way peasants and other units are handled, as well as the really fantastic map designs that utilize terrain wonderfully, the idea of tactics is enforced up to the point of actual combat. Unfortunately once the fighting starts it is total chaos. There are some formation controls as well as some aggression options but most of that goes right out the window once a fight breaks out. The most impact you can have is by ordering more units to the area or pressing the special ability buttons in the task bar.

You have tactics while moving troops, but while actually using them you really don’t. What this weird mix has ended up creating are situations where ‘rushing’ actually requires enough forethought for it be considered a tactic. Overall troop numbers tend to be more important than what units your group is composed of since the proper opportunities don’t present themselves in combat. While the single-player game is scripted to play a certain way that allows a bit more intelligent combat, the way to win online is through early rushing or just rushing period. The tier system that works to balance this game also allows the top tier to undermine most of the units below it, making the act of playing a mad rush for the top rather than intelligently using all of the units.

This kind of gameplay isn’t uncommon in most real-time strategy games, but for a game that is so creative in every other aspect it is a real shame to see it suffer in any way from such old issues. Still, Liquid Entertainment’s ‘Battle Realms’ offers up some really high production values and pretty different military and economy systems. If you don’t mind a bit of rushing this is definitely a game you should check out.

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