It's a Relic RTS... need I say more?
As this is a game by Relic, you just know that the interface is going to be intuitive and easy to use. Anyone who’s played the Warhammer 40K: Dawn Of War series of games will be right at home. Left click to select, right click for actions and movement. The usual rules apply for selecting multiple units, either hold down shift and select, or drag a box or double click one unit to select all units of that type on the screen. You can group units together with the usual CTRL and a number key for easy access, but the best bit is the shield icon down the side of the screen that lists all your units and what groups you’ve sorted them into.
Hovering your mouse over the shields lets you see what you’ve got and you can even select and re-group units using this alone. This is actually an extremely handy feature as you’ll not want to leave the scene of a battle to call in more troops and the shield listing lets you pull up the reserves without having to go anywhere. One minor gripe I do have with the shield system is that empty groups don’t disappear from the list. Each group you make gets its own shield but if they all get killed the shield stays on the screen causing a bit of confusion as you look for particular units in previously assigned groups.
Click for larger imageNow, given this is a WW2 based RTS, the combat and upgrade system is as realistic as possible. So there’s no ‘heroes’ who magically imbue nearby units with extra armour or more accuracy. There’s no ‘ultimate power’ to call upon that runs around devastating the enemy before dissolving into the ether. So, if you want to stand half a chance of winning you need to think about how to equip and protect your troops. Build machine gun nests to cover against German infantry, make walls of sandbags to give protection to exposed troops and bring up anti-tank guns to fend off enemy armour. It all works as a war should.
Click for larger imageMany of the missions will see you needing to build and defend a base whilst at the same time grabbing territory for resources. There’s little in the way of resource management here, just go out and grab what you need and watch your resources build. On top of the resources you accumulate experience points, which you can then spend on extra abilities such as giving your armour the ability to self-repair or having rangers as an additional unit.