Battle Realms

Simply one great game!

Playing Battle Realms is simply a joy. It's a real-time strategy title that doesn't bog you down in its details, it doesn't carry the ponderous weight of less refined titles, and leaves you with that genuinely satisfied feeling you get from playing a superbly crafted and balanced title.

A great RTS that is fun to play. Something refreshing in a genre full of boring clones and mediocre sequels.

It has refreshingly little in common with other games of its kind. Besides which, its great presentation, genuinely likable units, replayable campaign, and flexible skirmish and multiplayer modes are easily enough to recommend it.

A remarkably well-produced and intimate game that is the perfect answer for all of those "more is more" strategy games.

Battle Realms screams quality. However, at its core it's still just basic real-time strategy, and if you aren't into click-happy real-time games then it's best to steer clear.

The main problem with this game was that it became, at times, very unfair. The enemy armies are able to "grow" opponents much faster than you can create warriors.

It’s a fantastic system that allows you to become more involved with your troops and resources on an individual level, ensuring a higher level of attention is paid on developing tactics and strategies based on the different warriors you’ve got.

The intense strategic gameplay alone makes it one of the better RTS titles released in recent years.

Whilst the game certainly contains plenty of exciting and innovative touches (such as stamina, hero units and the points scoring system to improve units) these are all somewhat nullified by the utterly chaotic nature of combat, and the fact that the single player campaign always pits you against impossible odds that make the game much harder - not because the computer is clever, just because it has bigger and better units.

This kind of ["mad rush"] 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.

It balances an equal number of frustrating and appealing elements to create a love-it or hate-it experience. [Mar 2002, p.72]

Outstanding 3D graphics and unit animations combine with excellent music and sharp interfaces to create a compelling medieval Japanese setting filled with magic and mysticism.

Offers some definite innovation in terms of unit creation and resource management, but the wretched unit AI and lackluster missions left me wondering what we were waiting all this time for. [Feb 2002, p.78]