I'm A Nerd: R.U.S.E

R.U.S.E is a real time strategy game that was released in september 2010 for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox360. It allows the gamer to take the role of a World War II general that tries to raise through the ranks in hopes to end the war. But it doesn't just stop their, the general still has some odds and ends to finish after the war as well. The game offers a great multiplayer where you can take control of different nations against your friends. The best part of this is that each nation (or faction) has different units that are better suited for different styles of players. These nations include United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Italy, France, and the Soviet Union. The French for example have upgraded bunkers that allow for easier defending while the Germans have much stronger tanks. Panzer General anyone?

Although this game may just seem like your typical WWII strategy game at first, it provides two very unique aspects that allow the user to enjoy the game on a whole new level. First, the user has full control off the camera. What I mean by this is that the player can zoom all the way until their units look like chips on table. A typical view would look this this:



But the player can also scroll in to watch the battle first hand. This is not to say that you only have two options, but rather you can look at the board from every single angle and any zoom that seems comfortable. This allows the gamer to pay attention to both the micro and the macro in the game.



Unlike games like Starcraft that you can just mass as many units as you possibly can and try to overrun a city or town, you are unable to use such simple strategies in this game. With Recon your units are unable to see hidden units and your army can be absolutely slaughtered. In addition, the board has forests, mountains and rivers that can cause huge problems for units. If you place the lonliest footsoldier in a forest it can easily ambush a tank. The same is true for artillery. Response times are also much longer. If your army becomes ambushed you aren't going to be able to get another army to a different town in the matter of seconds like a lot of strategy games.

The second biggest thing with R.U.S.E is of course the ruses. What are ruses? Well basically they are decoys that are handed out every couple of minutes that add a more dynamic gameplay. The user can choose between a wide range of ruses that reveal information, hide information or create decoys. So essentially one user could use a spy to see what a use has while another user could launch a fake assault on a town. Other ruses make small units look like bigger units and vice versa. You can also make your units move faster. Their are many different strategies you can use and you have to react to other peoples ruses accordingly.

(pictures courtesy of digitalchumps.com and play2compete.com)