R.U.S.E. Preview
- August 15th, 2010
- Posted in Information
- By rymanb
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It was a long while ago when Ubisoft first announced R.U.S.E., a new strategy game meant to revolutionise the way we play real-time games on consoles, with the intention of releasing it at then back-end of 2009. Constant feedback from the community and from QA Testers meant that the release date has been pushed back time and time again. Now though, Ubisoft say they’ve hit a new milestone in development, meaning that they can finally announce a release date of 17h September 2010 in Europe. We’ve also been promised a big surprise in the near future, which the development team (Eugen Systems) will soon reveal.
Other than that though, what can we expect from this highly anticipated new game? PlayStation Future attempts to find out…
R.U.S.E. is destined to take place in the World War II period, with the single-player campaign focussing on the war between the United States and (obviously) Nazi Germany. While you can only play as the United States or Germany in the campaign, the online functionality will allow players to use any one of six factions – United States, United Kingdom, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, France and Italy.
Each faction will have its perks and its drawbacks, for example the UK has extensive air weaponry, whilst the heavy artillery such as tanks leave a lot to be desired; or Germany with very expensive units but ones that are very efficient. Clearly, choosing the right faction for the right conditions will be pivotal on whether you win or lose against the online community.
Speaking of which, very little is currently known about the online component of the game except from the fact that you will be able to play both competitively and co-operatively and that there will be a ranking system similar to those found in most modern games with online components.
The gameplay is very similar to that of how generals used to plan battles during the war...
On to the Single-Player now, which is where R.U.S.E. seems to stand out best with it’s unique gameplay. The single-player campaign is divided into two sections. One is about a a Major in the US Army battling his way into the German stronghold, whilst the other focusses on a German general trying to find a mole in the upper ranks of command. Throughout the campaign, expect to live through many historic battles across the continent, including North Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, France, and inevitably Germany.
Aside from the single-player campaign, there are other modes available. Skirmish mode allows you to select any map to play on as well as how the AI plays (defensively, offensively etc.); Challenge mode will also be playable but details about it are unknown.
Comparing this image to the above shows how much the scale of the camera can be changed.
The main feature which will make R.U.S.E. unique is the ability to use…. er… Ruses! Ruses are special perks which you can deploy in battle in order to gain one up on the enemy. There are three types of Ruse: Ones which seek out information from the enemy (such as revealing all enemy movements in an area); ones which withhold information from the enemy (such as hiding all of the player’s building within an area); and ones which trick the enemy (such as creating a decoy building).
The Ruses will allow the player to change the face of battle with the opposition, but remember though, the opposition will have access to the same Ruses as you do, so you’ll need to be weary, especially online.
One of the playable locations in the SP Campaign, Italy. Note the Coliseum visible in the background.
Another great gameplay element is the scale of the maps. The camera will allow you to zoom right out and see the whole battlefield, as well as the ability to zoom right in and focus on individual sections of the map. How taxing this will be on the PS3, as well as how smooth the motion from zooming from full scale down to individual level will be, is yet unknown.
R.U.S.E. is set to be released in the EU on PS3 (and Xbox 360 and PC) on 17th September, fully compatible with the PlayStation Move. As such there will be no demo, and your chances to play the multiplayer betas are over, so for now you’ll have to sit tight and see what the critics think. Below is the latest trailer for the game (with an out-of-date release date at the end):
That’s a very interesting preview – I’ve tended to ignore stuff about R.U.S.E as most recent games with an acronym for a title have been a bit rubbish! This does look pretty cool though – my only hesitation is that I hate playing RTS games with a controller, but given that R.U.S.E. will work with Move then it could turn out to be really good fun.
Tell me about it… In my opinion, RTS games belong on the PC, and until I play an RTS game on a console which doesn’t have fiddly controls, I will keep believing that. This is shaping up to be a good game though, I think I’ll put it on my ‘maybe’ pile.
“R.U.S.E. is destined to take place in the World War II period, with the single-player campaign focussing (obviously) on the war between the United States and Nazi Germany.”
Why is it obviously? I think you should change/delete that, there were many other countries involved in the war, and you seem to think the US is the only country fighting the Nazi’s. It is shameful, and you have disgraced the hundreds of thousands of british,french,polish, Australian, and many other countries.
Hey Anon. Thanks for your comments. I don’t wish to put words in rymanb’s mouth, but I inferred that rymanb used the word “obviously” because all these kinds of games, as well as films, tend to show the American side of the involvement rather than the British or indeed any other side.
The fact that this happens is not right, and I agree that it is insulting to all the other nations who fought so bravely against the Nazis. However, that is the way it is with popular media these days and unfortunately it is obvious that this game will be played from the point of view of the US rather that anyone else.
All the guys who help on this site are British (or at least Irish) and certainly have no pro-American bias when writing features and news stories. I hope you understand that we would never wish to insult any nation or group of people, especially war veterans who fought and died so that we could live in the free world.
If you have any further comments to make on this I would be very happy to read them.
@Anon
I’m sorry that this article has caused offense to you. But what I was trying to get at was that the main campaign in a WWII game would obviously be about Nazi Germany. That and what nineinchnailed said above.
I’ll move the obviously to a more appropriate position. Once again, my apologies for causing offense.