R.U.S.E. is a upcoming RTS developed by Eugen Systems and published by Ubisoft. While a private beta has been under way for some time, Steam users were treated to a free open beta test earlier in March, continuing through until April 9th. Set in the time period of World War 2, R.U.S.E. takes the traditional RTS and gives it an interesting spin through the form of the eponymous "ruses," wildcards that allow a player to trick and deceive the enemy in a variety of ways.
Set for release sometime in 2010, R.U.S.E. has been developed by the same people behind the Act of War games. Although thus far the public beta is focusing just on the multiplayer aspects of the game, at release the game will have an extensive single player campaign and a fleshed-out skirmish mode; so far the AI skirmish only gives you access to a single map, but that's supposed to be an intended limitation to test out the game.
When I first began playing R.U.S.E., there was little in the way of a tutorial to get you up to speed. There was a manual which I elected not to bother with, and the single video named "tutorial" on the website was instead the same advertisement that the game presents you at startup. Thankfully, however, it wasn't too difficult picking up what to do inside my first AI skirmish and veterans of the RTS genre will quickly figure out their way around the game with a little bit of trial and error.
The usual RTS paradigms are there: resources take the form of supply dumps that dot the map and are up for grabs from either side. You start out with a central headquarters building from which all further base-construction happens; supply depots can be used to control the neutral dumps, whereupon a caravan of tiny cargo trucks will meander back and forth between the depot and your headquarters, netting you currency every few seconds. As these trucks can only travel over existing roads, this represents a point of strategy for both yourself and the enemy; long supply routes can be disrupted en route by attacking the supply trucks, and the longer the route the longer it takes for you to collect your cash. However, this risk can be mitigated by building a secondary headquarters nearby.
There are a variety of other structures and units available from infantry, tanks and aircraft, each with their own weaknesses and advantages depending on their situational use. In many respects R.U.S.E. would be a very generic RTS if not for the two things that, in my opinion, really make it stand out.
First off is its visual aesthetic, which is very crisp and clean. As a player you have full control over the play field, being able to zoom in to a very minute level where the details of every tank or building stand out as if you were right next to them, or zoom out to overlook the map from a high level viewpoint like some sort of modern-day god. The markers of units and buildings scale to fit your vantage point, condensing from 1:1 representations of units to little figurines if you're looking at the map from a high zoom level. The graphics are very slick and the cleanliness of game assets are in contrast to many military-themed titles.
Secondly, the ruse system turns the whole RTS on its head. Ruses are divided into three categories: ruses that can be used to reveal information, like a ruse that reveals all unidentified units in a sector; ruses can be used to hide information, like a ruse that masks all your existing units in a sector; finally, ruses can be used to deceive, like setting up a fake base in a sector, or launching a fake offensive against an enemy. Ruses are given to the player on a set basis every few minutes and once played tend to run for five or six minutes at a time. In the case of fake units or buildings, the enemy player cannot immediately tell the difference between a decoy assault or a real one without employing ruses of their own, so these wildcards can be used to very effectively tie up the enemy's resources defending against a fake attack while you're bringing your real army up around to a completely different sector. It's this element that invokes a very clever twist and players will need to use their ruses effectively to beat the enemy.
The online multiplayer component will let players fight one another in skirmish matches as well as complete co-op missions. There are a total of six factions in the game. Presumably the single player component will still utilise Ubisoft's new always-connected DRM mentioned previously, the only mark against the game so far in my opinion. While it is still in beta and it's too early to get a full scope of the game's single player, for example, the public beta thus far has been pretty fun. I'm not generally a fan of real-time strategy games set in the usual glorification period of World War 1/2, but so far I've really enjoyed R.U.S.E. and I'm looking forward to seeing the full release.
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