Battle Realms

"Get This Game....Enough Said"

I was in my friends PC shop.... I was bored and I decide to chek out the game in his comp...

HMMM,...battle realms eh?? ** Starts Playing**

....It was Awesome....I almost want to stay overnight there!

The Good Part :)
The Graphics is Excellent-Liquid smooth movement with details-Fogs-Rain-Flame Heroes and Units doing kung-fu movements(Bycicle Kick,Hell to Heaven Slashes and etc) during engagements with the enemy - HAAAAIYAH!!!!

Storyline is quite typical-Father dies...people war and revolt-clans kill each other for power..as usual...but nevertheless , they make the cutscenes with excellent movement and expressions to suit the mood of the story well....most of the units look so awesome - I LOVE THE DRAGON WARRIOR,The FAT Powder Keg Cannonoer and Shinja
One of the Heroed/General in the Game.

The missions are basically fun and nice with detailed warfare incorporated(Later On This)...the soundtrack is also nice-during an attack on the enemy especially.

Its quite realistic , and anyone who have read Sun Zi's/Sun Bin's Art of War will love the combat techniques and economy management in the game.

-For Example- Birds will flutter away when there are troops oving across forests....,In The Art of War - this means a sneak attack or a large force approaching...

In the economy part,you can water the rice field when its almost depleted to regrow them , capture horses to be mounted by your units unlike any other RTS games
this allows you to manage your resource to your will.

The usual Higher Ground advantage is there....and also you have the forest sneak bombardment technique to aid your attack. When one of your buildings got fired by flame arrows or other burning(Fire) weopans,you can use a peasant to douse it by ordering him to collect water and douse the fire - Realistic -

There is a limit of how many troops you can build( Wait! this is a good thing! ) , your opponents also have a limit too....so its EQUALIZED! and during a mission , they actually start from the begining like as you are but of course , they have a lot of trops (More than what you have at the start) to defend.No Rush , but you can hinder them by attacking them using guerilla methods :)

Units can be upgraded to a more powerfull unit by training a unit in different DOJO's -For Example- An archer who trains in a Chemist hut will produce a Cannonner , a Kabuki Warrior who trains in a Target Range will produce the Samurai - Not just that , they can gain Battle Gears(Skills)
after 'medidating' in the Shrine.These unique ablities are limited to a unit's stamina.

Winning a battle will gain you Yin or Yang points . Yin is Dark Energy-Bad Guys , Yang is the Good Energy(Thats wht ou get for your righteous cause in battle).These points will allow you to upgrade your entire type of unit.Dragon's Heart,for example will raise the punisment your spearman can take and The Art of Meditation can train your Geishas a.k.a healers to heal with less stamina.My Favourite is Meditation(Find out yourselves in the game and you will like it too...i don't want to spoil the mood!)

They even include a Tech Tree in the options menu to guide you to play your very best strategies which means you can easily build what you want or what you have targeted
( Battle Gears,Units etc)

There is always a defense structure in any RTS game , and in Battle Realms , You have the Watch Tower.Whats so special? well , you can put ANY missle units you want on it
and each clans watchtowers have their own unigue ablity..
-For Example- The Lotus Clan Watch Tower have the ablity to stun all units attacking the watchtower and usage is limited to the 'Energy' in the watchtower.The ablity is triggered automaticaly until the energy depletes to zero.

There are four clans in the game and each have their own advantages and disadvantages,you can only play as the Dragon Clan but you can play the other clans in the Skirmish which is included. There is also a multiplayer option too.-WOHOO-!

Okay...too much of the good stuff..Now the bad part....

Read This - There isn't any :)

Um..maybe the keyboard commands - Too Many... ;)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/01, Updated 11/28/01