"An interesting chinese strategy game worth a look for RTS lovers."

Introduction:
This game is an obscure one, to say the least. Dragon Throne: Battle of the Red Cliffs is an RTS (Real Time Strategy) based on Chinese warfare. In the shadow of games like Age Of Empires and Empire Earth, it would be hard for a passerby to decide what separates Dragon Throne from the rest, and maybe pass it up. What actually lies behind that cover is an interesting stab at the genre that does resemble Age of Empires and the like, but has plenty separating it from your average RTS. In the end, it turns out as a decent, solid RTS, especially for strategy lovers.

Story:
I don't actually rate the story, because it's silly to base a game's score on the story unless it affects the gameplay or replay value in some manner. Dragon Throne is based on actual Chinese history, and before every campaign, the story of what happened is explained in detail. Unfortunately, it drops so many names and refers to so many different places and events that unless you're a Chinese history buff, you'll probably understand little of it in context with the game. Still, it's very in-depth and the fact that everything in the game really happened helps. Plus, bios are even provided for the sergeants in the game.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics are rather unremarkable, but well done enough. The units are fairly well rendered, and sport some detail. Good detail, in fact. The backgrounds and textures, though not attention-grabbing, look fine. What's better, is that the buildings in the game are pretty-well detailed, and just by looking at them you could probably tell what each one does.

However, none of this looks vastly impressive, and the models are unmemorable. The whole look just isn't too great in general, sporting pretty plain stuff. Fortunately, the graphics score is redeemed somewhat by the visual effects seen when your sergeants cast spells (more on that later). The spells are probably the best piece of eye candy in the game, and certainly not half bad to look at.

So, I give the graphics a seven out of ten. They're not nearing impressive status and too shrunken down to be rated high, but they get the job fairly well done, especially with the detailed units.

Gameplay: 8/10
If you're the kind that starts up a game without peering in the manual or going to the tutorial, it's gonna take you a while to get Dragon Throne. Gameplay is not overly complicated, and strategy buffs will easily figure out how fighting and building and all the basic stuff works straight away, but there are so many factors involved and things to do that in order to fully grasp the game, you'll have to play for a while, or take the tutorial.

Maybe I should be more clear. See, at its heart, Dragon Throne is just a simple point-and-click RTS, with management of units. The controlling of units is very similar to other RTS's. But built around this basic theme are many other things players will have to deal with. The different types of resources, reinforcements, alignment, assigning officers...it can take a while. But once you learn about these, you'll realize that these don't have a massive impact on gameplay, and you'll be able to enjoy the game without having to worry about these every waking second.

As an RTS, however, Dragon Throne is much, much more heavily based on resource collecting then any other game of the genre I've played. Ditching Age of Empires' gameplay, which is more weighed on combat, Dragon Throne heads the other direction to go into realism. No longer do you generate units merely by clicking on buttons in factories. Now, you get labourers who you have to send to barracks to train into the desired type of warrior. The labourers also collect resources, and there are a lot; wood, corn, food, wine, ores, and pork. All of these are obtained in different ways, and each one is used for a different purpose. If you want to harvest these, you have to assign a labourer to collect the resources, and then bring them back. However, unless you tell them otherwise, they'll continue to do what they're assigned, so you won't have to worry about labourers you've set to work. The labourers can also be assigned to work in places that breed horses and make siege weapons - the more you assign, the faster they work. The final (and predictable) thing labourers do is build. There are many different types of buildings, from stables where you get horses to barracks where you train soldiers.

However, while all this resource collecting and worker assigning may seem stiff and uninviting, once you get your labourers working, the gameplay boils down to a deep, strategy-rich battle. You get three main types of units: swordsmen, archers, and pikemen, each with upgraded forms. However, there are no other infantry units except these, making your choice of men very limited. Fortunately, there are also many siege weapons you can use, each having a different style of attack. The siege weapons are quite interesting - three-arrow bow, anyone? - from the light-giving Kongming lantern to the fireball-spewing thunder wagon. These soldiers and siege weapons are all used in combat against enemy units. The battling is strategy rich and needs some thinking and planning - no grabbing all your soldiers and just shoving 'em forward to fight.

Also, (dipping away from realism) there are sergeants you can recruit. These are all real Chinese officers in history. They are powerful fighters, each with a set of spells. The more battles they survive, the more powerful they become and the more spells they cast. Sergeants are also used to promote research or diplomacy by assigning sergeants as officers.

Then there are the play modes. There's skirmish, which is a basic battle with the computer. In campaign mode, there are three different Chinese warlords to choose from; Sun Quan, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei. The campaigns are quite hard, however, and missions will require great thought and care. Each mission has a different requirement, but one common requirement (and the way to win in skirmishes) is to capture the opponent's city. Most players have cities (in campaign you might not), where you build your buildings and recruit your units. You can't build anything outside the city, and your men will slowly lose strength (their ability to fight) if they are outside. There are spells that replenish strength, but for the most part, you may just need to complete whatever you must outside of the city as quickly as possible. In order to capture an opponent's city, you must capture their courthouse by knocking down its stamina to near zero.

So, how does all of this fare in actual fun? The good: Well, first off, the realism is great. Having authentic Chinese units adds onto the oriental feel. There are way too few units, with only 6 (3 basic, 3 upgraded) but fortunately, the battles are still fun enough without them. The sergeant's spells and leveling up is fine, and the siege weapons greatly add on to the depth of the strategy and the fun of the fights. The parts that aren't so good are probably all the non-combat stuff you have to do. All the resource collecting makes starting the games a bit uninviting, and all the assigning of labourers to different tasks and places can get tedious. This is made up for, however, by the best part of the game: attacking the cities. Defending or attacking the cities are so fun, so massive (watch tons of fireballs and arrows rain down on attackers from a gate!) and so strategically deep that you'll find them the most rewarding part of the game. Especially if you win the fight.

Sound: 7/10
The music in the game is well done, but not the kind that will get stuck in your head. It's an interesting (and long!) track that doesn't really affect you too much. It's interesting, and certainly passable, but again, nothing great.

The sound effects are pretty generic. Swords (or should I say spears? There are no swords in this game o_O) clashing make metallic sounds, siege weapons creak as they move and spells make strange sounds as they take effect. The sounds effects are there, but not extraordinarily realistic. Some of the sounds do sound quite convincing, but most of the time they're nothing worth remarking about. Just simply standard fare.

There's voice acting in this game, but...you know what? Unless you understand Chinese, you won't know if its good or bad. The characters in campaign mode who talk in the game all speak Chinese, which I don't understand a bit of. (Fortunately, there are English subtitles.) What's good about the voice acting, though, is simply the fact that it wasn't dubbed in English - the Chinese voices add to the realism of the game, and make the oriental setting more believable.

Replayability: 8/10
There's multiplayer in the game, I should add, and that helps stretch it out. There are several different types of play, but anyone playing with you will need the disc. Still, being able to team up with a human opponent (instead of the computer, which always teams up with other computer controlled characters instead of you - grr!) is a nice feeling indeed, especially since the advanced diplomacy options in this game allow you to convert units to your Ally's side or send your ally a tribute.

The skirmish could last you awhile. The courses are all basically the same, and things won't differ much - the units, the buildings - will all remain similar. However, because the game requires so much strategy, you could easily play the skirmish over again and again, just to see how well your army tactics do each time.

The campaign, having three different parts, will last. There are a good amount of missions per campaign, but the main reason it'll last is because the campaign is so hard. Be prepared to restart. All in all, the campaign and the skirmishes will keep strategy lovers playing for a while, and the multiplayer helps too. And the whole Chinese setting is interesting enough to make the game worth revisiting every once in a while.

Final Score: 7/10

Dragon Throne, while seemingly unimpressive in comparison to Age of Empire and the like, is actually a game rich with strategy, and has plenty of fun to be had commanding troops in the Chinese setting. The only problem with it is that some parts (graphics, sound) are unmemorable, and some of the non-combat sections of the game are tedious and uninviting. Still, this is a game worth devoting some time to, and a good buy for strategy buffs or RTS lovers.

The Good:
- Great realism in many different areas of the game, especially the Chinese setting.
- The strategical section of the game is challenging and satisfying.
- City sieges/defending has never been this crazy and fun.
- The sergeants and their spells are a welcome addition - just don't cast that poison fog over your own men, if you please.
- There are siege weapons and many other elements that greatly add to the strategy, making fights more fun.

The Bad
- Graphics are serviceable, but plain and unmemorable.
- Sound effects are pretty generic.
- There's too much complicated assigning and resource collecting.
- Some fun is sacrificed for the sake of realism.
- Too few unit types.

Well, that's my review. Thank you for taking the time to read it, and I hope it helped.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/06