Real Time Conflict: Shogun Empires

"Suffers from taking it's source material too seriously"

Real Time Conflict is an effortless exercise in tolerance. To leave the gameplay to the side for more than a few minutes leaves the player disenchanted, as if they were actually playing a board game. Very much like Risk, Real Time Conflict attempts to recreate the value of Medieval war through text that has eventual sparks of personality which feels more like the Developer's covering their ass, than anything else. Off-putting for most gamers, the tremendous slow-down in Real Time Conflict is immeasurable and constantly ruining the pace of the title. Within two hours, everything it has to offer will be blown through. Good luck finding anyone who has this game, let alone, somebody who dares to play this game in search of opponents. Perhaps there is an audience out there for something so simple-minded and low on calories. That is, RTC is without substance, a disappointment for any interested RTS fan. Whomever the target audience was for this game, it certainly missed the mark.

When Real Time Conflict is in-between battles, things lighten up, though only a little. Feeling much like a board game (specifically, Risk), your expanding Empire takes turns moving phallic-like pieces from territory to territory. The map is small, so there couldn't be more than thirty locations which you can overtake. You are supposed to feel compelled to accomplish the task of taking every one of them, because the text-driven story tells of a sword (which you'll never get to see, let alone use), and of course, it's worth killing hundreds of angry enemies and defeating your brothers army, just because your father spoke of a sword which even after the game ended, I still hadn't believed it could've existed. There's no way the actual gameplay is shaped around the story, at least. After defeating a whole army, you're bound to a horse, in a chase scene with an enemy general. Archers are scattered about the course, so as you shoot with the inconvience of using either the L or R buttons to fire the arrows, you'll also have to dodge the opposing arrows by sliding your stylus either left or right. That's all the control you have over anything, in those battles.

Two paths are available from the beginning and there will only be two paths available in the end. One brother is in on the conquering for the quest of the sword, but the other brother would much rather negotiate over tea. My biggest gripe about Real Time Conflict is based around the fact that it was Developed without attention to detail. Every soldier looks exactly the same and the rock-paper-scissors formula doesn't work out when you can't tell who someone is on the battlefield. The overhead map is also relatively useless as things are misplaced on it, and there isn't a whole lot of information to view. Had the context of Medieval themes been as much as mildly imaginative, I might find this game to be passable. But that's not the case. When I destroy a building, why does it stay on the map? How does that help anything? In comparison to it's PC counterpart, in a few harsh words: this game is useless.

As long as you don't lose, the majority of your army is expendable. After multiple battles are waged, territories are pillaged, children's throats are slit, and women are forced to put out, you will have amassed a large amount of money. Spending this on your troops allows for the game to be a breeze but if you spend it on a Ninja to execute the enemy, you'll still have to fight as the Ninja, and that runs the risk of wasting all 550 honor points.

Sliding my stylus from the top-left, to the bottom right of my Touch Screen, I select an Archer, whose stats have been dramatically increased despite my efforts to balance out the quality of my armies. A man drabbed in what looks like blue sheets stands atop a raised cliff, peaking over the summit, his bow is drawn, yet his non-existant arms never let off. His shape contorts and holds, without any motion aside from irregular twitching. My archer is near the wall of the rising cliff, the right and left sides both leading to the enemies flag. A map on the top-screen labels the groups of my enemies with a singular 2D drawing of the type of soldiers in the groups. These drawings change perpetually, scrolling slowly as the men move into action. Usually the enemies wander away from their flag, leaving it open for the taking. This time, I decided not to take any chances. I selected the man on top of the cliff, whom was still horribly glitches. Four seconds passed and his remains lay cramped in death. My swordsmen were preoccupied with a battle on the left entry to the cliff's summit. My spearmen were docile and awaiting further commands, a little bit below the patch of grass on the right side of the screen, which reaches upwards to the enemy flag. Because the enemies don't battle multiple groups at once and never seem to like to initiate a first attack, I had to kill off several enemy archers up-close with the swordsmen, after they rounding a corner. They left the deceased archers unscathed, moving to a location above the enemy flag. This drew the attention of my enemy's remaining three units, and they scrambled into the fight blind-sighted, as my sneaky spearmen walked slowly to the enemies flag. The result of every battle in Real Time Conflict is inevitable. As long as you only attempt to overtake territories which have lower stats than the territory you're approaching it from, you'll be fine. I can not assure you that the game won't be frustrating; it certainly is a tad bit bland and pointless.

Had the Touch Screen controls been further refined, perhaps there would've been some spirit left in RTC. But as things stand, it's an all-around failure that glitches many times over, runs off of simple stats and largely feels inadequate because of all the glitches. This is one of the sloppiest titles I've played in years. I have a bad feeling that Fie Emblem and Advanced Wars will be the only spectacular games to ever be released on the DS. As long as RTC doesn't return for a second chance, I'd be fine with favoring Nintendo's games. That's where you'll find the effort and want to have people experience something charismatic and enveloping.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/06