The marriage of strategy games and consoles has not been an easy one. With the variation of control available with mouse and keypad, joysticks and buttons haven't, generally, made a satisfying substitute. It's somewhat ironic then that Ubisoft's R.U.S.E has utilised the PlayStation Move system to give mouse-like control to those playing on Sony kit, while also creating a game that works fabulously with the standard controller.
The left stick controls your individual units in this WWII-themed RTS, while the right controls the zoom. Zoom all the way out and you'll be commanding your troops from the sort of strategy table you'll have seen in dozens of war films. Zoom in, and that scale changes. Part way, you'll have chunkier detail and a reasonable overview of the skirmishes you've instigated. Zoom all the way in, however, and you'll be able to watch such battles in intimate detail, listen to the cannon fire, see your tanks confront Panzers and see just how to sneak your infantry around enemy defences.
It's a great system and the simplicity of button operation is also admirable. With a clear and concise in-game tutorial, you'll have mastered the basics in around 20 minutes. Mastering the game and its multiple challenges will take considerably longer however, even at the easiest setting.
The game starts with you as General Joe Sheridan who – with the clipped assistance of a British officer – is attempting to discover the identity of Prometheus, a mysterious spy who's been giving information to the Germans and is thus responsible for thousands of deaths. Slightly cruelly, at this point at the end of the war, you control everything as you march on Colditz Castle. Once that's completed, however, you lose your "powers" as you flashback to Tunisia 1942, and Sheridan's early days of learning his "craft": in particular the Ruse system of the title.
Ruse is the game's USP and, generally, it's a good one. In order to complete tasks and overcome German defences, you need intelligence. With the Ruse system, you can listen to encrypted transmissions, send spies in to find hidden units or play tricks on the enemy, by building dummy tanks, camouflaging your operations or fighting under radio silence so they can't track your movements. While this side of things isn't always successful, it's a damn fine effort, even if the real fun stuff – sending in balsa wood tanks as a decoy, building extra weaponry, etc – isn't an option until you've played the game for many hours and got Joe promoted.
Happily, you'll probably want to do just that as, for the most part, R.U.S.E is clever, well-executed and exciting and, in terms of console-based RTS, comfortably the best of its ilk.
