R.U.S.E. for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

If you've played RTS games before, you know without a doubt that console games will never compare with what we have on PC. It's a simple matter of controls, or the lack thereof.

I've only played two RTS games on the the XBox 360 that I've thought were worth the money: Tom Clancy's EndWar, and R.U.S.E.

EndWar had some new and interesting ideas, but still was very limited in the maps and abilities. R.U.S.E. was a step in the right direction. The map interface was great, from long range planning to in-the-mix control; and to top it off, moving in-and-out of these viewpoints was simple and easy (something I couldn't say for EndWar).

R.U.S.E.'s are simple and comprehensive, about fooling and confusing your enemy into moving and attacking where you want them. The whole game offers you more levels of control than most designers ever even consider.

However, the game isn't perfect. There's no way to categorize units, and selecting specific one's in battle takes finesse. There is little-to-no fog of war, which generally makes recon units minimally effective at best.

There is also a tendency to swarm or zerg, both in the online play as well as in campaign (which caught me off guard, to say the least). This is common for RTS competitive gametypes, but as most strategic players can attest, also highly annoying. I will say that it's far less effective here than in, say, Halo Wars.

All in all, I'd heard awful things about this game. Then when I played it, I was absolutely stunned. I can only hope that this will not be the last in the franchise, cause they have a great start and solid gameplay.

Ruse's has some very good quality's and idea's but sadly it's campaign doesn't do it justice... if you even made it through the campaign. There is much more to be said about it's Battle mode, which has you holding the reigns of a forward operations base, and commanding large divisions. This mode is strangely addicting and allows you too play as the axis and allies, and functions as the old style board game of the same name. Visually this game beautiful. It cleanly zooms out from single infantrymen to a tactical table showing the movement of whole divisions on the field. Th3e next thing Ruse has going for it is realism. If your like me your tired of games like call of duty where an artillery round hits the ground two feet in front of you and you acting like a spartan super soldier keep running along . In Ruse however, a barrage of rockets or artillery will wipe out tanks, buildings, and rout infantry and vehicles. All-in-all Ruse has a glorious skirmish mode but the meat of the game is sadly unseasoned. A game to try out if your interested in becoming an armchair general.

R.U.S.E. is a very unique game. It is a strategy game, so it still has the base building and unit deployment like you'd see in other RTS titles, but the thing about this game is that your goal is not to merely overpower the enemy, but to trick them and then go in for the knock out blow. You use ruses to make your opponent believe that there are no troops here, so they move there, not knowing your ambush is ready to take them out. Just when you believe your ruse has worked, and you will defeat him, you find out that your opponent also used a ruse to make fake tanks move through there, effectively exposing your units. He sends in his bombers to finish the job and now he feels that victory is within reach. When the bombers pass over the trees he discovers only to late that you had deployed anti-air batteries in the forrest, ready to destroy his planes. This will go on for a very long time until finally someone slips up and there base is destroyed. This leads to very exciting battles where you never truly know what the enemy is doing, and the winner is the one who constantly acts like he is losing, thus making sure to be on his toes and not relax. Now on to the bad...
The campaign for R.U.S.E. is, although somewhat enjoyable, plagued by many problems, the first being the voice acting. Ubisoft must have scraped the bottom of the barrel looking for someone to voice these characters, because their voices are incredibly awful. Although all of their voices are indeed bad, the only man who will make you cover your ears is General Wetherby. He must have been related to the president or something because his voice will truly make you cry. Also, the AI is incredibly overaggressive. I had to replay one level over six times to beat it, and I still barely won on easy. They are overstrengthened and will constantly have you on the defensive. The plot is original in some ways, but really could have been only good as a straight-to-video movie. Verdict: Good

I think for most people this will be one of those hit or miss type games. For me, it was a miss. But to be fair I only played about nine campaign missions before I sent it back. I didn't try the multiplayer or the ops, so I don't know if those are good or not.

There were two main reasons I sent this game back early. One, it just felt slow to me. Most of the time it felt like I was playing a chess game with some old guy. Two, the controls were not that great. Most of the time it felt like the controls were by biggest enemy. I don't mind a challenging game but not when the challenge comes from my controller. If they had just put in some way to form groups of mixed units that you could select with the press of a button (group 1, group 2, group 3...), I may have actually played through the entire game. It's annoying to have to scroll over to your airport, select your bombers then scroll back to the desired target to carry out a bombing run. There were some other control issues for me but I won't bore you with those.

Anyway, if you are interested I would still recommend trying it out because it's my belief that when it comes to video games you have to decide for yourself whether it's good or not. There have been many video games with terrible reviews that I loved and this game might be one of those games for you.

One last note, sorry to everyone who loves this game, because after I rated this game the overall rating went from 6.3 to 6.2.

this game is fun I am glad that they mixed stealth and strategy and I love the camera views if you zoom in you feel like your in the battle and if you zoom all the way out you see that your in a command building. sure there is no offensive ruses but that does NOT give anybody the right to give it a terrible score. and come on in a strategy game like this you have to expect frustrations and hard to get out of situations but come on somebody gave Kayne and lynch 2 dog days 7 out of 10 and its like 4 hours!!!!! of stupid Ai stupid plot line and stupid everything except for the effects but R.U.S.E has cites, awesome battles at land and sea, great graphics and great cut scenes even how could any one give this anything below a 7 when Kayne and lynch 2 got one. the only people that could give this a bad rating are people who cant appreciate good strategy games because they only play games like call of duty and counter strike. this game is meant for people who enjoy strategy games not people who are shooter fanboys so if you enjoy strategy get this.

The game really does go into the world of commanding your army, and different tactical andvantages. By placing certain units in the best locations, you have a stratigic advantage. I do think trying to select mulitple units together is somewhat difficult, but its not that big of a deal. Really not sure why the whole RUSE's are in effect, but whatever. Haven't tried the online yet, but will in time. Its worth the rent. However; I am not sure why it has to be set in WWII and not in the present day. I think the units would be a lot sweeter if it was more modern.

Panzers to the left of me, Panzers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you...

Somewhere in RUSE is a truly fun game, I'm sure of it. Unfortunately, it seems to be burried under a sometimes cumbersome interface, and a really awful campaign.

On the bright side, multiplayer (even against AI opponents) removes a lot of the single-player frustrations, or at least, puts players on even ground. It takes some getting used to, and the seven nations you can play as each have their own units, strengths and weaknesses, but in the end it's a lot of fun.

Sadly, the single-player campaign feels needlessly long thanks to a number of annoyances. Units and Ruses (abilities) are introduced at a painfully slow pace. Despite facing the Luftwaffe somewhat early on, you don't get to build AA guns until the later missions.

Other levels fall victim to the "here's a strategically awful piece of land, defend it for X minutes" format that cripples RTS's. And other levels force you to use certain units against your will. One mission in particular, after a level where you finally get fighters and bombers, makes you capture most of the map using just paratroopers.

Worse yet are the pop-up windows, detailing every new unit when you encounter them for the first time, or the build menu opening on its own when you're asked to build a new unit. When both of these happen at the same time, roughly half of the screen is covered. Frequent cut-scenes also break up the flow of the game, or worse, move your camera view around and don't return it. All of these happen with the game still in motion, costing you valuable time in the midst of a battle.

I'd suggest playing the campaign only if you really want to, otherwise start a battle with no opponents and just learn all of your units and upgrades in a few short minutes. Despite its flaws, it can really be a fun game, particularly 2-on-2 (still waiting for that console RTS to come along and offer great 4-on-4 gameplay...)

1 some people been complain about the whole hiding aspect well lets see this is a strategy game so you NEED TO FREAKING THINK TO PLAY THIS GAME.ok lets see if you were a grunt in wwII would you run up to a tank and fight it head on or ambush it. ding ding ding if you said ambush it well your not completely brain dead. 2nd complain I have seen was give us napalm well Sherlock they didn't have napalm that drop from plans till Vietnam. They only used flamethrowers in japan well this game happens at the euro side not the pacific side of the war.a third complained i have heard was oh it is on a table well generals don't see war in the battlefield. they are always in the command room so they are all ways safe.so you can hate on this game because your used to stuff like k & l dog days (in which feels even worse then the first game) you give it a 7 well that game is stupid as heck it takes a clip to take down a guy.so have fun but if your a person who plays alot of strategy games like c & c or star craft or company of heros

people are giving this game bad scores since they are used to oh i came up to the tank and i blew it up on my own face to face well you can't do that in real life. so i give this game a 10

I've been a fan of the command and conquer/ endwar type games for many years, and tactics in those games were never a necessity. However, in RUSE, you can't simply build up a huge force and plow the enemy, since they adapt to your strategies as well. The hardest part of this game was the fact that it wasn't just a mindless click and attack game, you really have to pay attention and plan an attack. Also, no cheating. If you like strategy, this is your game. If you get frustrated easy, I'd think twice.

For a long time I've tried to find games such as Age of Empires or Command and Conquer, but it either ran to slow on my computer or the graphics are just cheap and digital. So if you're looking for a game that let's you build an army and strategically defeat you're enemies, this is it. It's only a bonus that it is in the best era of our nation. The only downfall is yes it is somewhat hard to control and can get hectic but once you get the hang of it you'll find yourself flanking the enemy in no time. Overall, the feeling of accomplishment after taking the enemy headquarters or ambushing and group of tanks is well worth the time spent strategizing. Rent. Keep.

This game is definitely a must have for gamers who don't mind thinking while they play. Complex enough strategies to keep you busy but not so difficult as to become frustrating. The story line does plod along at a slow pace and I think the designer could have made more ruses and units available than they did, but if it's complexity and a vast array of units you want, go to the battles category and knock yourself out!

this is a macro game which is much diffrent from a micro game like starcraft 2 which relies on were you place your infantry and if you have enough in this game you could have an army of tnaks and with a few antitanks and a bottleneck in perhaps a city he could decimate your forces using the art of deception and diffrent troops make this a true rts macro which is seldomly seen and if seen done properley they succeed in both regards to this but if you are and impatiant person please read no further this game requires in-depth strategy and much pondering and deception to win you cannot just go guns blazing.

now if you already have the game or are going to get it here are some tips and tricks. british-are all about the air their tanks suck but they are good mid and late game. u.s. is the noob county they are good at evreything but great at nothing (exept for maybe artilerry long toms amazing). germans are you guessed it tanks but really they only get amazing late game so beat them fast.russia is your wild card they are good at tanks and planes so you have to use both and use them strategically to win. italy is for you rushers out their they can built tanks from their barracks and are amazing early in the game suck late game though. french very good early and mid game also have great defenses. now some tips for ruses when you start the game put up a camo net and aa i cannot stress that ive wons so many battles as brithish my just sending paratroopers and capturing hq also aa to stop those pesky recon planes from getting near. you may think fixed structures are good but only to stop a few things (unless your french) try to steer away from fixed positions their bad news. im running out of room so if youd like me to make more tips and tricks please email me at austisqwe hotmail they wont let me but in the at or doooot cooooom so know its austisqwe at hotmail doooot cooom

Now im not much of a strategy gamer I like games like halo or cod or battlefield but you know what this is a great game! Iloved it! i love the camera zoom in zoom out thing I like how the units stack up like checkers it makes you feel like you're playing a board game like risk or chess. l love the graphics they're great its the best strategy game I have ever played way better than halo wars, starcraft, or command and conquer. If you are a strategy gamer I highly recommend this game >: ()

..but the multiplayer is broken.

If you like strategy games then rent this game, its pretty fun, especially the RUSE abilities you have. The battles are fun to do, but the skirmishes you make are also pretty fun to play with. The only problem I could see with this game is the maps. For multiplayer as well as skirmishes there are maps that are HUGE!!!!!! so where is the 2v2v2 game mode? or the 3v3? thats a real bother for me, a lot of the maps are so BIG you kinda wish they added more people to the mix rather than just the basic 1v1 or 2v2. check it out though, its a good game none the less

Good for those who love historical conflicts / RTS games but don't care much about multiplayer against random opponents. Single player is a bit dull (About a fictional American officer leading through Europe) but the AI skirmishes and mission mode make up for it.

There are 6 countries from the European front to play as: USA, UK, USSR, France, Germany, & Italy. Each country has historically accurate weaponry, allow no side is too overpowered. All the different strengths allow for players to choose a country that works towards their play style (Ex: USSR or Germany for those who like tanks. US for those who like mobile defenses.)

Further, battles can be set in different eras (1939, 1942, 1945+) which change what units are available at the time. (Ex: 1939 US isn't very well equipped but 1942 US is) Skirmishes can further customize AI enemies by skill (Easy, Medium, Hard) and playstyle (Ex: 'Turtle' defends while 'Blitzkrieg' rushes)

Gameplay is simple since there are no imagined up weapons. One cool feature is the ability to hide infantry, cannon weapons, and small vehicles into forests and town squares to hide. When an enemy comes near they will surprise them and do extra damage. This allows for infantry to defeat enemy armor if well strategized. RUSE abilities also allow players to deceive enemy forces in certain areas. (Ex: The RUSE 'Spy' allows you identify unknown enemy units while 'Radio Silence' makes all ally units in a zone invisible) These become very important to defeating enemy forces at times.

Final Notes:

Zoom: The zoom in this game is great, allowing for players to zoom in on individual units in actual size and then zoom out to see the map as if it was one on a table in a war room. This is helpful in viewing the battlefield and sometimes just fun (As in watching your artillery obliterate a forest full of enemies.)

Airforce: Planes need airports to land after runs and don't just stay as normal units. This adds to accuracy and balance. Its cool too

If you are a fan of strategy games, you are probably well aware that these kind of games are always better played on a computer. This game, however, may be an exception to the rule. The controls for this game are FANTASTIC. I have never played a strategy game on a console that has had such a smooth control layout like this one. This game is EXTREMELY challenging. Be prepared to put your strategy skills to the test. The only downside is that there is a unit limit. You can only have 50 units on the field at a time (including buildings). This game has a very challenging campaign and a good skirmish system. Its definitely a must rent and possibly a buy.

RUSE as and RTS is a half baked idea that needs to sit in the oven some more. The control issues aside (due to the Xbox Controller) RUSE just doesnt have the RTS flow. you feel detached and any "stratagem" to be used comes down to a rock paper scissors feel, IE this unit beats that unit that unit is beat by another unit, this become old fast. The next thing is the terrain is hard to read and your constantly having to micro your units firing arch or causing a unit to break cover. This game would do better a table top turn based game. Allowing for slower control and a more chess like feel versus R/P/S feel.

The MAIN problem with this game is that its on the XBOX360 with its limited game controller (more suitable for FPSs). I have not played the PC version, but this game was "designed" to work well on a console with its slower paced quasi macro management style. But they end up with a game that leaves you feeling panicked because you don't have an easy time commanding your units (like you do in most RTS games). The game also makes as though you are just a bystander because of the assisted AI, where units sort of "do their own thing".

One of the reasons RTS games are fun is that you are in control of the units... and I understand that you are limited with the xbox controller, but even the view of the battlefield... its this annoying angle shot (which comes in handy to see the entire battlefield, but bad for focusing on close things....like your base!).

RUSE has a similar look/feel to Tom Clancy's End War which I actually liked a lot better. Even though EndWar wasn't nearly as polished and didn't have as much depth. EndWar has a better concept to incorporate the voice commands, they may have went over board with it, but anything to help command your troops better only makes the game experience better.

My other complaint is the main campaign and tutorial are fused together, and while in most games this is not a bad thing, in this game the story isn't very good and takes way too long. The first mission takes no skill, and all you do is point your tanks, it ends up being annoying. This is why a lot of people are saying "it doesn't feel like you are playing".

Last words... if you like strategy games, RENT IT! and if you can get over the clunky interface you'll probably like this game enough to buy it since good strategy games are rare on consoles.

i give this game a 6 out of 10 it was an ok strategy game but it was hard to select the right units you want to use.

This game is fun....but it's not what most of you are probably thinking...i was expecting more of world in conflict type of game....the whole ruse part of the game is stupid....just give us napalm and airstrikes instead of "hiding" from the enemy....so if you have any other game in your Q get that instead of this....i was expecting a whole lot more from the game.

PS i was expecting airstrikes and what not to...not just ruse's...there's only 10 ruse's to use in the game...

As a strategy game/Rpg vet, I have to say this game was O.K., but not great. Choosing your units is a hit or miss affair, and that is what made me return the game. Other than that, a very good experience.

pros.
great graphics
really good controls
allot of different units
great everything!

I am not sure if i want to buy it but i can tell yopu this, i had this game for a month and i can't get enougth of it. It doesn't get boring like cod games. Every time i play it i feel like i the game is awalys different you can defend, attack, rule the air, ambush, back up your allies, and more.