14 DAY TRIAL // R.U.S.E. is a World War II real time strategy title developed by Eugen Systems and published by Ubisoft which aims to shake up the reliable formula of Allies versus Axis by introducing ruses, special powers that can alter the way the battlefield is laid out and offer an advantage to the one who plays them.
It's hard to make World War II more interesting than it is in video games but R.U.S.E. manages to create a mechanics that makes the familiar tank charges and carpet bombings seem like something entirely new.
Let's take for example the Radio Silence ruse, one of the most used in skirmishes against the computer and in multiplayer.
It allows gamers to hide their units in a sector of the map, making it easy to surprise an enemy that has been engaged elsewhere and has not kept close tabs on all the units one has.
It might not seem like much but it allows players to be much more flexible than in a normal strategy game, even if it's unlikely that someone can cover the while ground between two bases without being seen.
The threat of Radio Silence and troops sneaking undetected towards one's base is often enough to alter strategy, forcing a more defensive posture and more decisive attacks, launched to take key structures out or to distract the enemy.
Ruses cannot trump brute force in R.U.S.E. and a well organized force of tanks with good anti air support and some tracked artillery using the basic Blitz and Fanaticism will punch through any kind of deception the enemy can throw up.
But the very existence of the tricks alters how players perceive the battlefield and how they react to the moves of their enemy making the game much more exciting that the traditional real time strategy clash where numbers and micro management determine the winner.
It also helps that R.U.S.E. features almost no need to baby sit units in the heat of battle, with the decisions that matter being when and what to sent into the fray and not exactly who to shoot in the middle of an engagement.
As long as players manage to shake off the tedium of the single player campaign R.U.S.E. has a certain future thanks to its skirmishes and multiplayer battles.