Brass Tactics

This accessible, fast-paced real-time strategy (RTS) game proves that anyone can become a capable clockwork general, commanding entire armies with the tips of their virtual fingers. Instead of having to memorize complicated keyboard and mouse commands, Brass Tactics distills gameplay controls down to point and trigger controls. For example, placing towers is as simple as grabbing them and putting them on the table, while squeezing a trigger near troops is enough to select them all before you literally point to a location to tell them where to go. It's simple, it's intuitive, and it takes all of 30 seconds to get used to, which is part of the point. See, Brass Tactics really wants you to focus on developing strategies for conquering land and countering enemy attacks based on the classic "rock, paper, scissors" formula. But don't let this simplicity fool you, because it's got a surprising amount of depth with its units and customization. The game's tech tree allows you to customize your troops to give them special abilities that you'll need to take into account as well, which is important when you decide to take on opponents or crank up the difficulty. Although, veterans of RTS games should be forewarned: The AI will definitely take no mercy on some maps, even on Normal difficulty.

All of this said, there are still some issues that crop up. For one thing, the tech tree, which is tied to your castle, can feel extremely limited, especially since there are 30 possible upgrades and only eight upgrade slots on your base. This does mean that if you've chosen some upgrades that don't give you the right advantages, you could be out of luck against a better-prepared opponent. It also means that on longer skirmishes, fights can sometimes turn into wars of attrition where you wish you could max out your upgrades and won't have the option. One of the other issues that occurs is that the tracking of your commands can sometimes get lost, given the placement of your sensors in your space. Most of the time, the commands work flawlessly, but it's that five percent of the time when you try to place a tower and it goes awry or units don't move where you want them to because the camera thinks you're pointing at one location when you mean a different one. Finally, while the campaign is interesting, it's way too short, and can easily be beaten by some RTS veterans in a few hours. But these are minor issues for a game that's easy to get into but hard to put down. If you're even mildly interested in strategy, Brass Tactics needs to be on your game list.