R.U.S.E (beta)

[RedRaven]

FYI

This topic is a split-off, originally part of Starting the day with OWG. Since it's all about a game project (beta) I also moved it from off topic to "other games."

Thank you.

Received a pleasant surprise this lunch time, sat munching away at my bacon and eggs and in comes an email from Ubisoft. Back in July i put myself on their list to Beta-test a new game coming out soon called R.U.S.E. then promptly forgot all about it and got stuck into FC2. The email was to tell me i had been selected :-X . It is an R.T.S. game set in WW2, what made it stand out to me was the ability to deception against your opponents.  In the past have played many different RTS games from many era's and genre's but they all seem to boil down to the "Mine is bigger than yours" factor. RUSE looks to get away from that by making Intelligence gathering, Recon, and Deception part of the game play.
Here is the link to the games site for any of you wishing to check it out, also it looks like they are still after more Beta testers (its due to start November 30th and is through STEAM.)

http://ruse.uk.ubi.com/

Have posted all this here instead of the Other Games thread as its not yet out and may be a dud. But i will be taking part in the Beta test and will you all informed on what its like as a game, couple of screen shots etc.

[PZ]

Congratulations Red!  It will be an interesting experience regardless of how good the game is.  :-X

[RedRaven]

Sure will, pretty excited about it. Also seem to recall you mentioning a liking for WW2 genre things somewhere in amongst the Arma2 posts.
Fingers crossed that its a good game :)

[PZ]

Yeah, I love the WWII genre - love the look of old Europe.

[Art Blade]

Nice one, Red :)

I was wondering, as a beta-tester, are you allowed to share information?

[RedRaven]

Cheers Art, been thinking that myself, going to read through the games site to see what i can see see see... And the postman has just dropped Borderlands through my door ;D .
But so far nothing i've read says either way, may find out more when i can download it on monday, although its through STEAM, which i have never used before (and only really heard negative things about). Will let you know as & when i find out. 

[RedRaven]

So far so good with RUSE. It took almost 3 hours to download but once it had it was good to go and ready to play. Managed to play 4 games so far, lost first 3 games, won 4th.  Really enjoyable to play and easy to pick up (there is no tutorial so first game is against another online player of same rank - In at the Deep End).
Comes with just 2 maps at the moment, and you can choose from all 6 factions.Below are a few quick screen shots. Top two are the field of battle, bottom two are of troop unit and a small vehilce at maximum zoom.

[smg id=1722][smg id=1723]

[smg id=1724][smg id=1725]

Keep you posted on game play etc after a couple of days hard play ;D :-X

[PZ]

I love the war room map!  :-X

Looking forward to further impressions.

[JRD]

Hey... that game looks amazing, Red... congrats on that one and keep us posted with more of those great images!

[Art Blade]

yes :) The war room is a funny idea, I like it :)

[RedRaven]

RUSE update - now I've got hang of controls and game play got to say so far its impressive, at least going on the small section of the game open to play test at the moment.
Will try get some good short video clips of couple of my favourite units in action over the weekend. :)

[RedRaven]

Hi all, here is a short vid of some 150mm guns in action  ;D

[smg id=1731 type=av]

The more units in the area firing the bigger the screen shake ! :-X

[Art Blade]

:) somehow it reminds me a little of Dune2   :)

[fragger]

Dune 2! That brings back some memories! :-X

[Art Blade]

Hehe, although I have fonder memories of Dune (1) which was more like an adventure ("RPG") than anything, while Dune2 was some sort of RTS (real time strategy) which the R.U.S.E. project seems to be.

[Art Blade]

Found some vids on youtube:
hehe, funny trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohNzHWL7FI

and some in-game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_yWnSaDPa4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTwxOmv8cbA

and some HD walkthroughs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmHecdtfqUk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJrvfeMF9-U

[RedRaven]

 Been playing RUSE loads over the past couple of weeks (and doing little else ;) ). Thought it was about time I posted a report for you all.

Currently there is only 1vs1 and 2vs2 game options available, each set at 25 minutes with a choice of American, German, Russian, British, French and Italian forces. Each player begins with just a single HQ building and 200 points to spend , dotted around the map are supply depots that you have to claim to gather more points. Buildings you can build to produce various units cost from between 10 to 160. These are Logistics & Defence, Infantry & Light Recon, Artillery & Anti-Aircraft, Tank & Armoured Recon, Anti-Tank, Air & Airborne and Prototype. Each Nation has its own choices of units, some available as soon as the building is complete and some requiring research first. Also some unit types can be upgraded for example Light Infantry to Heavy Infantry but when this research is done the earlier type becomes unavailable.

Every unit type has 5 basic attributes ranging from 0 to 5, there is Armour Value and the other 4 rate its effectiveness against Infantry, Buildings, Tanks and Aircraft. All this information is presented in an easy to read pop up box.

Game play is very smooth and easy to get to grips with and the interface is very easy to use with mouse or keyboard short cuts. Movement is as simple as 2 mouse clicks as is attack orders. Each unit shows a blue ring when selected which shows the range of it primary weapon, Recon units also have a larger white line which shows their range of sight. Until a unit is visible it will just show as a round marker, small and large depending on type.  Combat seems well thought out, taking into account the unit types & quantities of each player and the AI pretty much takes it from there enabling you to manage a few engagements at once with relative ease.

In my opinion the zoom function, although very cool and well done kind of becomes unused in most games as it is rare to be attacked or attacking in just one place, even if you are while your zoomed in watching the fireworks your missing the horde of Fighter-Bombers sneaking around the edge of the map to destroy your HQ (at least that is what happened to me in 2 games!). maybe it will become more integral to the game in the campaign side?.

All of that is enhanced by Ruses, there are 10 in total, each giving you a different tactical option, affecting an area of the map of your choice. You start with the ability to play 2, and through out the duration of the game more are put at your disposal. They are Decoy Army, Decoy Building, Blitz, Fanaticism, Terror, Spy, Decryption, Radio Silence, Camo Nets and Reverted Intel. When played they last from between 1 to 6 minutes, so timing can be crucial. Also so far only 2 Ruses can be in effect in any one map section at any given time.
In terms of victory you gain points equal to the production cost of any unit and building you destroy, as does your opponent, each players total being displayed on screen. Your overall total determining your level (in the same way as most RPG games run ie FO3 & BL). At the moment there is a 7 stage league table which is split into sets of 10, Recruit 1-10, Training 11-20, Veteran 21-30, Bronze 31-40, Silver 41-50, Gold 51-60 and lastly Elite which has no level grouping. Usually opponents are from the same set, or at least have been in almost all the games I have had so far. 1vs1 and 2vs2 each has its own League table.

Finally - at the time of posting this there are 9721 registered players on the 1vs1 league. I have played 114 games, 50 of which are victories, my current position in the league is at 38 :-X .

@Arts previous post with trailer links - yeah, the trailer is good, sadly no naval units as of yet. Hopeful that they will be in the full version.

[Art Blade]

Thanks for the great detailed (p)review, RedRaven :)  :-X

[PZ]

Good review, Red!  Thanks for taking the time to post - I always appreciate reading the opinions that other OWG members have regarding games, new and old alike.  :-X

[fragger]

Thanks for the great review, RedRaven :-X :-X

[RedRaven]

Here is the game site

http://ruse.uk.ubi.com/

 

 

In the News section there is a page about R.U.S.E. and windows 7 where ubisoft say -

  "we are absolutely thrilled to announce that R.U.S.E. will be one of the very first games to fully exploit the new multitouch capabilities of windows 7".

Oh for a big touch screen monitor ;D .

  And as far as I've been able to discover it is due for release on PC/PS3/Xbox360 on 19/03/2010.

[RedRaven]

Just a quick post to those interested.
The beta is now over  :( ,  got to say I had a lot of fun playing it. Its certainly on my list of games to get for the 1st quarter of 2010. I think Ubisoft has done a good job in turning a pretty basic RTS format into a fluid and interesting game, and it will be very interesting to see & play the parts (campaign etc) that were locked for the beta.

So unless I hear anything exciting about it between now and March 26th there will be no more posts from me here.  When it is released I will have both PC and PS3 format to play with and would be very interested in playing any OWG members who get it.

[Art Blade]

have you got a PS3 now, too?

[RedRaven]

not yet, should have it mid - late January  ;D

[Art Blade]

get AC2, then!  ;D Enjoy, and I'd really like to read about your first impressions on a PS3, being a PC gamer