Battle for Troy review...

[Leo Natan]

Battle for Troy

Created by ValuSoft

US Price: 19.99$

System requierments:

? Windows? 98/Me/XP CD

? Pentium? III 600MHz or 100% compatible processor

? 128MB RAM

? 500MB free hard drive space

? 16MB 3D video accelerator with DirectX? 9 compliant video drivers

? Sound card with DirectX 9 compliant sound drivers

? 4X CD-ROM drive.

Website: http://www.valu-soft.com/products/troy.html

NOTE #1: I gave two scores in each section. You will see what I mean later.

NOTE #2: This a review of "Battle for Troy", not "Gates of Troy", which is a Story/PlotStory/Plot

The game is telling the story/myth of Troy, which I hope everyone knows what's it about, so I won't talk much about it. If not, go see the movie, or rGameplay

Gameplay

It's a RTS game, based on the Troy story, featuring 3D engine similar (+/-) to Warcraft's. You have the option to choose between the Greek army, or Troyan one, each have many missions. The game has been criticized mainly because of it's "over-simplicity", but I'd have to say that this is one of it's highest points. There is nothing wrong with playing something simple from time to time (as oppose to Total War and even Warcraft). The game's missions are quite straightforward - you are given the objectives, and you have to execute them, whether it is to rescue someone, kill someone or take over something. Nothing really complicated.

Many games require to collect natural resources, such as food, wood and others. Here, there is only one resource: Gold. You start with a sum of money to get started, and on your missions you will have to rob small towns. Also, when an enemy is killed, a small amount of gold is also given to you.

As other RTS games, you are required to create various buildings, in order to create your army. Also, you will have to put some soldiers to guard this buildings. (Sorry for the silly explanations, I know anyone who has played an RTS game knows this, but this is a general review)

On the bad side (assuming you are with me, and all of the above is considered OK), the neither your army's AI, nor the CPU's AI are very impressive. When a location is clicked, soldiers sometimes miss it, and continue walking for a bit longer, but norhing serious. Enemy's AI is also simple: You may attack a building of their own, and sometimes enemies won't come and attack. But again, for a simple game like this, it's OK.

For:

? Quite simple and straightforward game

? Great for passing the time

? Not much resources collection needed

Against:

? AI is simple

? Not a complex game

? Again, pretty simple game, and may not appeal to everyone

Score (for a nice, simple game): 8

Score (for someone looGraphicsiant RTS): 5

Graphics

The game engine share a few similarities with Warcraft. It does not allow a rotation of the camera, but allows a zoom in, with the mouse wheel. What I really liked here, was the models and textures. While many games (including Warcraft itself), when camera is zoomed, feature low-polygon models, here the models look great, even when camera is zoomed in. Likewise with the textures.

Animations are also great. Transitions are OK, although when changing direction of moving, sometimes there is a little jump between animations.

The world, while is detailed OK, lookes simple. The villages are modeled and textured great, but many of the locations are plain grass, or plain rocks. More details would have been great.

One of the highlights of the graphics is that it runs very smooth even on very low-end computers.

Head here for screen shots.

For:

? Great models

? Great animations

? Nicely modeled villages

? Runs smooth even on low-end PCs.

Against:

? Some ereas of the map look plain

? No camera rotation

Score (for a nice, simple game): 9

Score (for sSoundng for a briliant RTS): 7.5

Sound

Perhaps one of the best features (for me at least). The music is fine, featuring drums and war music. It's repetitive, bt never annoying so it's OK. The sound effects are really a highlight. While not very varied, the war-cries each time when the army spots and enemy, or the other way around, is extremely funny.

Nothing really more to add, not bad overall.

For:

? Intriguing music

? Very funny war-cries

Against:

? Sounds and music are not too varied

Score (for a nice, simple game): 8.5

ScorValuene looking for a briliant RTS): 7

Value

The game features two campaigns, which will take 7-8 hours (at most) to finish. There isn't much more however. There is and option of "Custom Map", but it seems as an unfinished one, because there isn't anything much to do there. Perhaps a future patch will fix that. For now it's only the two campains

Score (for a nice, simple game): 7.5

ScorFinal Commentsg for a briliant RTS): 6

Final Comments

Clearly, you can see it's a low budget game, that can't compete with heavy titles, such as C&C, Warcraft and the Total War series, but as such, it is a great game, that can give you joy. It's not a bad game by any means. Perhaps more time should have been spent on AI, but even as it is now, it's a fine game for those not looking for too much brain work. The game has no tech. issues (to me atleast), so it should be fun to install and play the two campaigns. It's price is low (19.99$ in US), and should help you pass the time.

Overall Score (for a nice, simple game): 8.5

Overall Score (for someone looking for a briliant RTS): 7

This is my review guys, hope you like it. I'll be happy to read your replies to it!

Hope you enjoy the game,

Leo Natan!