Battleforge

The game has a strong focus on multiplayer matches, with a WOW chat window connecting you to other players, and specific arenas for sparring and competitive play, and the campaign mode offers missions designed for two, three, four and even twelve player co-op. Unfortunately, given the vast number of combinations available, there's simply no way to predict what you'll be up against. And since the game relies on a fairly obvious rock-paper-scissors framework, it's all too easy to see your army decimated by some previously unseen behemoth unit, unleashed by someone who just happens to have better cards. In those circumstances, victory is literally impossible to achieve and frustration seeps in.

Many of these problems also emerge in the solo campaign, albeit in different ways. The very first mission contains many of the pitfalls of sloppy RTS design, culminating in a battle against masses of different enemy types - from hulking goliaths to exploding suicide bombers, plus the usual foot-soldiers, archers and fireball-lobbing magicians. As these foes swarm towards you, the frantic pace of the real-time all but overpowers the strategy, leaving you spamming units at the enemy as fast as the recharge system will allow. And there's a vital NPC who must survive the battle. Needless to say, you have no control over him or his troops, and the weak pathfinding and AI means that he's likely to get trapped in a corner and beaten to death while you're still shuffling your cards. Later missions also pull timed defence objectives and escort duties from the real-time strategy Hall of Shame.

The story, meanwhile, is an embarrassing mush of sub-Tolkien nonsense, and does little to form the enormous array of monsters and magic into a coherent and self-sustaining world. Told through chunks of dry text and occasional voiceovers on interminable loading screens, you'll soon be tuning out the droning guff about Skylords and evil Twilight forces.

It all contributes to the sense that while Battleforge is a game bursting with potential, it's held back in lots of little ways. It feels solid and inviting, and it looks lovely, with impressive details considering the sheer number of characters and animations the game needs to offer, but as easy as it is to get into, there are constant niggles. The client software, for instance, is a touch clunky, with no option to save your password, so you have to retype it every time you play. There also doesn't seem to be any way of changing your randomly assigned alphanumeric jumble, or at least I couldn't find it when the game booted me back to my web browser to update my account details.

Other basic options, like the ability to immediately restart a campaign mission, are also absent, so you're forced to slog back through menus and loading screens just to try again. The client also has no voice chat, and expecting players to type to each other in a game this relentless feels hopelessly old-fashioned. These are the sort of rough edges you might forgive in an obscure independent title, but coming from the EA publishing powerhouse a little more attention to detail is expected.

More significantly, the card system is a clever idea, but ultimately undermines the RTS framework more than it supports it. The strategy elements are rudimentary at best, and once you get down to the guts of the thing you're left with a fun but fairly shallow click-dragger. The multiplayer elements deserve praise, especially the broad support for all kinds of co-op fun, but the inherently uneven unit-balancing in a game with this much scope means that joy can turn to irritation very quickly.