Braveheart
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We first heard about Tartan Army, a Scottish game
Eidos acquired, at the last E3 and came close to
writing it off as a clone. Our three-word summation:
"Myth in kilts."
We'd seen the pretty, rotatable terrain and bloody
hand-to-hand combat. Now, after a more in-depth look,
we see the game's deep sim aspects. We also see the
advantage of a small studio hooking up with a monied
publisher. Fearing that gamers wouldn't identify with
Tartan Army, Eidos acquired the Braveheart license.
The game is, after all, set in the same time period and
country as the Mel Gibson movie.
As the story goes, Scotland is in a state of anarchy,
with clans ruling over their separate provinces. Powerful
English armies are attacking left and right under the rule of King Edward. It's up
to you to unite all the clans, get enough allies backing you to force a political
vote sending you to the throne, and repel the English armies.
There are 200 clans in the game. You take
control of one of 16, including William
Wallace's. Sheer, brutal, hand-to-hand battles
are key-we watched with glee as a group of
about 20 Scots raided a village and attacked a
group of English soldiers with their axes and
swords, spilling blood all over the place. Eidos
claims there will be 3000-person battles. Given
that the characters are polygonal, we're taking
a wait-and-see attitude on that one, but it did
help explain the steep system specs: PII 233, accelerator required.
While straight killing can help you meet some
goals, other means are just as effective-if not
more so. For example, rather than completely
obliterate a village with brute force, you can
send in your army and burn a village's food
supplies, then stand by as their morale
deteriorates. They'll then be more likely to ally
with you. Come across an obscene number of
English troops? Take out their leader and
watch them either disband and flee (good
thing) or go berserk and try to rip your head off
(bad thing). Use your catapults and take out a castle's supply depot or intercept
caravans. Lure the enemy back to your castle where pots of boiling oil and
dead-on archers await them. Being sneaky has its advantages.
So does being thorough. Train peasants to
become axe-men, archers, pikemen,
cavalry-there are up to 20 different classes,
with armor that can also be upgraded. All the
while you have to trade with other clans and
towns to feed your people, turn resources into
weapons and armor, negotiate with would-be
allies, take over provinces in epic battles, and
use the all-purpose map to keep track of your
progress.
The terrain looks beautiful, rivaling Myth's (and sharing the same basic control
style to rotate and zoom around the terrain). The characters are very sharp, and
make smart remarks like "Ach!" and "Aye!" (They are Scottish, after all.)
Plenty of nice little touches include the ability
to set caravan routes and assign guards to
them, advance time (crucial for impatient
types), set formations (wedge, line, circle, etc.)
and have your troops hold them as they move.
In multiplayer games, you'll be unable to just
send a message to an opponent. You'll have to
actually send a messenger, who of course can
be intercepted by a third party.
Multiplay is planned for up to eight players
both cooperatively and competitively, and Eidos is currently working on the
ability to save multiplayer games, as one game could go on for hours. Now if