بیٹل ریلمز

Genre: RTS

Multiplayer: Internet, Local Network

Developer: Liquid Entertainment

Publisher: Ubisoft

Publisher in Russia: Russobit-M

Release Date: Early 2001

Official Game Website: www.battlerealms.com

Minimum Requirements: CPU 350 MHz, 64 Mb, 16 Mb Video

Recommended Requirements: CPU 600 MHz, 128 Mb, 32 Mb Video

Ed Del Castillo, working in the Westwood studios on a future classic, was full of inspiration. The world trembled from Command & Conquer like from the Tunguska meteorite — and it was wonderful. But the RTS genre has since remained a lifeless statue for Westwood designers. A monotonous series of stamped copies emerged from under their chisels. The golden calf trampled all the muses, and the great masters of games became professional craftsmen. Ed did not escape this common fate, remaining the producer and co-designer of all the descendants of C&C up to the third generation. But about two years ago, he, as they say, weighed anchor and set sail in a free-floating submarine called Liquid Entertainment, taking with him a huge baggage of experience accumulated over years of guardianship over C&C.

Ed's mind, filled with stereotypes, came up with nothing better than to embark on the "return of the RTS genre to its roots". It cannot be said that bringing this idea to life became an unbearable burden for Ed and his team. Fortunately, the roots were always at hand — it was only necessary to direct them in the right direction. Ed watched development closely without closing his eyes. As a result, Battle Realms became the most canonical RTS one could imagine — in the modern sense of the term. That is, the way a real-time strategy should be now.

Battle Realms is nurtured on the fertile soil of medieval Japan. Rice fields, elegant rivers, and miniature waterfalls, narrow-eyed peasants in flat straw hats, Buddhist monks, black ninjas, the ruthless blade of a katana in a samurai's hands, and the main character named Kenji — the son of a daimyo. But medieval Japan in its pure, historically accurate form is Shogun, at best — Takeda. And here, in Battle Realms, we are told a tale in which the curved blades of the Dragon warriors suddenly blaze with fire, samurai become invulnerable to arrows, and the main character wages war against the necromancers of the Lotus clan and casually converses with the Dragon atop a mountain.

It should be noted that the plot makes up a large and integral part of the game. It is the story of a little dragon, Kenji, who is said to have cold-bloodedly plunged a blade into his own father's back and spent seven years in exile, only to return to rule the Snake clan and put an end to the endless strife in the land — or perhaps to take revenge on the real killer. The backstory, easily found on fan sites, stretches over ten pages of fine print. But it should be read only after one gets into the plot — and the plot captures from the very first scripted video, forcing players to complete missions just to see the next one. Even detached from the game, the story of Battle Realms would look pretty good: war-scorched lands that were once flourishing, the pursuit of a mysterious artifact, wicked betrayal, a friend crucified on a cross, achieved revenge, and a search for one’s "self" in a conversation with a red-golden reptile, ancient as the earth itself. Missions are strung on a narrative thread like pearls, and scenes, events, and characters are so masterfully woven into the gameplay that one watches the next video while holding their breath and carefully reading the dialogues — brief so as not to tire, but therefore no less meaningful.

The developers even allow a bit of freedom in gameplay and allow for slight branches in the story. In the very first mission, you determine which side of the Forces the main character will stand on. Good Kenji (the Dragon clan) is wise and generous, while Evil (the Snake clan) is overly self-confident, boastful, and cruel (and his story turns out to be a bit different). However, the differences between Good and Evil here are more ideological. Buildings and units of the Dragon and Snake clans look and are named differently, but, as they say, they are all of the same blood. Missions take place on the same maps — but the layout of bases and the strategic situation may differ. In addition, victory can be achieved by conquering different provinces: before almost every mission, you can choose which way Kenji will go — right, left, or straight (as in Emperor: Battle for Dune). This is enough to not experience a nagging déjà vu during repeat playthroughs of these 14 or 15 missions.

So what should it be like?

The theory of gameplay in RTS has not changed since the Paleolithic.

And Battle Realms, as I have already mentioned, is made in strict accordance with theory. Gather resources. Build a base. Assemble an army. Scout. Attack. Annihilate everyone of a different color. Scour the map for the "last alien". All strictly, as per Marx and Engels. But these are the canons. From which one can already dance.

Having set out to give the game a modern look, Del Castillo first abolished the manual production of so-called "peasants". In Battle Realms, this is an automatic process. As soon as you place a Peasant Hut in the open field, peasants begin to emerge from it with military regularity. Wonderful — the player is freed from the heavy duty of clicking the peasant face icon at the production building every minute.

Following point №1 of the Theory, we send peasants to gather rice in the fields and haul water from the nearest river. If there is no river nearby, any puddle will suffice. Water never runs out, and rice keeps growing — especially if one remembers to irrigate. But resource gathering is limited by a limit. Ed Del Castillo did not set out to make the player a water and rice magnate. A great move — as you will soon see, half of the game is built on this limitation. The other half is based on another limit — a limit on

peasant production. The more there are, the worse the Peasant Hut copes with its role as an incubator. Village workers materialize on the doorsteps of huts less frequently and less willingly. Finally, the moment comes when they stop appearing altogether. And so it continues until one of them is killed — then their population starts to recover.

How, you might ask, can this seemingly minor detail be the foundation of half the game? Very simply. The thing is that a peasant is, metaphorically speaking, the primary state of a unit in Battle Realms. So to speak, its larval stage. A peasant who has undergone training in one of the buildings turns into a warrior — a spearman or an archer, or at best — a geisha (we'll leave the gender question to the developers). Spearmen and archers (unlike geishas) can receive further education and become Dragon Warriors or Kabuki Warriors. Those, in turn, can "grow up" to become samurai. If one takes another path (i.e., to other buildings), specialists in pyrotechnics can be obtained — chemists or gunners.

Thus, the number and growth of the army directly depend on the "birth rate" of peasants. The limit on the total number of peasants — and, consequently, units in general — differs in different missions! Thus, while in StarCraft no one stops you from breeding armies of two hundred units — here you must be content with what Ed has sent. As a rule, the player commands a squad of 20-30 fighters, and that is enough to complete any mission. And not by overwhelming the enemy with numbers, but by carefully considering each move and repeatedly restarting, as in Myth, for example. Otherwise, it is impossible: if you lay down all your warriors in an assault on the enemy base — you have to recruit an army from scratch. This is easy in the early missions, where one can manage solely with archers and spearmen. A samurai can be turned from a peasant in about two minutes. And ten samurai? Twenty? And this is taking into account the fact that the enemy doesn’t sleep and doesn’t forget to regularly pop over to light up your evening. Therefore, Battle Realms is far more of a tactical game than C&C, StarCraft, and others like them. Thus, playing it is interesting even now, after countless hordes of RTS clones.

The second whip that Ed uses to spur players on to decisive and as early military actions as possible is represented in the game by the well-known Yin-Yang symbol (see the center of the interface panel in the screenshots). By successfully defeating the enemy, you gain yin or yang points — depending on which clan you are playing. And these points... serve as payment for all upgrades in the game! That’s right — high combat morale and no reliance on water and rice manipulations. According to the official FAQ, points are awarded not just for killing a certain number of enemy fighters and wreaking havoc on an enemy base — the reward also depends on how effective your tactics were and how well you minimized losses. Although, perhaps in practice, there is no dependence — proving its existence (as well as its absence) is almost impossible. But that’s not the point. The principle itself is unspeakably pleasing. Although parallels with character leveling in RPGs or tactical games are evident to the naked eye. However, units in Battle Realms do not gain experience and do not become veterans (even though they promised!). But this does not spoil the game whatsoever. A true samurai's way.

By the teachings of the "Myth"

Tactics in Battle Realms became a subject of discussion right after the game’s release. That’s good — it means that it is not limited to mindless rushing. By the way, Ed fought against rushing separately, declaring war on it on all fronts and kicking the parasite out of the game with powerful kicks. Therefore, the same official FAQ can calmly proclaim: there is no rushing in Battle Realms! And that is pure truth. I checked it myself.

It is useless to storm the enemy clan's base with a set of identical units. At a minimum, a combination of archers and spearmen is necessary — otherwise, the advance will drown in the blood of your fighters. Close combat units will be wiped out by guard towers and wizards/catapultists, and the formidable will be shredded from a distance by infantry. In short, the squad you intend to conquer the map with must be at least somewhat balanced. Only then can one speak of some kind of tactics. Without smart tactical maneuvers, victory will be as elusive as (you know what) — especially at the highest level of difficulty.

The second key to success is the correct arrangement of units before battle. It is damn unfortunate that Ed and Co. were too lazy to implement formations. It requires that everyone be lined up manually: samurai in front mixed with Dragon and Kabuki Warriors, with archers covering the back. And there must be a geisha somewhere nearby, playing the role of a field doctor here. However, in this arrangement, battles will still pass according to the "wall against wall" scheme. One can exert some effort and come up with much more subtle and clever moves — they are possible thanks to the special abilities of the units.

After a visit to buildings like Shrine and Fireworks Factory (in the Dragon clan), warriors gain new talents, depending on the type of troops. For example, Dragon Warriors have an impenetrable energy field, samurai have immunity to ranged attacks, and Kabuki Warriors can "turn off" enemy ranged attacks. Heroes (Kenji, his friend Otomo, the traitor Shinja, and others) do not require further training — they are endowed with special abilities by nature.

On fan sites, for example, such a tactic is actively advertised: put one Dragon Warrior forward, "activate" his energy field and from a distance mow down enemies with arrows while they unsuccessfully try to chop the bait into pieces. However, using special abilities comes at a cost — stamina is spent. Once it runs out, the unit loses its talent until it regains its strength. Health for fighters also recovers over time — but only very slowly. Therefore, as mentioned before, an inevitable participant in all wartime dramas should be a geisha, or better yet, two or three — just in case.

The thing is, the enemy AI is set against her extremely wickedly and first sends a couple of kamikazes into the center of your army to finish off the geisha. The kamikazes will, of course, die, but if they perform their role, you'll have a tough time. By the way, there also exists a tactic based on the geisha’s special ability. If you sacrifice the geisha, it will restore the health of all nearby units to maximum. Thus, having "spent" two or three geishas, you could eliminate an enemy that outnumbers you.

As for the AI in general, it is nothing remarkable. The enemy performs the simplest maneuvers — for example, it attempts to send “messengers” who tease your warriors and lead them into traps. Friendly AI isn’t particularly clever either, and your troops are all too happy to nibble at such bait. Taming their uncontrolled desire for heroism can only be done using commands like Guard or Stop — fortunately, they are executed unquestioningly.

The three-dimensional world of Battle Realms boasts quite detailed physics. Not as much as in Black&White, but not as simplistic as in most 3D RTS, where the physics usually boil down to the fact that units climb hills slower than they descend and shoot further from the top. Here it is implied. As is the fact that trees (forest grows abundantly on almost all maps) block vision, and boulders found sporadically can be pushed down from mountains to crush careless enemies. Burned buildings stop burning quickly in the rain — and it is in the rain that rice grows faster.

In the meadows roam wild horses, which can be caught, taken to a stable, and put any warrior on them (except for the heaviest ones). Thus, a small cavalry detachment can be formed, making daring raids on stragglers among enemies and making peasants work in the fields. Enemy horsemen pull riders off horses, and they immediately jump into the now-empty saddle! Even a peasant seated on a horse will begin to replenish the stocks of rice and water faster.

The graphics and animation in Battle Realms are simply amazing — I have no complaints about them, and even the inability to scale the image and rotate the camera does not bother me at all. Where else will you see tiny samurai swords being stained with blood in battle?! Circles part around warriors wading through the water, the wind rustles the leaves, and flocks of birds flee from the treetops, scared by your forest marches — by the way, you can recognize the approach of the enemy by their characteristic chirping (!). Tiny rabbits graze in the grass, miniature fish splash in the river, scorpions crawl across the cracked earth of the deserts, and the forest is inhabited by fierce wolves who do not miss the chance to taste the flesh of Kenji's clan members. Decorative little waterfalls set a lyrical mood, and in the midst of a downpour and thunderstorm, a bloody massacre in the middle of the road looks splendid! It’s just a pity that the warriors do not slip in the mud.

The Samurai’s Path

Ed and his friends from the GameSpy Arcade server are sure to extend a friendly hand to players who wish to shift their orientation from single-player to multiplayer. In multiplayer, by the way, you can play as your longstanding enemies from the Lotus and Wolf clans. They have a different technology tree, different units, different tactics... You will have to relearn the art of fighting.

The development of Battle Realms — add-ons, sets of additional missions, a continuation of the plot, a second part, finally — entirely depends on public recognition. Ed stated it plainly: if there’s recognition — we will do everything. If there isn’t — Liquid will all cut their hair and become monks somewhere in Tibet and sink into reflections on the nature of Yin and Yang.

This is a copy of the article from Igromania. The disc came to me by chance, and the game was destined to become my favorite strategy, on par with WFT3 and Rise of Nations. The graphics of the game surpass even those of modern strategies and at the same time are not demanding on hardware. The balance of power is very well thought out, four races with unique capabilities for each. I hope you enjoy this game too, and you will surely love it.

A few screenshots: