Celtic Kings: Rage of War

Set during the Roman invasion of Gaul, Celtic Kings boasts two game modes: the first, campaign, is your standard RTS fight-some-battles scenario. The second is adventure mode, where you and a handful of other faithful comrades wander the lands completing quests.

You can play as either the Romans or the Gauls, with the mysterious Druids and the rampaging Teutons occasionally showing their faces. When played as an RTS, Celtic Kings gets lost among the crowd of fantasy/historical titles already out there, with its simplified economics and derivative gameplay. But when played in adventure mode, it proves to be surprisingly addictive.

In this mode missions can vary from solo explorations with you fighting off wolves and brigands, to leading sieges on enemy forts and meeting in the field for full-scale battles. Troops can be arranged into formations by your heroes for greater tactical control. Druids and priests can summon magic through self sacrifice in another of the game's nice touches. And your hero and his followers earn experience and improved fighting abilities along the way.

Celtic Kings' main downfall is the recent appearance of the likes of Battle Realms and Warcraft III, which have upped the stakes. It can't quite match Warcraft's visual delights and epic scale or the innovative hero system of Battle Realms. Nevertheless, CK is worth investigating for its adventure mode if you were a big Diablo fan, or never grew out of Asterix.

Celtic Kings: Rage of War, from Strategy First, looks to be a 'light,'? yet fairly entertaining, real-time strategy title. Combining a solid single- and multi- player experience with a well realized adventure scenario, Celtic Kings offers several different playing options for the novice RTS enthusiast.

Celtic Kings uses a much simpler interface than other, better known real-time titles. The maps are fully created, with no ability to build (or even permanently destroy) buildings, only capture and damage existing structures. All units can be created quickly and easily, and are usually automatically garrisoned in elected buildings. While there are other complexities, such as level-gaining, race-specific units, heroes, and the necessity for supply lines, Celtic Kings' structure removes more of the 'resource gathering' with straight-up combat.

Multiplayer is supported via the Gamespy Network, and through straight TCP/IP. At the LAN I attended, there was little to no lag, and with the game's simple interface, even the non-RTS gamers were able to be competitive quickly.

However, there are still some serious flaws that need to be fixed. Enemy AI is almost non-existent. The audio element is also not working correctly, as I could never get any in-game sounds to work. All cut scenes and animation had audio, but not in-game. While disappointing, however, it did not detract from the game itself.

A note to the publishers: If you're going to name a game Celtic Kings, you'd better put a few damn Celts in it. There's Gauls, Romans, and Teutons galore, but nary a sight of the elusive Celtics. Perhaps Gallic Kings would have been more appropriate. I would rate Celtic Kings as a Fans Only title, in that most hardcore RTS gamers will quickly become bored with this simplistic title. However, for a quick and dirty combat experience, and for the novice RTS gamer, Celtic Kings is a good bet.