Armies Of Exigo

If The FPS is the most over-represented genre on the PC right now, then the RTS must surely rank as a close second. Consequently, they have to do something pretty special to earn our attention - like The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth's top-draw movie licence; or Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War's superior design sensibilities; or Rome: Total War's utter brilliance. Unfortunately, Armies Of Exigo for the most part, is pretty much bog standard.

Set in a fantasy world that inspires deja vu and not much more, the rent-a-plot hinges around the Empire (a coalition of humans and elves) defending their land in the realm of Noran against the invading Beast Tribes (orcs, trolls and... well, you know). This translates into a lengthy single-player campaign made up of a time-consuming 36 missions, consisting of 12 mission chapters each based on one of the three factions. As brain-meltingly predictable as the two factions are, Exigo plays a blinder with its third-The Fallen. A race of genuinely creepy Geiger-esque creatures, The Fallen manage to look brilliant and have a noticeably different feel to how they play.

Going Down

Exigo's other carrot of innovation nestling within its vomit puddle of unoriginality lies in the fact that there are two levels to each map. By sending your units into an access point, they can travel down to the underworld consisting of dungeon-like caverns. The concept is well implemented, and it's far easier than you might think to keep track of units over what are essentially two different maps, but it's a shame that many of the campaign missions rely on linearly guiding kyou through these areas via objectivebased missions. Other than that, it's pretty much business as usual, with a triple-faceted resource system that will be recognised by anyone familiar with Age Of Empires, a superweapon system that fans of Command & Conquer: Generals will be comfortable with, and a dynamic of build your base/amass your army/swarm the enemy that will remind you of a thousand other RTS titles.

Exigo's other flaws are, thankfully, minor. The graphics are mostly perfunctory, and are bland enough to make it tricky to keep up with what's going on during larger battles. Also, although there are some seriously nice-looking cinematics, the majority of the story is told through in-engine cut-scenes that tend to drag more than an episode of Antiques Roadshow. The viewing angle of the camera is also frustratingly fixed.

But despite its flaws (and have we mentioned its unoriginality?), Armies Of Exigo is a functional, mindless but surprisingly fun, way to while away the hours of your life. Playing as The Fallen can be deliciously entertaining, and the more engrossing levels can keep you going for nearly an hour apiece without boredom creeping in. Sure, there are better strategy games to get through before you'd bother considering this, but at least you know there's something decent waiting once you've made your way through the rest.