Sub-par military sim
The original Real War is a rather poor real-time strategy game that was actually based on a training game used by real-world military forces and which incorporated supposedly detailed scenarios that allowed participants to re-enact missions in various environments from around the world. Despite the game's less than stellar reception it spawned this sequel which improves on matters somewhat but which is still little more than average. The basic gameplay remains similar, with players engaging in a series of real-time combat missions against various opponents while making using of an extensive line-up of unit types. A whole slew of new features are added for the sequel and problems from the first game are addressed, with new missions, campaigns, maps, modes and weapons all thrown into the mix. There's nothing particularly original about what's on display here and for a while, it's certainly fun in an Advance Wars-style way for a while. Unfortunately, while some issues have been fixed, enough remain to cause some fairly significant problems. The AI opponents are poor and offer little in the way of challenge, while the storyline is uninteresting. Although the interface has been cleaned up, it's still far from perfect and is clumsy and awkward at times, making play more frustrating than it should be. On the plus side, the array of units and weapons is impressive and the multi-player mode offers such enjoyably strategic moments but ultimately, this isn't enough to save Rogue States from being anything more than middle-of-the-road. Something like Warcraft 3 or Age of Mythology will prove to be far more rewarding if you're after something in this style.
