At a recent Ubisoft press event, Senior Producer Mathieu Girard and Product Co-ordinator Thomas Leroux-Hughon told us they had a brand new IP to reveal. So, what is it? We were treated to a video where two guys played a rousing match of a touchscreen tabletop version of Battleships. Player One looked to have the advantage with a huge array of tanks on a country shore. After taking down some enemy planes, his opponent smirks and reveals that his shot-down aircraft were merely decoys, showing a massive armada and aerial assault heading for victory.
So, it’s a Real Time Strategy game, called
Ruse. The key element that Girard hopes will make this title stand out from others like
Command and Conquer and
Starcraft is ‘deception’. There’s the notion that truly getting one over your enemy using anything other than brute force has not been implemented that much in RTS games in the past.
R.U.S.E. aims to be different by placing its ethos in the phrase “strategy over skill”.
Mathieu Girard (left)
This couldn’t have been conveyed more appropriately than in the game’s current game engine and map functions, with the ability to swoop the camera as close to the action as possible in real time. When you zoom out to its furthest point, the map becomes nothing more than a Command Centre style model map in a classic War Room. In this mode, the country you’re fighting in is split into ‘sectors’, where you can apply ruses (the game’s form of deception) to baffle your opponent.
Girard explains that there are up to ten ruses you can use in the game, with three that you can choose at the start of each battle. This being a World War II setting (but of course it is) these mind games are loosely based on classic manoeuvres performed during the international conflict. You can combine different ruses to ensure your victory.
For example, you can set up Radio Silence in one sector of the map and ready a huge army without your enemy noticing, and on the other side produce Fake Factories to attract your enemy towards them. When they have taken the bait and sent all their men to destroy your factories, you can then flank them with the strength of a thousand oxen.
The ruse types range from False Information, Hide Information and Steal Information. No prizes for guessing how each type functions. When you place ruses down in the fully zoomed out mode, you can swoop the camera closer to set up buildings, factories and military like you would a regular RTS.
Besides the ruse view there are two more layers to the gameplay: the closest zoom makes the game appear like a regular strategy game, with realistic tank and military models all crossing fire with enemy units. Zoom out a bit and the individual models turn into trophies that slowly move across the map as they make their approach.
