Shattered Union

What's this? A realtime strategy game for Xbox? Wonders never cease.

Though the units themselves are numerous, and in great variety, it’s the maps themselves that are the stars. Te game remembers each and every action you take, and each has a future re-action which might not make an appearance for a huge number of turns. Though destroying a bridge may seem the perfect way to keep your enemies from flooding into your territory, if your attacked from elsewhere, you discover you’re destroyed your quick get away. But these aren’t just physical. If you find it all too exciting pummelling a city to rubble, your political rating will plummet as the media transmits news of your actions around the world. Not only will this make others much more wary of you in future, it also pushes your choices of ‘special powers’ towards the evil variety.

These special powers, short term boosts in essence, can give you a huge boost during battle in numerous ways. You might find yourself in possession of a few nuclear weapons if you’ve been particularly nasty, or even have the chance to heal some of your wounded units if you’ve been a good commander. Another touch of much needed strategy.

But then, I come right back to my opening sentence of this review. Controlling all this strategic might with your Xbox pad feels unnecessarily clunky and unwieldy. Though you won’t find it coming to your detriment in game, with the slow, turn based system playing out only as you can fit, it certainly makes you crave a mouse based control system.

Shattered Union’s problem is that it tries to cram far too much in, and instead lacks and kind of real depth in any area. The enemy AI is weak, and far too unwilling to take advantage of the many errors you’ll make early on. The hex based graphics are functional enough, as are the strategic menu’s, but lack the kind of dazzling effects that we crave. The steep difficulty curve too will only put off many would be strategy masters, and can only cause frustration, if lengthen out proceedings a little. A potentially strategic master, that falls by the wayside thanks to some poor tactical decisions during design and implementation. How ironic.

This review comes courtesy of our friends at www.boomtown.net .The home of harcore PC, Xbox, PS2, GameCube and handheld gaming news, previews, features and reviews.