It takes a special kind of nerd to play real-time strategy games. IIt's around this time one starts noticing the graphics -- the visuals are nothing special, at least during battles, which take up most of the game. The water looks good, as all water seems to on the Xbox 360, but the rest of the landscapes, textures, and character models are rather nondescript. There's neither a unique, artistic visual style nor a breathtaking sense of realism.

These units so desperately needed micromanagement that the general had to tell them to face the enemy, whether to chase and kill fleeing opponents, what formation to take, and even how tight that formation should be. Developer Black Hole Entertainment eliminated the resource management common in similar titles, but the battle mechanics were enough of a handful. Well, two handfuls on a computer keyboard.n the PC hit Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, for example, one didn't merely direct armies around, Risk-style. No, as a general in the medieval era, the player was in charge of an increasing number of units, each with unique advantages and disadvantages, not to mention individual "heroes" and "champions" with special skills.

By contrast, the cutscenes that introduce the three stories (two use the same one) are simply amazing, sometimes to the point where they don't even look animated. Well, aside from the monsters smashing each other with axes in the Orc campaign introduction. The tale here, insofar as it matters to the game, is this: there was a huge war, and factions are still fighting.