R.U.S.E.

It's been bothering me for a while that there was no page on here for this game, so I finally decided to just start it myself. I realise I'm rather verbose, but I do try to keep things to-the-point, and I prefer this over simply putting bare links in or adding clarifications which are less than one sentence long, but that's just my personal style and preference.

So please, anyone else who's played this game, give this page a little love so it's not just me nattering away on my own.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Ruse

I could've sworn that I myself made a thread about the game a long time ago, but it barely received attention either, so that's probably why you couldn't find it. Oh well, may as well get your thread going.

But even then... I can't think of much to say about the game, especially after Wargame: European Escalation and it's expansions were released. The scale of the game is nice, but realism clearly takes a backseat to everything for the sake of simplicity: units heal automatically, infantry can accurately shoot a panzerfaust at over 100+ yards and strike everytime, units don't ever run out of supplies, etc. The RUSE cards were a nice addition though and did what the Command & Conquer series should've really used the Generals powers for: to add depth to your tactics and movements instead of just another airstrike or free additional troops.

Sadly I myself never got to try out the multiplayer, the servers were completely dead by the time I purchased the game. So I just stood to playing around with the campaign, but lost interest around mission 9.

Yeah, I did find that one thread, but it was from '10 with the last post in '13 (and that was a necro), so I figured I'd start a new thread rather than resurrect the old one, out of general habit from other forums.

I do like the RUS Es, although I never actually use most of them they do add that kind of tactical complexity you mention, and they can let you pull off some serious shit that you just can't do in any other game. (I remember one time, in a 2v2 which ended up as a pointless slugfest, I made a "corridor" of Radio Silence to sneak 10 Panzer II Is and 4 15cm howitzers right around the flank where there were no defences, and managed to obliterate half the enemy base. Without Radio Silence, those units would've been spotted and annihilated looong before then.) I do kind of wish there were more units in the game, but I can live with the restrictions - like I've pointed out on the page, they do manage to get across the overall doctrine and style of the various militaries of the time, making the nations actually unique in playstyle and feel, moreso than Wargame has ever managed. (You see one T-62 variant, you've seen them all.) Germany has some scary powerful units, but they need a lot of investment to make it to the field, the US relies on its tank destroyers much more than its tanks to take out enemy armour, the Russians just flood the field with bodies and T-34s backed up by the occasional heavy tank and high-powered artillery, and so on. In that sense, I feel that R.U.S.E. in a way actually provides a deeper tactical game than the Wargame series, at least potentially.

I was actually in the multiplayer beta, but decided not to buy it on release because of the whole DRM thing, until I saw it in the discount bin several years later. I also never really got back into the multiplayer that much, although I do play compstomps and the occasional operation with friends. The campaign..... has its ups and downs, some parts of it are quite fun and challenging but it really does feel like a several-hour tutorial, and the training wheels only come off in the final few missions. However, those are some of my favourite missions in any RTS campaign, especially the second-to-last one, I replay that one regularly.

Add me on Steam if you want, and maybe we can play some games. It'd be good to play with new people.

...Damn. Nice offer, but I'd have to see if it's still installed, haven't played RUSE in a long time.

It interested me too, and since it's on Mac I may buy it at some point.