As the entire media goes wild for the annual GamesCom at Cologne, we bring you Ubisoft's strategy game called R.U.S.E. which may be one of the greatest strategy games in 2010. Ubisoft, along with the game's developers at Eugen Systems (the guys behind Act of War) have made a very innovative strategy game along with an enjoyable experience. The end result was success.

One thing that was immediately noticed from the preview of this game is that it goes against all the genre's conventions and trying a lot of new things. Summarizing what Eugen Systems have learned from their other projects they have successfully created a simple but immersive, scalable, diverse and innovative strategy game. So, the game feature the era of the Second World War dated around 1945 with a very fresh perspective of the war with various locations like Africa, Italy and other major locations to the war. The gameplay of RUSE does not put you on an aerial view of the battlefield like other games in the genre, but puts you on the planning board of the generals with a map. If you zoom out to the limit, on the borders of the map you will be able to see the rest of the room where the generals and majors are i.e. a war room. This increases the realism of the game where it puts you in the mind of a general where he orders his troops and discusses with the other generals on how to move their troops and where to attack. The first thing to catch your eye is the level of detail. Ok, granted you don't have perfectly designed polygons which make it surreal but the way the game zooms in-and-out on the battlefield is impressive. Of course the board of where you give your orders to the map is very detailed and it isn't a 2D flat map, the buildings, hills, environment are rendered in 3D with an great attention to detail.

Talking about zooming in-and-out, the iris zoom will change the view of the troops according to the zoom level with impressive scaling abilities. When you zoom out, the troops will be grouped according to their strength level with a small circle, along with the armor forces which will be shown in a larger circle on the map. As you zoom out further, if you have troops and armor in the same area, they will be grouped together so that you will get an instant idea of the resources you have. Another thing about RUSE, is how simple the interface and gameplay was created without any fancy features. The interface can be dragged and dropped anywhere and there are very few controls to use to move or attack your enemies. This makes it easier to have the game ported to multiple platforms without having complicated controls, it will be easier to use on consoles. The only problem with the gameplay is that it is may seem a bit too simplistic, but the gameplay compensates to this.

The game handles easily and quite good with base building being quick and easy with just a drag-drop move. Buildings can only be built adjacent to roads and supply-lines with roads are crucial to the game. The only source to build roads and buildings is money which can be increased by building supply depots on specific points which are scattered into the map. The depots are not infinite and you must extend your coverage to reach other depots without being intercepted by your enemy.

The game offers six factions being both Axis and Allies and of course with each faction having its own weaknesses and strengths. You have to use the faction's best moves to help you overcome the enemy and along that you will have to use the Ruses to help you in intercepting and decrypting the enemy's communications and allow you to have an exact overview of the enemy's steps.

So, in conclusion RUSE is coming along great, showing a very good innovation to the genre with a simple but yet great experience. The cinematic effects during gameplay give a good idea of realism and it's worth to keep an eye on it when it releases, since it will keep you stuck to the gameplay.