Armies of Exigo review

Remember the Wombles? What a miserable life they led, forced to live underground and borrow the things that ordinary folk leave behind. Searching through other people’s trash, day in day out, just to scrape by – surely that’s no way to live?

What Uncle Bulgaria and the gang should have done is armed themselves to the teeth and used their subterranean tunnels to spearhead a daring coup to enslave the people of Wimbledon. There would have been no more scrounging for them.

Going underground

EA’s new RTS, Armies of Exigo, allows you perform similarly daring underground raids, albeit replacing Wimbledon with a Tolkien-style fantasy world and the Wombles with wizards, elves and the like.

It works like this. Most maps have two levels. Above ground you gather resources build your base and go through the standard RTS motions as you’ve done so many times before. So far, so generic.

However a press of the tab key whooshes the camera bellow-ground where a network of tunnels and dungeons offer the opportunity for sneaky short-cuts, ambushes and flanking manoeuvres. As gaming gimmicks go, it’s a pretty neat one.

BoreCraft?

It’s lucky that Armies of Exigo has this proverbial ace up its sleeve as elsewhere inspiration is rather lacking. Anyone who’s played Warcraft 3 will be familiar with the basic setup; three races, a selection of resources, a simple tech tree and the odd hero unit thrown in for good measure. In fact, Exigo initially seems to stick so doggedly to Blizzard’s RTS template that the whole game seems a little pointless. A slightly ponderous batch of opening missions doesn’t help first impressions either.

It’s not until the game forces you to use both levels simultaneously that the game rises above derivative mediocrity into something more interesting. As you frantically switch between over-ground and underground levels, the strategic possibilities of this device allow for some interesting tactics.

Dungeon master

Allocating resources wisely between the two levels becomes an essential concern, as does controlling the entrances to the underground and using them to your advantage. If you fail to do so, expect to see a huge enemy army appear from nowhere and proceed to crush your pathetically garrisoned base.

Unfortunately tactical choice is much more limited when in comes to other aspects of the game. Unit management suffers from lack of control; battles become hard to manage beyond throwing a load of troops against the opposition as there are too many units to control effectively at one time.

The AI is also on the basic side and is far too keen to rush out and meet the enemy, which normally results in your cleverly designed defences disintegrating due to the enemy's sheer over-enthusiasm.

Armies of Exigo also follows the increasing trend in RTS gaming to give you more, more, more action. Having to fight on an additional front brings with it its fair share of headaches, as you dart around the map and between levels trying to keep the marauding enemy hordes at bay.

War horse

From a visual standpoint Exigo also performs poorly in comparison to recent titles like Dawn of War or EA’s own Battle for Middle Earth, with some basic animation and a distinct lack of imagination making the game look somewhat dated. Likewise, the sound effects are and repetitive, the clash of steel has rarely been so underwhelming.

That the plot is substandard fantasy tripe almost goes without saying. Expectations are always low when it comes to RTS plots, and in this department Exigo doesn’t disappoint – it’s as clichéd as they come.

With only one original idea to its name Armies of Exigo is something of a one trick pony. It’s all done competently, and there’s certainly enjoyment to be found here, but it lacks character; that exciting spark or polish that distinguishes the truly great RTS games. Once the novelty of the dual layer system wears off you’ll pine for a fresher, less workman-like, experience.