Warrior Kings (Black Cactus, PC, M15)

By PETER ELEY

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Two of the best games ever were Age of Empires and Myth. Take the first one's historical perspective and unit structure, add the second's 3D graphics and clever camera angles, and you have Warrior Kings.

Does it compare to either of those classics? PC Gamer magazine billed it as the first great strategy game of 2002. That was in February, so it's early days.

Developers Black Cactus have managed to get a fresh real-time strategy game out before Microsoft's much-awaited Age of Mythology, the sequel, prequel or son of Age of Empires.

And Warrior Kings' structure and real-time 3D graphics seem broadly similar to what we can expect from Microsoft, if the drip-fed publicity is anything to go by. So it will appeal to the mass of consumers who buy war strategy games.

It's a good-looking, in-depth game with 22 levels and 80 quests. The 3D graphics add a new dimension, but at heart it is a traditional real-time strategy game where you gather resources, build armies and slaughter your opponents. Even the available resources - food, wood, stone and gold - seem oddly familiar. It's stylish, though, with a slick interface and a lots of units, buildings and siege and naval weapons.

And there are some notable improvements over similar games. The interface gives lots of precision control, with group formations, automated tactics, route planning and waypoints. The minimap is superb and gives players a one-click window to the world they control.

Interaction between characters is a step up on other strategy games. Peasants are treated as human beings, rather than mere pawns in a production cycle.

Their produce is transported to your castle by cart, and these need to be protected from attack. Caravans transport greater quantities of merchandise. An early objective is to save one from attack, and the grateful owner helps you set up a trading post.

Similarly, defending a village will let you talk the chief peasant into building a barracks.

peter_eley@nzherald.co.nz