Confrontation Review

Are you ready for a hardcore RTS (Real-Time-Strategy) game? If so, you have come to the right place. Confrontation is a game developed exclusively for the PC by Cyanide Studio, and published by Focus Home Interactive.  Confrontation is a classic RTS with the classic role-playing elements that have made the table-top game series popular on a mass scale. The game is set within the futuristic and original universe of Confrontation, Aarklash. As the Age of Rag’narok is approaching, four factions are fighting for their own causes and struggling for domination over the land: the brutal Orcs of the Tree-Spirit, the ferocious Wolfen packs, the fearsome Griffon warriors or the terrifying creatures of the Scorpion.

Graphically, Confrontation looks alright, although I have seen far better graphics in other games. The graphics engine feels like I am playing a game that is eight years old not a modern game. There are some decent cut-scenes and the character models are pretty detailed, but it’s the graphics engine that lets this game down.  However, I am not a graphics fanatic and I always look past graphics and favour gameplay more.

The controls are you usual mouse clicking and button pressing; there’s nothing new there. Like almost all RTS’s however, it takes a while to get used to the various options available as you attempt to progress and level up your characters. The core focus in this game is defiantly strategy as you try desperately to work out the best way to play. You also have loads of weapons and magic spells as you would expect in this sort of game. Some of the weapons and magic are fun to use and add to the enjoyment.

This game is very hard to get going. What I mean by that, is the learning curve is pretty big. You are taught the basics as you begin your adventure. This is just enough to help you along your way. However, after about 20 minutes into the game, you are left to play on your own and use what you have learned. Confrontation in one of the hardest RTS’s I have come across, its difficulty may be because you have to control not just one character but a party, where each character has his or her different strengths and weakness.

The game’s biggest misstep is its story. Unless you’ve become deeply immersed in the table-top game and are already familiar, you’ll have a very tough time keeping up with what’s going on because the names for everything are overly convoluted. I tried my best, but could never keep anything straight concerning who was who, what this is place called, and why are these things fighting. It’s not that they don’t tell you, but I just got worn out trying to keep up with their made-up naming convention.

Confrontation is a very mixed bag, and therefore I can’t easily say whether I love it or hate it. During the first two hours of gameplay, I found myself almost fighting the game just to learn all the controls and manage my team. I am not particularly keen myself on games that require you to control and make decisions for an entire team. I am more of a lone ranger and like having a single character. There is no harm in having other team members as this is common in a game of this type. However, I prefer it when they are computer controlled and I don’t need to make a decision for them individually. I am not a babysitter. I can’t mark this down as a bad point, however, as this game is pretty decent.

As I have said, once you manage to get through your first few hours of gameplay, that is when you really start to enjoy the game. It has a pretty decent storyline and gameplay that places this game in the average pile. I would only recommend this game to someone that likes a good challenge, however. You really need to spend hours mastering the controls. Once you have mastered everything this is when the fun starts.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.