Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Warhammer: Battle March is a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game set in the Warhammer universe. The original pen and paper RPG game has evolved a lot from its roots and taken a life in the video game realm. The fantasy setting resembles that of Lord of the Rings with heavy medieval influence. This RTS effort ditches the excessive resource collection and goes for a more streamlined approach to waging a grand-scale war.

What's Hot
Because Battle March leaves collecting resources by the wayside, the focus is squarely on how to plan a battle. Instead of allocating how much material you need to build an army, the process is simplified to massing an army before going into battle and picking the right type of units. Taking time to pre-plan saves a lot of time having to grow technology trees to get the right units you want. This method has you building your stats between the action rather than taking time out of the main game to do that each battle. It works to Battle March's benefit as it eliminates finger twisting controls and is easier to pick up and enjoy. In the place of resources are RPG like potions and weapons you need to equip and use in the middle of the action.

Leading the charge of battle units are heroes and champions. Otherwise known as one-man wrecking machines, they lead units into battle. It gives a face to what could have been faceless hordes of warriors. In total, there are over 100 unit types (including heroes/champions) to draw from and finding the right combination is vital to winning. The nice part is you can pick your side. Choose from the Empire, Chaos or Orcs and Goblins factions and go down different campaign paths. There are some surprises, like duel battles that take place between only two hero or champion unit that mixes up the predictability.



What's Not
There is a danger when games make the jump from pen and paper to video games. Where the almighty pen relies on telling versus showing, video games should show rather than tell. There is plenty of story in Battle March but it isn't very interesting. There isn't a sense there is an enduring war or a compelling reason to fight. If you imagine your units hustling around the battlefield, you are in for a shock. They walk slowly and dull the clashing of forces when it could have been thrilling. Don't be surprised if you think the overall game is boring.

After the main cut-scene, the graphics are muddy and bleed together. The dark browns and greens don't contrast well and the text is small, even on an HDTV. In game, the units look fairly detailed but the camera doesn't zoom in far enough to differentiate the types of units you select. So instead of sending in men with swords, you could have very well sent a team of gunners on accident. For a game where managing units is critical, the ball was dropped when the graphics all look the same.

Final Word
There is a lot of buzz about Warhammer right now and the RTS could ride the coattails of the MMO game but Battle March is an ok game in its own right. What works is that there isn't any resource collecting and you are free to pursue your warpath just don't expect to get pulled in by the rather sleepy story.