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
RTS games are making a big splash on the console scene recently. We've seen Command & Conquer as well as Halo Wars storm the gaming world without being saddled with the keyboard and mouse. SEGA was brewing Stormrise behind the scenes with an innovative control scheme and a story that combines the current global warming scare with sci-fi elements to create a war between two drastically different cultures that lived through the same apocalyptic events only one part of the population was allowed to live in safety while the rest of the planet had to suffer the elements and eventually mutated.

What's Hot
There are some unique ideas being worked on in Stormrise. The most obvious of those ideas is the "whip" selection mechanic. Icons are used above the groups of troops and using the analog stick, you flick in their direction and you'll jump to that location. It works very well and the effect is really cool. Since the camera is zoomed way in, you'll get a more intimate view of the battlefield and the whip selection is a conduit for an interesting way to manage units. When you get used to the controls, flicking around the map is very easy.



RTS games usually follow the pattern of having sea, land or air units. Stormrise changes it up by allowing the ability to command units onto the buildings, under the ground or any spot in between there. Breaking that small convention might seem like a small undertaking, but it's a huge innovation in the RTS world.

Graphically, the game looks great. And by great, it looks like the apocalypse just happened, which is a compliment. Once you are woken up by Echelon, you'll see the remnants of a world once prosperous destroyed by a failed science experiment. Games like Halo Wars and Command and Conquer don't win the price for best looking games but Stormrise goes into good detail and brings the units and world to life with a nice eye for the minutia.

What's Not
Stormrise, for all the attractive innovations, is a hot mess. Nothing seems to work in its favor or work as the developers intended. The whip controls are cool and shiny until there are many units to command and you wish you could select a bunch of units to move in unison. Moving massive amounts of troops at once is something that should more or less be a staple of the RTS genre. Losing that ability is a huge blow and when you are trying to orchestrate a larger invasion. Not only that but the camera is so far zoomed in, you'll wish there was the option to have more control over the battlefield.

The setting is forgettable. The main characters you encounter are instantly forgettable. The post-apocalyptic scenario isn't very original anymore and it seems to be the default for design choices in this generation of consoles. What boils down to space marines versus mutants is something used and used again for the RTS genre. It is true that developing unique ideas might have taken time used to create the whip selection, putting more consideration behind creating a memorable experience to compliment the innovative approach with controls.

All the innovations amount to less than what you'd expect. At the end of the day, Stormrise will lead to disappointment because it sounds good on paper from a developer with a pedigree of Total War games under their belt. Having a cool ideas is only part of the equation, there needs to be an acceptable level of execution. Stromrise doesn't come anywhere close to that level.

Final Word
Stormrise is caulk full of good ideas that don't amount to much. RTS innovations alone can't save Stormrise because thinking great thoughts doesn't always equate to a good game. Any redeeming factor is marred by sloppy construction and ideas that sound much better on paper.