Movers and Shakers: R.U.S.E. (PS3)

Hello and welcome once again to Movers and Shakers, Diehard Gamefan’s latest bi-weekly column dealing with motion controls in games. This week I’m going to take a look at RUSE, the Ubisoft RTS set in World War 2.

After enduring the motion controls found in Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, I was a little hesitant about my new purchase. I had downloaded some demos from the Playstation Network and found them to be mildly interesting, but nothing that made me run out and buy a full game. Aragorn had been my one and only hope from the launch lineup. And then I found RUSE.

RUSE uses both portions of the Move control scheme, the glow wand and the nunchuck wand. The Playstation Eye is used to track the glowing ball atop the wand and uses the tracking data as a replacement for the mouse clicker in more traditional control schemes. You use the Move Button to select individual objects, and the T button is used, along with moving the wand in or out, to control the level of zoom on the camera.

The analog stick on the other controller is used to move the camera around the battlefield. The L2 button is used to select multiple units in a manner similar to the paint brush tool in MS Paint or other such computer software. There is no visible glowing box to show you what units you have picked, but the units themselves change color slightly. When you combine the camera movement with L2, selecting units becomes easier and more natural. You also have the option of selecting units of the same type by pressing the square button over one of the types you seek to command.

Because the game uses the Playstation Eye to track the wand, and really because I’m lazy and want to play a game while sitting down no matter what these motion games insist on having me do, the game runs into a snag. Namely, if while playing the game at my desk I would relax a little or just get out of the camera’s sight for a short period of time, the game would pause and demand that I return to attention, like some strange drill sergeant.

Incidentally, I think the Move and its ilk are going to be amongst the most popular reasons for people to purchase new televisions in the coming months. I’ve only had mine for a few weeks now and I can already tell that I’m not going to be able to put up with my current set up for much longer. There are too many games out or coming out that require you to be farther away from the TV than I normally play.

Anyway, as a game I wouldn’t call it spectacular, but when it comes to using the Move for motion controls, I’d have to say RUSE has opened my eyes to the possibilities. RTS’s on consoles have always sucked when compared to their PC counterparts. Maybe it’s time we moved on from those beliefs.

See you in two weeks, and remember: a moving target is a hard target to hit.


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