Real-time strategy games on consoles have always… well, sucked compared to their PC counterparts, simply because of one little (okay, big) thing: when you’re managing so many troops at once in real-time, you need a ton of buttons and super-fast selection speed via mouse cursor to make it all happen the way you want it to. Fortunately, The Creative Assembly (developer of Stormrise) recognizes this shortcoming, and they’re doing their best to implement innovative new control strategies (namely, “Whip Select” controls) to try and greatly streamline console RTS gameplay.
To be honest, in totality (no pun intended for those who catch the reference), the whole approach to rectifying the console RTS conundrum by translating typical isometric/overhead-view RTS action to that of third-person, single-unit control, seems awfully resemblent to the critically-mixed Battalion Wars series, but then again, this company has brought us the Total War series of games, so I suppose I ought to discard all preconceptions and focus on the overwhelming amount of positive evidence in favor of the game’s quality.
Will the new control scheme work? Your guess is as good as ours. But in the meantime, we’d highly recommend checking out this short, positively gorgeous video detailing the differences.
Oh, yes, and also—please do consider downloading the full-res HD version of the video we’ve provided for you free of charge (below the streaming preview here), as it’s just plain beautiful.
