You’d be forgiven for being sceptical about Stormrise, after all it’s yet another attempt to bring the RTS (Real Time Strategy)  genre to the console. While there have been a small few RTS games that have worked well on a console (such as Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium: Wars) the genre just doesn’t seem to translate well from a mouse and keyboard to the fiddly console pad. However, developers aren’t giving up yet and games such as Tom Clancy’s Endwar (which makes use of the headset mic to give orders to troops) are coming up with novel ways to make the genre adaptable. Plus, there’s that small fact that Stormrise is being developed by Creative Assembly - the guys behind the amazing and incredibly immersive Total War series.

Stormrise dispenses of the point and click method, a method that is incredibly efficient with a mouse and keyboard but leaves the player - especially those just coming into the RTS genre -   largely frustrated. The new method involves flicks of the analog sticks to select units rather than having to click on them. The game then takes the perspective of what that unit can see which, and if you can see it then you can go there. However, the click and drag interface can still be used to move troops around from another unit’s perspective. It’s supposed to mean less frustration and less error and will hopefully lead to far more fluid battles, if Creative Assembly is to be believed.

The maps will be true 3D rather than your usual overhead view, sort of like Company of Heroes. Units can go up and down buildings, in-between them, over their roofs or, to top it off, underneath them in the caverns below - or all of the above at the same time. This will hopefully lead to the player having far more choices when it comes to making tactical decisions, and should mean that you’ll see some pretty epic battles.

Normally I wouldn’t question the quality of a game that Creative Assembly puts out, but we are talking about a console RTS here. I’m hoping for the best though, and maybe you should to. Post-apocalyptic games have also been done to death, but it’s what’s done with the setting that counts - just like it’s what’s done with the RTS genre that counts. We’ll see if the new control scheme works sometime next year for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.