Is the real-time strategy genre set to explode in the near future? Sales of Halo Wars could certainly boost the popularity of strategy games, which will no doubt pique the interest of those who hadn’t touched the genre until now. If this happens, the world may be a very different place three to five years from now.

But while Halo Wars may be the catalyst, Stormrise could be one of the games that pushes the genre forward. Designed to be a down-and-dirty, in-your-face experience. Stormrise isn’t your everyday brand of strategy gaming. It won’t remind you of the Command & Conquers of the world, though you might have the occasional flashback to another RTS that dared to be different: Full Spectrum Warrior.

Stormrise isn’t a mix of third-person shooter and strategy gameplay, but that’s exactly what it looks like. The truth is revealed the instant you start playing: rather than control one man or woman through the whole campaign, you’ll command an army of elite, semi-futuristic soldiers and mechanized weaponry. Still, the up close view and familiar camera angles are deceptive. All things likely, your first instinct will be to push the left analog stick, assuming it will move a unit in a particular direction. The actual result is quite different, causing your 3D cursor to move around the level. It’s a little unwieldy but is typically effective, wrapping around the environment with top-notch precision. Players won’t need to be too precise though, thanks to numerous goal markers that can be scrolled to and clicked on – causing your unit(s) to head in that direction – with very little effort.

Units don’t respond immediately to your commands, which can be a bit annoying when a battle is starting to heat up. This is especially painful when some units are being attacked and your reinforcements don’t arrive in time to save them. That’s the pace of the game and is just something you’ll have to deal with. The actual movement, however, is very well done. Even without the markers, moving around is a breeze. Stormrise introduces a speedy navigation technique called Whip Select, a feature that allows you to instantly jump back and forth between unit groups by pressing and releasing the right analog stick. Unit groups are highlighted every time the stick is pushed; tilt it toward the group you wish to select and the camera will leap to that destination.

While not a groundbreaking function by any means, Whip Select is an essential part of the Stormrise experience. Most of the environments are very wide – you may have one specific goal but there is a lot of ground to be covered. Thus, it isn’t uncommon for unit groups to become heavily dispersed; when that happens, any one of them could be in danger. By using Whip Select to switch between each group, players can command their units much more effectively, creating a team-based feeling that likely wouldn’t have developed using conventional RTS methods.

Glancing around each stage, you might be fooled into thinking the backdrops – rugged, desolate and often filled with buildings – came from an action game. The texture work is not on par with a high-end shooter. But considering how many units are crammed onto the screen (not the most ever seen but certainly a lot), the details are outstanding. Where the visuals fail might surprise you: the character designs aren’t original and the animations aren’t always great. The latter element is all too common for strategy games, primarily due to the far away camera view that hides most of the animation mistakes. But when looking closely at a group of heavily armed soldiers or mutated alien-like creatures, you can clearly see if their legs are moving smoothly and realistically – or chopping along with weak fluidity, as they sometimes do in Stormrise.

Unlike most console strategy games, Stormrise feels like it was made for a console. The developers fought hard to create a different kind of experience within a genre that is often labeled too risky by developers and too typical by gamers to be utilized properly on anything but a PC.

However, while The Creative Assembly achieved what few others have in terms of unique gameplay and controller execution, Stormrise does fall victim to some of the pitfalls of console development. Most notably, the mission descriptions are terribly unclear. If the game indicates that the enemy is too strong to attack head-on, you’d think that the alternative path (shown with a goal marker) would be best.

Stormrise wants the player to figure out the rest – how many units to send to that location, how many to hold back, how many to guard the control nodes (which allow you to harvest energy and order additional units), and so on. Only a maximum of three unit groups can be linked together at one time. If you have a few groups of enforcers (basic frontline troops), infiltrators (snipers, essentially) and stalkers (large mechs), you may want to send them all into combat at the same time. Even in the toughest situation, it never hurts to outnumber the enemy.

But since you’re limited to groups of three, you’ll have to move your units in shifts. Inevitably, the enemy will figure out what’s going on. If the rest of your units don’t get there fast enough, the first batch will be dead by the time they arrive. The cycle only gets worse with consecutive groups. And with no simple way to make your allies fall back or find cover (remember: units do not respond instantly to your commands), Stormrise can be quite a challenge – just not in the way you’ll want.

Gameplay: 7.9
A unique strategy game best suited for those craving unique strategy games.

Graphics: 8
Stormrise is a mostly impressive, up-close-and-personal RTS experience.

Sound: 6
Nothing memorable. The voice-overs are annoying (especially when reciting unclear mission information) and the music... My speakers were on the whole time but somehow I can't recall a thing about it.

Difficulty: Medium
Cheap aspects aside, Stormrise provides a fair challenge.

Concept: 8.5
The execution may be flawed but the creative mechanics are the best since Full Spectrum Warrior.

Multiplayer: 7.6
A little slow for multiplayer, Stormrise won't enamor the masses the way Halo Wars has. With eight-player battles, however, this mode is worth checking out.

Overall: 7.9
Stormrise delivers a unique experience that will be remembered. It may be too frustrating (and occasionally too repetitive) to convert those that don't play strategy games. But it moves the genre ahead and is no doubt a step in the right direction.