If you're looking for a good, well rounded RTS that's fun to play, Ancient Conquest may just satisfy that craving.

The real time strategy (RTS) genre is arguably the most abused and overcrowded on the market. With the number of RTS games increasing at a steady rate, there are many developers jumping on the RTS bandwagon in the hope of snaring a quick dollar. So, does newly released Ancient Conquest by Megamedia Australia add something fresh and exciting, or is it just another below par RTS?

Ancient Conquest is set in the time when heroes like Hercules and Zetes lived. The basic aim is to recover the Golden Fleece, which brings much wealth to the owner. The game is based on sea warfare, with various types of ships being your main offensive weapon. Resources come in the form of Amber and Fish. Both have limited supply, and you find yourself moving further and further away from your base in the search of more, although they do resporn after a while. In a similar vein to Command and Conquer, your buildings must all be built next to each other, and take only a few seconds to build. There are no buildable land or air units, and in this respect it does offer something different as it has allowed for much more complex sea battles.

Ships can hold a certain number of catapults, ballistas, swordsmen or a number of other units all buildable from your main building called a "settlement". These units can be loaded on or off your ships using either a shipyard or a moorage. This gives the gameplay a boost, as it enables the player to tailor his or her ships for a specific task. For example, if I were building a group of "Royal Ships" to destroy a large fortress, it would be advantageous for me to first offload all their swordsmen etc, and fill them with catapults and other projectiles which can attack any target from within a certain distance, unlike swordsmen which are only used when boarding another ship during battle.

However, boarding enemy ships is the best and quickest way to win. Every ship has a certain amount of boarding power, as well as firepower, armor etc. A ships' boarding power is what determines whether it will beat another ship when engaging in the act of boarding. The number of units is not huge, but there are enough to keep it interesting. Magic becomes necessary in the later levels, and you will even come across wild animals such as crocodiles, sharks and other sea creatures which can harm your fleets. The animated buttons are very well done, and you will have no trouble learning which button does what.

Ancient Conquest is a very complete game. There are no bugs to speak of, and the storyline unfolds throughout the game in an encapsulating manner. Multi-player is fast and furious, with support for up to 8 players in TCP/IP or IPX and 2 players through modem or serial cable. Apart from the single player campaign there are also 40 custom missions, all played on different size maps. There are three difficulty levels, but even the most experienced player will have a hard time winning on the hardest setting, which brings me to my next point.

The AI in Ancient Conquest is acceptable for the style of game, yet in the hardest setting the AI seems to just build more and more ships, making it frustrating as there is no use of strategy and the only way to win is to simply build more ships than your opponent. It is therefore fortunate that most of us will be quite content with the challenge that lies in the medium difficulty setting. A comprehensive scenario editor is also included, which enables you to create your own scenarios and multi-player maps.

Overall, Ancient Conquest is a solid RTS game, but is let down in some areas. Although fun, the gameplay could have been improved with more units, especially land based defenses. The graphics are not 3D, but are very detailed and suit the style of the game well. In terms of strategy and AI, there is nothing new to be found. Thankfully, by concentrating on sea warfare, Megamedia have managed to create a game with complex and ultimately more enjoyable sea battles than similar games such as Age Of Empires.

Reviewed by Richard Manley.