4 days ago
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Ancient World War 2 real-time strategy game R.U.S.E. has returned to Steam after over a decade's absence. Original developers Eugen Systems have acquired the rights from Ubisoft and put forth a Definitive Edition with Steam Deck support, which includes all the updates and DLC. If you already own it, you'll get all that at no additional charge in the form of a 2.4GB update.
New to R.U.S.E.? I know, I know, the punctuation is A.W.F.U.L., but the game is fun. It's a trim and elegant RTS with a roster of underhand tactical powers, the titular "ruse" cards, which are strange to consider in this age of weaving deckbuilder mechanics into everything. You've got Radio Silence, for example, which hides all units in a sector, and Reverted Intel, which makes light units look like heavy units and vice versa, until they're properly scouted. You can even go full Operation Mincemeat and fake whole offensives.
Jim Rossignol (RPS in peace) was keen back in 2010, writing that "initially the pace of Ruse seems odd – slow movement across large maps - but once you are attuned to it the tactical challenges are fresh and compelling." The game also has some very swish shape-shifting presentation, with battlefields transforming into war room maps stacked with coloured chips when you zoom out.
R.U.S.E. was delisted across winter 2015 due to the expiration of rights for certain of the military gizmos depicted. Ubisoft turned the servers off in 2023, prompting an outcry, though nothing like the one that greeted the 'sunsetting' of The Crew. Eugen say they have been helpless to intervene throughout, even as modders have kept the game alive. "Sidelined due to distribution constraints, we could do nothing in the subsequent years to help the players who contacted us for assistance or tried to obtain the game," the devs write in a Steam post.
It's not clear how exactly they got the rights again, but I assume it has something to do with Ubisoft's recent restructuring, which has seen them make a variety of smaller divestments such as handing off the new Heroes of Might and Magic game to Hooded Horse.
Read more about the new Definitive Edition on the Steam storepage. Multiplayer appears to be working, and there are a few forum reports of smaller changes such as tweaks for the tutorial. Did you play R.U.S.E. originally? I am horrified to realise that it was one of the first strategy games I ever reviewed. I've just re-read that review and oh no, Edwin, you meant "peon" not "pean", and also, you're fooling nobody when you trot out jargon like "the macro game", and in general, why do you sound like you were born at the age of 45. Take that stick out of your butt and you might make something of yourself, you posturing little egghead.
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