Armies of Exigo

When you first take a look at Armies of Exigo, it's pretty clear what the developers had in mind - this is a Warcarft clone through and through. Which makes sense – the developers, Black Hole Entertainment, is a small formation of hardcore real time strategy geeks from Hungary. Not that this is a bad thing by any means, as Blizzard has been too enamored in MMORPGs to care much about their real time strategy fans, and WarCraft 3 left some disappointed. Armies of Exigo is unashamed of its roots, and mimcs Blizzard's classics to the point of near-copyright infringement.

There are three races in Exigo: The Empire (humans), the Beasts (orcs) and the Fallen. All of these are blatantly familiar, except for the Fallen, a race of alien insects that clearly take some inspiration from the Zerg in Starcraft. Like WarCraft 3, you have to play the scenarios in order, and cannot jump into different campaigns for the start. For the most part, veterans should know the drill when it comes to these types of games - many simply revolve around careful resource management to create an army that carefully balances offense and defense, although some revolve around a bit of scouting and questing. Again, it's pretty typical - the only real addition to the maps are underground tunnels, effectively doubling the size of the playing field. It can get even more confusing trying to keep track of everything, but those looking for more gigantic, epic battles will surely find it.

These features don't add up to a whole lot, unfortunately. While WarCraft's storyline was pretty clearly ripped off from Lords of the Rings and other fantasy staples, Armies of Exigo doesn't even come close to the extraordinary depth that Blizzard put into their titles. Similarly, much of the trademark Blizzard humor is nowhere to be found. I don't necessarily expect that clicking repeatedly on my characters will elicit humorous responses, but games like this really, REALLY need personality to stand out, and there's none of that Exigo. The game as a whole feels rather unrefined too, as the naggling AI little flaws from the older games are still apparent. You scratch your head and wonder why units stand picking their noses while their friends not two inches away are engaging in brutal combat. Even the interface is out of the olden days.