America: No Peace Beyond the Line

New from Data Becker comes America, the latest in the seemingly never-ending line of real-time strategy games. Complete with an easy-to-use k interface and superbly Ik presented graphics, America is set in the Wild West and M like most games of this genre you start off with just a couple of people and a hut. Choose one of Indians, Mexicans, outlaws and settlers, each of which have their own technology tree and attributes. Funnily enough the cannons and rifles of the settlers tend to give you a slight edge over the bows and arrows of the Indians.

The game is superbly addictive, but it's not all cavalry charges and wagon circles. Fantasies about gun-slinging, scalping, OK-Corralling, and Alamo-style shoot-outs will have to wait until you develop your technology. It's a case of the cart before the horse - you need to learn to process timber, mine gold, breed horses, build farms and so on.

As far as game modes are concerned, there are Indian, Mexican, Desperado and US campaigns, each of which have a basic mission, such as getting your wagon train from A to B. As campaigns get progressively harder, strategy soon becomes vital. You can't just ride off towards the Mexican camp thinking only of pillage and plunder - you have to think about leaving a defensive force at your own settlement. Otherwise, while you're razing that Mexican camp and rustling their horses, them pesky Injuns will be in and out of your camp quicker than a racoon up a tree... having scalped your womenfolk and torched your tents.

The upshot is that Data Becker has produced a decent Wild West RTS, but one that is hard to get into and is ultimately less rewarding than AOEor Cossacks. The only unique selling point is the Wild West scenarios, but if that pokes your fire, put some corned beef hash on, pull on your best pair of chaps and saddle up.