At first glance, The Golden Horde does exactly what it says in the tin; it's a historical real-time strategy. Before you start groaning however, it's worth setting the scene a little. Unlike the usual PC gaming definition of history, which it seems has only has two different eras - the Roman Empire and World War II - Horde is set in the early Thirteenth century, allowing you to play as either Mongols, Russians or Crusaders. It's worth mentioning that the game maintains a respectable level of accuracy too, and without bogging down those who aren't really interested in historical facts.

I'm going to break with convention and explain the overall feel of the game right here, rather than reserving it for the conclusion, as it's the most crucial thing that you need to take away from reading this review. From start to finish, in just about every aspect, Golden Horde feels like a budget piece. Nothing that you are presented with is outright terrible, but there's an obvious lack of effort throughout the game, and although that can be forgiven in some cases, it's worth mentioning that, despite the budget feel, the game doesn't come attached with a budget price tag.

The story mode allows you to play as all three factions and they are reasonably different from one another, although not nearly as unique as we've seen in more defined fantasy factions like those in Dawn of War or Command & Conquer. The story itself is a fairly understated affair with absolutely nothing that inspires any real feeling or emotion. At best it serves to give you some idea of what you are fighting for, and at worst it's mind numbing and stretches on for several hours more than even the most hardcore RTS fan would prefer. This was obviously never going to be the setting of choice for most players, but I'm a firm believer that anyone can be won over to an historical setting with a well paced story and strong characters. Unfortunately, Golden Horde has neither. This is made worse by perhaps the most obvious sign of developer laziness - the complete lack of online play, with just IPX included to satisfy those who wish to battle with human opponents.

Two things set RTS games apart from the crowd in today's industry: graphics and innovation. So how does Golden Horde fare on treading new ground in an incredibly crowded marketplace? Well, the system that's most lauded by the game and shoved in your face within the first few seconds of the tutorial is the ability to equip your soldiers with different weapons that give them different abilities, basically turning them into entirely new units. On paper this might sound like a recipe for micromanagement disaster, but thanks in part to the boring but handy interface, it's actually the game's saving grace, adding a much-needed level of depth to the gameplay. It's interesting to see the same units performing different actions depending on whether they are holding a bow or a sword, rather than just building units of the relevant type from a barracks.

If you think that equipping weaponry sounds more RPG than RTS then you wouldn't be wrong and overall Golden Horde does have noticeable RPG leanings. The experience system that allows your troops to grow stronger and achieve upgrades the more fights they survive has been seen many times before, but Golden Horde places real emphasis on this feature so that it moves away from simply a 'nice touch' to be something that you really have to consider in battles. Unlike the weapon system however, this dynamic seems to weigh down the strategy and slow the overall pace of the game, rather than take any steps towards enhancing it. Not a single time did the levelling system feel anywhere near as fun, exciting or crucial to the gameplay as that of Warcraft 3, a game that's now over five years old.

Golden Horde's final innovation is a real missed opportunity; adverse weather conditions can enhance or impede the performance of your army. For example, wind might help or hinder your archers' arrows, while heavy snow slows down your entire troop. This is all interesting enough on paper, but the problem here isn't innovation - it's implementation. The system simply isn't taken advantage of and you only really remember its presence during those times where it's obvious that the game wants you to use the weather and has already set everything up for you. Perhaps if we had been lucky enough to see some multiplayer then we might have been able to explore the tactical depth of this feature more.

Graphically, Golden Horde is an entirely mediocre affair. There's nothing to take outright offence to but, other than a rather bold array of colours, there's nothing that will blow you away, with some areas looking dated. White lines where tiles end are often visible and even on the highest settings there's an obvious lack of anti-aliasing. Nothing seems smooth or natural, despite the fact that the majority of the game takes place in various tree-filled environments. This is all compounded by the fact that there's not variety here at all; once you've played for about an hour you've seen just about everything that the game is going to offer you, visually at least. The sound on the other hand is the dark horse of Golden Horde, providing some genuinely enjoyable musical set pieces. The sweeping orchestral sounds work very well at certain points in some of the missions, while the voice acting is also surprisingly good. Neither aspect sets a benchmark but both seem to have had more effort put into them than the rest of the game.

The control system and interface are both usable and instantly recognisable to anyone who has played an RTS before. Useful then, considering that the tutorial doesn't really mention how to control anything at all. Players used to Command & Conquer 3 or Supreme Commander's large battlefields may feel very restricted by the amount of the map that you can fit on the screen at any one time.

Typical missions involve a mixture of siege and defence, with an emphasis on the hero characters. Strip away the weapon system though and you're left with nothing that makes you want to continue past the first few hours of the campaign mode. Mission variety is nonexistent and without something special in either the story or the graphics department, the novelty of equipping weapons alone will see only the most determined of gamers through to the less than thrilling conclusion. Golden Horde seems to be really interested in making sure you buy it but totally unimpressed by the idea that you might actually want to have some fun playing it. For a game that's set in such a turbulent and exciting time in European history, you would expect to feel like you're there; like part of something epic. Games like Company of Heroes and the Total War series accomplish this feat seemingly without effort, so the fact that Golden Horde tries so hard but still falls flat on its face is a rather damning statement of its complete lack of originality.

Perhaps the biggest problem with The Golden Horde is far simpler, however. It does have some nice touches; looting weapons from your dead enemies brings a new element to the field and the experience system expands as far as the units who craft your weapons, so it's not just about making sure that you outnumber your enemy. The problem is that for every tentative, stumbling step that Golden Horde makes towards originality, it fails on something crucial. Introducing new gameplay elements is important if you want to stand out, but it's far more important to make sure that you get the basics right. People who are particularly interested in this era of history might find the setting is just enough to see them through to the end, but for the rest of us there are just too many better options out there.

Reviewed by Rob Clarke for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).