Nothing lasts forever, as many past Empires have shown. So many civilisations have been torn asunder by internal dispute as much as outward threat. What happened to the Incas, the Spartans, the Romans? What even, to a certain extent, happened to the good old British Empire? All it takes is two sections of the populace to disagree and you've got Civil War! What would happen if you have 24 states all going at it hammer and tongs? Well, Shattered Union illustrates just that - it takes a latter day Empire, the United States of America, and tears it apart for our gaming delectation.

The story is interesting and may even be a nod to growing dissatisfaction with the present US administration. An incredibly stupid President has angered various American states through idiotic policies, causing such dissension that not only do supporters and non-supporters fall out, but there's even more division in both camps. As a result, several states fall out of the Union and form their own political enclaves. For example, the New England Alliance is made up of New York, Ohio and New Hampshire, to name but a few, while the Republic of Texas is made up of New Mexico, North and South Texas and Oklahoma. The problem is, each new super state wants to see the country unified, but under their own terms! Even the United Nations are sticking their nose in and have secured one chunk of North America under the guise of a peacekeeping force. Your job is to choose which faction you wish to lead to victory.

It all sounds terribly exciting and is definitely an interesting concept - open warfare across the vast continent of America, and on one of the few strategy games for the Xbox too! However, any enthusiasm I had for the topic was quickly washed away within minutes of playing the game. Knowing how involved such games can be, I went straight to the training section to find out how to play. Unfortunately, instead of the usual demonstration battles and mid-battle training tips you'd normally expect in games of this ilk I was basically sat down and lectured to for 20 minutes. There is no interaction at all and the training consists of a few videos of games in their early stages with a commentary by a bored American. I lost track of what was being discussed after five minutes and lost the will to live after ten!

Instead I opted for another tried and tested tactic of mine - dive straight in and learn how to play as you go. This met with a certain amount of success, but it was still an incredibly uphill struggle. Of the variety of different options, I went for Skirmish Mode to begin with, just to get a feel of how it handled before hitting the Campaign mode for something more involved. After choosing which factions to fight for and against, the map and other options, you're greeted with a screen where you can spend a limited amount of cash on a variety of different forces, or have the AI choose for you. These include infantry, artillery, helicopters and scout units, and as you might imagine, each comes with certain strengths and weaknesses.

When you see the map for the first time, broken into hexagonal pieces over which your forces move, it's fairly obvious where some strengths are going to lie. Helicopters can quickly traverse the terrain and fly over mountains for a quick recce, but can be blown out of the sky easily, whereas tanks are mostly restricted to roads but can take a pounding and are well used to fortify positions. As Fog of War is used throughout all the levels and game types, the scout units are best to move into a new area, as the number of hexes you can see around each of these is greater than just ordinary infantry, for example.

Other considerations before taking on the enemy include how your placing and troop deployment may affect the outcome of the battle. For example, using engineers you can deploy mines and the like in an attempt to direct the enemy to a spot in which you choose to take them on. Other considerations could include laying traps with targets you know the enemy may wish to take out, such as anti-aircraft guns. Get some heavy armour hidden in the general area and when the enemy steam in to wreck the AA guns - POW! Blast them to bits with your Big Boys. Also, as in such great games like Advance Wars on the SP, terrain types can offer certain bonuses. Put some infantry in the middle of a field and they ain't going to last long. Stick them in a city and they could do very well indeed.

Sounds great fun, eh? Unfortunately, I found the controls sluggish, the action interminable and the movements hard to follow. Dragging the cursor from one end of the map to another, or hopping from one place to the next, left me in a bit of a head spin about where everything was and what I was doing. It doesn't help that it is sometimes difficult to determine which are your forces and which the enemy's. A map option certainly helps, but if you're new to strategy games you may not find this particularly user-friendly. I am old hand at turn-based games like Fire Emblem, Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics, and even I struggled.

So, after cutting my teeth on a couple of skirmishes and being a mite disappointed, I thought I'd try my hand at the Campaign mode. It's here I found some new elements of gameplay, which made me think perhaps this title wasn't so bad after all. For one thing, as I worked through each area I found that what I destroyed, such as cities, landmarks and other important structures, STAYED destroyed; when the opposition steamed in to try and take back an area, I found the damage I had previously wreaked hadn't miraculously regenerated, as in many other games of its ilk.

Now, this may not sound like much, but another thing to watch out for is your political popularity. Taking battles into the middle of built up areas and putting civilians in the firing line by doing so, really hurts your popularity. So, if over time and over several battles in each state you've caused the destruction of cities, landmarks and so on, you're going to be at a big disadvantage. Protecting civilians gives you help from partisan units, local militia who arm themselves up against the aggressor. Also, having a good rep opens up power ups like the ability to jam the enemy communications or even use EMP bombs. If you go to the dark side though, things like nukes are provided, which only really serve to continue a downward spiral of havoc and destruction.

Once you eventually get the upper hand and start controlling more and more states, you'll find that your resources improve and you can spend money on repairing or buying more infantry, tanks, planes and so forth. However, this has to be calculated carefully, as the enemy has a habit of striking states you thought were secure, thus reducing money you were relying on in the next turn. So not only do you have to continually think tactically during each battle and on each map, using terrain and avoiding the built up areas, but you also have to consider whether it's worth attacking a state given that it may be hard to defend once captured. All of these considerations can really grab your attention and do make for quite addictive gameplay, once you get past the poor training sections and the rather tricky user interface.

Unfortunately, Shattered Union is not helped by some rather clunky looking graphics. What is immediately noticeable is that the units are not in proportion to the map; each infantry, tank or helicopter sits on the landscape like an oversized chess piece. It wasn't unusual to see an infantry unit towering over buildings in built up areas, or tanks dwarfing bridges and other such structures, so if you're looking for realism here you may have to push your imagination a bit. You would have thought this exaggerated scaling would have helped identify your troops compared to your opponent, but this isn't always so easy. Similar looking units are used and in some cases have similar looking colours too. That extra bit of vigilance I found a little irritating when trying to relax into a couple of hours of pure strategy. However, for all that, the map interface is fairly colourful and clear and the landscape they sit on is very detailed. I was quite pleased to see that most of the states I ploughed through had their own individual landmarks, in some cases instantly recognisable. Like the built up areas these can degrade and show damage over time, during many of the conflicts you're going to get involved in.

The audio experience is nothing to write home about though; to say that the envelope hasn't been pushed is an understatement. It's mediocre at best, from the military anthems pumped out at various points in the game and marching along quietly in the background as you enter each conflict, to the poor pops, bangs, crashes and explosions of the armed struggle. Although some of the noises do replicate what you would expect of a tank trundling along or gunfire in city streets, it still lacks a certain pizzazz. Maybe I've been spoilt lately, what with the sounds coming from my new PSP and the excellent Wipeout Pure, or the eerie melancholy created by the audio diversions in Call of Cthulhu. However, I'm more inclined to think they're just a bit on the naff side.

Fortunately, these issues don't detract that much from the gameplay and you're going to be absorbed for a good few hours. Once you've exhausted the Campaign mode, why not challenge a friend? You can do this over Xbox Live, via a LAN connection or a hotpad affair where you can pass your controller directly to your mate when it's his turn. I have to say it was good fun getting a pal around who likes tactical games, sinking a few cold ones and then destroying him in a few rounds of Shattered Union. Mind you, I had the benefit of about 10 game hours under my belt... but he doesn't need to know that.

Despite its flaws, Shattered Union does have a certain something. It's definitely not going to be for everyone, as turn based strategy games can be a bit of a niche market. Also, for those who revel in graphics and sound over content, it'll definitely disappoint. However, for Xbox owners who want an intellectual battlefield challenge that falls somewhere between Advance Wars on the GBA and one of the Close Combat series, this is probably one you should enjoy. My advice is to hang fire though, as I suspect it'll soon be in a bargain bin near you.

Reviewed by Dave Wynn for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).