Braveheart

Have you ever tried to have a disorganised war? Engaging in battle without a fix on both your goals and plan of action is a fool's method. Unlike in the movies, where all too often one hero comes along to save the day, real life conflict has its foundations in discipline and hierarchy. Winning a war is a matter of playing on your own strengths and exploiting the enemy's weaknesses - simply going out all guns blazing will lead you into an early grave.

It's this aspect of war that has made it a perfect setting for hundreds of video games over the last few decades, with one particular genre - real-time strategy (RTS) - allowing gamers to carry out their own strategies on the battlefield without actually fighting themselves. On the PC, of course, the scope of entire continents is handed over to gamers, allowing you to move troops around the globe at your will. On the mobile, however, that scale has to be reined in somewhat.

Artificial Life's take on the 1995 film Braveheart is testament to that fact; this is war played out by the developer's rules. Attempting to give players a free reign on such a small screen would be a disaster, so - like many titles before it - Braveheart focuses in on small battlefields and pre-selects goals and, to a certain extent, strategies for you, to warn off absolute chaos.

The question is whether this compromise works, and that's something that will no doubt split its audience.

By and large, Braveheart's war functions perfectly adequately. Naturally, you control William Wallace and his fellow 'freedom fighters' in their attempts to overcome the English and take back Scotland for the Scots. In battle, Wallace is your focus - if he dies, the game ends, so using the troops around him to fend off the enemy while protecting Wallace himself is the key.

Battles themselves play out a bit like a game of chess. Units are moved by clicking on them with the directional pad, and then clicking again on the map where you want them to go. Each unit has its own particular strengths and weaknesses - for example, infantry tackles rival cavalry units with much joy, but loses out frequently to archers.

As such, choosing just which units to deploy against which forms the main backbone to the game, and ultimately decides your fate. Luckily the game can be paused when you make these decisions, as - especially later on - battles can become rather hectic and strategies often have to be adjusted mid-fight.

Braveheart's battles loosely fall into one of two categories: either capturing enemy settlements, or defending them by various means.

Following the completion of each round, gold is awarded that can then be used to either upgrade your existing units or buy new ones. As a nice touch, units can also be sold should you find yourself overwhelmed with one particular type, though such bonuses aren't limited to the game's menu screens.

In the battles themselves, Wallace can pick up grails that restore his army's health by 50 per cent when activated. Should your troops be suffering in an encounter, the grails can provide an essential boost that turns the tide back in your favour, though you do have to weigh up whether they're worth it, as going after a grail canninvolve sending Wallace away from a battle that could hinge on his involvement, much like in the movie itself.

Of course, given the game's name, it does invariably focus on Wallace and his journey, though thankfully the game's plot doesn't cause too many interruptions, with Artificial Life choosing to jump straight into the action rather than trying to involve you too much in its take on Scotland's fight for independence.

Braveheart also tailors itself for the masses by coming with three different difficulty settings, and a (skippable) tutorial mode that blends seamlessly in with the game's opening act.

It's in this way that Braveheart demonstrates that RTS titles can work on mobiles if you tame down some of their options. Yes, Artificial Life does make a number of decisions on your behalf - such as when you attack, why you attack, and what happens after you attack - but just how you attack is largely in your hands, and Braveheart offers up a stiff challenge for even the most hardened war enthusiasts. Whether you can put up its scaled-down take on war as a result is entirely up to you.