The Egyptians Gold

Some will consider it either especially brave or particularly stupid to re-release a game tackling regime change in Egypt given the current climate.

Closer inspection of The Egyptians Gold, however, reveals that it has about as much of a connection to what's happening in the real world as a trip to Disneyland's Magic Kingdom does a tour around a genuine mediaeval castle.

Indeed, this is a sugar-coated take on history. Like Disney's world of princesses and fairies, The Egyptians both old and new finds itself wrapped up in the mythos of Gods and Pharaohs, with your job being to protect the land from an invasion of a particularly ungodly band of beasts.

To be honest, you might as well be defending Toy Town from an onrush of killer Gummi Bears – what's delivered here is a case of real-time strategy meets tower defence.

There are no set paths or gateways to guard, but the structure of surviving waves of enemy attacks to afford upgrades to your troops is one that feels especially familiar.

Each level delivers a settlement that you're tasked with protecting from a set number of onslaughts. Doing so is a case of placing your army – made up initially of archers – in strategic locations based on the direction of each invasion.

Said divisions don't move, but they will attack any enemies within range - enemies that head straight for any nearby buildings in an attempt to raze them to the ground.

Aside from all this, any credit (or 'belief', as the game calls it) at hand can also be used to build obelisks and summoning shrines – each designed to appease the Gods who, once flattered, will then come to your aid for short periods, acting as bonuses that can help tip the balance of the battle in your favour.

If that all sounds a little complicated, that's because – on the surface – it is.

The Egyptians Gold is a hard sell to begin with simply because the game gets far too bedded down in trying to deliver a sense of plot. There are pages and pages of meaningless dialogue and instructions that intrude throughout.

Those who manage to avoid letting such gubbins cloud their mind can, instead, enjoy what actually plays out as a strategy sim designed for the long haul.

Indeed, the concept of using currency amassed to move the society forward and discover more advanced forms of defence echoes far more extensive RTS titles on PC, yet still feels entirely at home here.

Given that The Egyptians Gold is a rehash of what's now a three-year-old release (the only notable difference being a streamlining of the game's visuals), however, it's hard to get too excited about what's contained within.

Nonetheless, those looking for what still feels like a fresh take on the strategy genre could do far worse than a trip to Egypt of old.