Best RTS Ever Made, Here's Why:
This game is completely different than the Starcraft series because whereas that series, and most RTS series, focuses on extreme efficiency and memorization of map resources and map layout, RUSE focuses more on strategy. Yes, I know there is strategy involved in Starcraft too, but it's more of a strategy of how to best maximize the finite number of resources. RUSE has resources you need to exploit and maps that would benefit you study and memorize them, but they are not the key to winning the battle. RUSE is more like a game of chess where you prepare your strategy at the beginning and you slowly execute it with timing and precision.
Patience is a virtue in RUSE. Patience is the quality of fools and losers in Starcraft. If you wait in Starcraft, you will be killed because the game rewards people who rush and harass enemies right off the bat to cripple their economy and flow. In RUSE, you need to sit back and wait for your enemies to make a mistake such as making too many anti-aircraft guns when you don't have any planes, making too many bunkers when your planes will bomb from above, and not having enough troops to defend the left side of the map.
The units in this map are rock, paper, and scissor, but in the right deployment a rock can turn into scissors. Take putting your infantry units in the forest for example. In plain site, infantry gets killed by pretty much any tank or plane, but if they are hidden in the forest near a road, even the strongest tank can get ambushed and instantly destroyed by them. This is what I mean when I say this game is all about strategy. Where you place your units do matter here. In Starcraft, whoever rushes and harasses the most and fastest while still building stronger units win. In RUSE you have to set traps and use RUSE cards (special abilities to conceal units or reveal enemy units) to change the tide of the battle.
One Line Review:
This game is like a fun version of Chess with excellent graphics and a huge game play emphasis on strategy and slow-paced planning than rush, mine, rush games like Starcraft.
Score: A