When game studios close, they have an immediate effect on their surroundings, like a stone thrown into a pond. Now imagine if a game studio closes whilst in the process of making a game. If and when this half-baked potato is passed onto another group of developers for completion, the obvious questions thrust their hands into the air, demanding answers. Would the end result hold true to its former master's grand design, or will it look like a jigsaw puzzle you just purchased, took home and found that some of the pieces didn't fit?

Stainless Steel Games, known for Empire Earth, went the way of the dodo part-way through the development of Rise & Power: Civilisations at War. Publisher Midway valiantly attempted a rescue operation by picking up the development and tried to score a goal from a dropped ball. Unfortunately, aside from a few interesting twists to the established real time strategy formula, I won't be running down my street naked, shouting with joy after playing this game.

The two campaign modes bring to life ancient Greece and Rome, with you controlling either Alexander the Great and his Greek cohorts out to kill every last Persian, or Cleopatra with her Egyptians going for Rome's jugular. Similar to most of the one million of so history based RTS titles out there, you have any number of civilian slaves gathering resources - in this case gold and wood, which get converted to several different building or soldier types (I'm still waiting for an RTS which allows one's workers to stage a rebellion and threaten to wreck havoc unless paid decent wages). The other resource is glory, which starts accumulating once great deeds are accomplished by your hero. It's useful for levelling said hero and recruiting advisers that hand out a raft of specific bonuses to your side.

Navy trained Elephants...I'm impressed

So, what happens next? Would you be shocked to hear that you need to pump out the units as fast as possible so as to overwhelm the enemy? Of course not. With an army amassed, you explore each map, which gradually reveals the objective. The surprise package comes when the game turns from an RTS to a third-person action game with the press of a button. Controlled via another specific resource called stamina, which is collected during the course of the game, you have the ability to let the troops take a break while you mow down entire armies alone. Depending on the mission, you have the ability to enter and leave the third-person hero perspective (or hero command) at will, with the supply of stamina as the governing attribute. Often you'll be forced to play from the hero perspective for the entire mission, and that's when this game begins to feels like you've walked into a pub with no beer – a rather strange experience.

With hero command activated, operating the very basic set of controls will have your hero prancing about, dishing out comical amounts of punishment. Attacking methods consist of close combat and ranged, with stamina the governing factor in prolonged battles. In certain missions, you'll be faced with an almost endless barrage of combatants, as experienced by playing the Alexander campaign. By simply keeping on top of the stamina supply, you'll mindlessly trudge your way through what seems an entire army filled with Viagra fuelled accountants wielding pointy pens, rather than trained soldiers desperate for their share of Greek blood.

Colour co-ordinated rowers...marvellous darlin

Now onto the bad news. The blindingly obvious problem with this game is the straight 'by-the-numbers' approach. Even with the added third-person surprise package, I was constantly aware of a sense of detachment, a feeling of not caring enough about having either my hero die or my army decimated. The story line seemed awkward; the control systems were dated, while missions don't even come close to giving you any feeling of satisfaction upon completion.

When playing in RTS mode, small problems kept occurring that just compounded the awkwardness. For example, a few times I was forced to load an auto save since my hero was stuck between a fence and a tree, with no possible way of extracting himself. Enemy AI is way off. By furious repetition, you build an army, amass within striking distance of the enemy and then attack without concern for the obvious resource depletion or time waisted by making new units. With no compulsion to attack except for the blatantly obvious pre-programmed trigger points, AI seems to be an after thought. Heroes are way too powerful, sometimes making an army virtually redundant. Unit pathfinding is dodgy, load times are long enough to duck out for a quick drag and outdated graphics with cut scenes showing the animated figures walking around like they all did a simultaneous fluff that each turned into the skid mark from hell, make for a disappointing game. Sounds were adequate enough, with some hearty tunes stuck in to give the flagging spirit a boost.

The perfect ramming...such a rare sight indeed

Looking beyond this mound of grievances, there are two redeeming qualities that save the title. Naval combat is a blast. The ship models look huge and turn out to be the ancient's equivalent of an aircraft carrier. Units can be made on the vessel, as well as the obvious ability to transport them around. Train a sailor and have the satisfying ability to grapple ships, which facilitates boarding and capture of enemy vessels. Ramming other vessels can be quite frustrating though, as it's paramount to line the ship up perfectly for the killing run. Secondly, using heroes is multiplayer is fun. Pushing aside the lag, which I dare say would have been my dodgy line, each game would turn into a battle of nerves, seeing who would decide to use their stamina first, thus initiating an all out Battle Royale. Kind of felt like I was playing chess, but with each player pointing a gun at each other's groins under the table, ala Hans Solo.

Wrapping up, Rise & Fall: Civilisations at War plays, looks and feels like a title that should have been released years back. Personally, I'd pick this title up when it's in the bargain section selling for half price. Sticking two distinct genres within the one game was an obvious mistake, one that future game developers might be wary of emulating anytime soon.