I'd never heard of Bladestorm before, however as a big fan of fantasy / medieval genre as well as a fan of the related Dynasty Warriors games, when I spotted this one on the shelf of my local game store I thought I'd better give it a go. And I'm glad that I did!

Anyone familiar with the Dynasty Warriors series will know the drill here - trekking across a large battlefield, you lead your army of henchmen into over-exaggerated but exciting combat with other huge armies, capturing bases and ultimately the final objective of each mission.

However there is a key difference here, which is what makes this game stand out. In the Dynasty Warriors titles, your henchmen really are a little bit ineffectual - the real force to be reckoned with is your own character, who will typically have the ability to leap into a crowd of baddies and mow them all down with only a few blows. Fun - yes. However this unfortunately removes a little of the potential strategy in these games. Why use strategy when you could win more quickly and more effectively by simply using the brute force of your unstoppable warrior?

As well as adopting a nice and familiar European fantasy theme, Bladestorm takes a more strategic approach. The character that you control is more commander than heroic warrior - not quite the force-to-be-reckoned-with of the Dynasty Wars series, but this is no bad thing. Yes, you will no longer be able to wade into a heated battle without worrying... however this shifts your concerns to the bigger picture, to the positioning and clever usage of your troops.

Control is from the perspective of a character on the battlefield - an interesting take on the RTS genre that reminds me of one of the first games of this type, the revival of 'Battlezone' on the PC many years ago. Anyone remember that? Well, the control system here is much more fluent and it shows how much this genre has really come along over the past 10 or so years.

There are a host of powerups in the game that you can earn and use, which are often worth saving up for the trickier situations. A lot of this game is actually pretty difficult, and these can often turn the tide of battle.

The graphics here are quite lovely, with lots of detail in the environments and in the wildlife that inhabits them even! Some of the animations may be a little wooden but this doesn't stop the large battles looking epic and exciting.

Overall, Bladestorm is in no way revolutionary, however it is a fun little game that's a bit different from the genre clichés. I recommend this to anyone who's a fan of big medieval battles!