Tzar: The Burden of the Crown

The Good
Extremely high quality of engineering. Attention to detail and rock solid stability (i've never had Tzar crash ever) makes this RTS a gem of a game. High polish is also evident in artwork, unit animation and detail in unit balance and abilities. The very wide array of strategies, including magic, war, healing, ninjas, spies and trade make this one of the most challenging and deepy strategic RTSes you can have. Finally, unit count can go to 1,000 per side which makes for epic Total Annihilation styled battles.

The Bad
Some may not lile the sprite based graphics but this games sprites are actually the best i've ever seen in an RTS. Much better than CNC Red Alert and Warcraft 2. Much better than Warlords Battlecry. In fact, Haemimont's artwork born out of Central Europe is probably the best in the fantasy genre. And unique in its conception too - the cultures and worlds have their own special quality (see Haemimont's Rising Kingdoms). So I even like the 2D artwork.

The Bottom Line
Once in a lifetime experience. This game is like picking up an amazing classic and well written book like Moby Dick, Tom Sawyer or maybe Frankenstein. The strength of its raw and consistent production values shows in the gameplay. I also note that Tzar probably has the best RTS AI out there. It is tougher and smarter than Total Annihilation's brute force default AI. Tzar's AI builds clobbering armies but uses their magic, healing, mighty summon, spies, trade and other abilities with the cunning of a human. The AI will hold reserve forces, seek to outflank, strategically counter build, cunningly hide its key assets and finally surprise you with a undefeatable force. Tzar to me is very much like fighting a real lie epci battle in the dawn of mankind. Ruthless and utterly devastating. In Tzar, annihilation means everything dies.