Three Kingdoms: Fate of the Dragon is set in the tumultuous Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, which was a time when the Chinese Han Dynasty Empire fell apart into three warring factions under three different power-hungry leaders - the conniving Cao Cao of the kingdom of Wei, the respectful Sun Quan of the kingdom of Wu, and the visionary Liu Bei of the kingdom of Shu. The history in Fate of the Dragon is extremely accurate. The events and the characters are all based upon those in the novel. Even the technologies researched by each kingdom are extremely historically accurate.

Since the game is an RTS, one way (and most likely the most popular way) to win the game is to "kick someone's ass, or become someone's bitch" (quote from Office Space). The combat system, as in most RTS games, is quite simple - select a unit or group of units and order them to attack an designated enemy. This simplicity is sort of a double-edged sword. It is good in that there are hardly any complications and it is easy to wage war against an enemy, but on the other hand, the lack of complexity like the unit formations in Age of Empires II makes the game a little less tactical. But that doesn't mean that the game is easy. Fate of the Dragon is not an easy game unless you put it on easy level or use cheats. Competition with rival factions are intense and rather than sending every unit to attack, enemies send only a small, but strong invasion force while maintaining an incredibly strong garrison in the city. Also, whenever you take a county town, enemies would take the opportunity to easily take it back if it is undefended. Fate of the Dragon lacks a lot of variety in units. The soldier units are simply swordsmen, pikemen, archers, and heroes, which are hired in inns. Cavalry units are simply created by having a soldier mount a horse. But the unique siege weapons make up for this lack of variety. Three-bow arrows fire three ballista bolts at enemies, thunder wagons launch flaming boulders, malefic kites allow infantry to hitch a ride on a kite over enemy lines. There is a total nine war machines including ships.

Simply slaughtering everyone as mercilessly and sadistically as possible is one way to win but not the only way to win. Fate of the Dragon can be won through diplomatic means as well. Once a foreign relations minister has been appointed, you can basically 'kowtow' an enemy nation with massive tributes until you could align yourselves to them. Once nations are allied, they can send reinforcements to each other by having their soldiers join the allied nation. The problem with the diplomatic system, like Age of Empires II, is that it is not very in depth. The Three Kingdoms period was all about conniving nations yet in a standard scenario, you still can't play AI-controlled rivals for fools in a diplomatic three-ring circus (Actually, hardly any game, if any, allows you to do that).

Fate of the Dragon's graphics is nothing too fancy, but is quite decent for an RTS. The graphics meticulously and accurately depict ancient Chinese architecture. Though Fate of the Dragon only has one FMV, which is its intro movie, the FMV looks absolutely stunning. The Chinese countryside displayed in the FMV looks extremely realistic and the war scene is graphic. When a catapult stone strikes a soldier, you could see all the gory, bloody, mutilated details. The sound isn't that bad either. The music gives a unique Chinese feel, but the problem is that there isn't a whole lot of tracks thus the same music plays over and over again. The sound effects are a little weak. When soldiers attack or a catapult stone strikes, the sound effects make the attack sound weak and unrealistic. Voice acting for the characters are a little corny. Either that is how the Chinese voice actors really sound like or they are simply overdoing the stereotypical Chinese accent.

Overall, Fate of the Dragon is a pretty good RTS with an intriguing story line, a colorful array of characters, and absolutely solid gameplay. The game may be seen as a little simplistic at first, but it becomes very addictive once your nation clashes with a rival. ThoughFate of the Dragon does not add much to the RTS genre, the story and the solid gameplay greatly make up for that lack of innovation.

· · · Kane