Invictus, a real-time battle strategy game using characters and situations from Greek mythology, is a perfect candidate for the OK-but-not-good game of the year. It has an engaging setting, not-so-good graphics, good but not great gameplay, and a couple of annoying bugs that make it hard to appreciate the good stuff. Invictus's plot, like all the best Greek myths, starts with a squabble among the gods. Poseidon wants to eliminate the human race and has monsters, evil armies, and tidal waves poised for the final deluge. Athena thinks that mortals are worth saving and proposes a contest to determine humanity's fate. You control Athena's champions.
Invictus is fought on a man-vs.-man and hero-vs.-minotaur level. In any given scenario, you'll control two or more chosen heroes and six to a dozen lesser warriors. Heroes are selected from a list of 12 characters from Greek mythology, such as Hercules, Achilles, Electra, and Icarus. Each hero has a special divine power that is difficult to use often but can turn the course of battle: Hercules creates an earthquake, Electra throws lightning bolts, Icarus flies. The other members of your war party are purchased from an army list starting with swordsmen, spearmen, and amazons and progressing up through skeletons and centaurs. Purchasing recruits with newly acquired gold is a major feature of the campaign game, as is buying improved offensive and defensive upgrades for your existing fighters.
You control your war party using mouse and keyboard commands that feel something like the Myth interface, though with far fewer preset formations. If you've been weaned on Myth and Myth 2's camera actions and graphics, you'll find Invictus crude by comparison, chiefly because of the smaller onscreen scale and grainy resolution of its warriors.
The artificial intelligence of enemy monsters and your own troops is lower than you'd expect for a game in this genre. Worse yet, single-player scenarios occasionally suffer from slow-motion lag times and freeze-ups, especially in the first couple of seconds of a battle. Surprisingly, these glitches occur even in the opening scenario and the tutorial. These freezes are only temporary until you reach the final scenario, which suffers from full crashes. --Rob Heinsoo
Pros: First-rate idea for a game Role-playing elements add spice to real-time strategy combat Cons: Middling execution of a first-rate idea Annoying voice acting Frequent computer freezes Troublesome installation
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