This is where the game is most disappointing. The game is in 3D, but that's all. The landscapes are bland, displayed in one or two colors. The units lack any definition. It is hard to tell soldiers apart from one another, as they are all red and gray with occasional hints of yellow. The vehicles are somewhat better, but still lack detail.

How the action displayed is also very basic. Yellow lines indicate that soldiers and vehicles are firing. Explosions are nice, showing shrapnel when you blow something up. But, all in all, it looks like not much time was spent on the graphics.

There's not much we can really say about multiplayer experiences as we did not get to have many. We found only 8 people on Gamespy arcade; and of those, most didn't have the third patch, which was not even on their website at the this review was written (we found it on file planet). The game does have a skirmish mode, but you get to play the inept computer. The only good thing about skirmish mode is that you can use all the units and see them before you are able to use them in single player mode.

Steel Soldiers is a very basic game with a lot of bugs and quirks. The gameplay is marred by poor computer AI and GUI bugs. The game is more annoying than fun. The makers try to add some humor to the game through its comic book style movies and the accents given to the soldiers units. But the movies seem pointless and are more silly than humorous. I can't recommend this game to anyone, even if you loved Z. If you're looking for a fun RTS experience, you'd be better of playing Homeworld, Star Craft or the relatively unknown Ground Control.

Danny "Duo" Gertner
Freelance Game Reviewer