Battle Mages is a tactical strategy game with a number of role-playing game elements thrown into the mix for good measure from Russian publisher Buka Entertainment and Russian development studio Targem. Players control small to moderate squads of units (mages, archers, infantry, knights, etc) through both a single player campaign divided into three chapters and through multiplayer skirmishes. At the heart of the game is a Battle Mage, which can be in one of several schools of magic. Beyond controlling your small army (more like a battalion than an army but let's not split hairs) your battle mage can research spells, cast spells, interact with NPCs in towns and recruit new members to your army. Units themselves can be upgraded with new skills and better stats using an experience system and can be equipped with weapons, armor and other goodies depending on what type of unit you're dealing with. Finding unique items can also give units special abilities that would not otherwise be available - these abilities could be anything from giving a boost to stats to giving a unit the ability to do some amazing skill.

Characters are divided up by class and can be put into formations by clicking on it's icon in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. The final version of the game Humans, Goblins, Elves, Orcs and the Undead will be playable. Players can gain control of units by allying with them or using magic to subdue them. Doing this will give players access to units that are not readily available (depending on what your starting race is) - each race has a special ability that can be used in combat based on class.

The backstory for the game (much of which is still in Russian in this particular alpha build) tells of a magical crystal tucked away in the center of the world. The crystal in days past protected the world from the forces of chaos and evil inside its glowing sphere of influence. Outside of the crystal's area of protection was darkness and evil, but within the world it was safe, harmonious and full of light. The "inside world" as it is sometimes called, was inhabited by Humans, Elves and Dwarves who lived together in peace for quite sometime.. But among the Elves rose a great and powerful wizard who, for his own dark purposes, decided to destroy the crystal and send the world into chaos. Obviously there's more to it than that mere sliver of storyline, but that's the basic premise.

The world in which the game is set is obviously medieval and offers a number of different terrains and objects like buildings, trees, battle sites with the debris and carnage you'd expect to be left behind after a major interaction, healing spots, gold mines, walls, castles and other trappings normally found in a fantasy world setting. The creatures we saw included everything from undead soldiers and brigands to giant hulking ogres with large and painful looking clubs.

For an alpha build the game looks pretty slick, and the engine offers a fully 3D world filled with animated world objects, characters, spell effects and a whole lot more. Since this is an alpha certain technical difficulties like CTDs (crashes to desktop), exception errors and hardcore lockups are forgivable, but certainly irritating. The game is very far from feature rich and complete, but what's there is promising.

The alpha didn't offer access to the other types of Mages promised to be in the final version, so we'll give you some small details on the Fire Mage. The school of fire obviously offers offensive spells using fire elemental magic, along with a few buff spells like haste and summon spells. Since we don't have anything to compare this particular school to in the alpha we can't make an assessment as to its value.

As your mage's forces stack up wins they gain experience and cash, which can be used to do a number of things including learn new spells through research and buy new units in town. One of the odd things is that you can currently only have two spells active on the main screen for quick access. Hopefully this approach will be revamped.. The game also has some issues with the camera - the camera is just not very affective and sometimes when traveling from "point a to point b" on the map you lose track of your troops. The world map also needs a serious overhaul - unlike traditional RTS games, clicking on the map won't move your troops anywhere. It's a map that you look at, as opposed to interacting with.

Harsh comments aside, this is probably the first alpha to make its way out of Buka's offices and what's there is pretty promising. The game has a long way to go in terms of playability and stability but there's a potential that it could be s sleeper hit if Buka and developer Targem listen to what people playing the game have to say about it. While the concept behind the game isn't has been done before with varying degrees of success the game is nonetheless potentially compelling. I look forward to seeing its progress in a beta build, and inevitably the final version of the game. You can learn more about Battle Mages at the game's official site .