America takes place around the time of the war of independence and takes as its base the Age Of Empires formula and look, then accelerates the pace with Command and Conquer style warfare and still expects you to be proficient in both. There are four sets of campaigns to play, featuring Americans, Mexicans, Native Americans and Outlaws, which can only be completed in a set order. Like any strategy game you've got to put the time in to learn the units and then get used to the speed of early attacks. The music within the game is irritating and derivative of every modern Western movie you've ever watched, and you find yourself looking for the mute button very quickly. Unless you're a pioneering fanatic then this game doesn't really offer too much in the way of great gameplay, and mixing the two different types of RTS, although sounding good on paper, doesn't really cut it in practice. So if your looking for a combat based RTS then stick with the likes of Command and Conquer, whilst those of you looking for more resource-management type kicks should head over to Age of Empires or Cossacks. --Kenneth Henry