Creative Assembly isn’t won over by the latest generation of real-time strategy games. “They’re like ‘RTS-lite’ or ‘My First Strategy Game,’ but that’s not what fans of the genre demand,” says Stormrise product manager Vispi Bhopti.

The goal with the veteran studio’s latest offering is to make a deep and involving real-time strategy title, but with a control system that doesn’t oversimplify or limit what you can do, which some could accuse the otherwise excellent Tom Clancy’s EndWar of doing. “We have a control system called Wheel Select that is actually faster in some circumstances — and in most situations as fast — as a mouse and keyboard,” Bhopti tells us.

Rather than use the right thumbstick to move the camera around, you use it as a quick way of selecting units. You can see where units are placed through glowing icons on your HUD. No direct line of sight is required: you just flick the right stick in their direction to take control of them. It’ll take a few moments to re-train your brain after years of assuming the right stick drives the camera, but in our experience it became second-nature to Wheel Select after a few minutes.

Once a unit is under your control, you can group it with up to two others. You can then tell them where to go and who to attack using the A button. That’s enough to get the job done, but more advanced players will also find it useful to command units remotely. In this case, rather than taking direct control of a squad, you point the cursor over them and use the X button to drag an arrow to where you want them to go. It’s very useful for controlling multiple units in areas where you have direct line of sight.

Unlike most RTS games, there’s no top-down view. You really have to concentrate on placing units in positions where they can actually see the enemy. In that regard, it’s like Full Spectrum Warrior. In fact, Stormrise on the whole reminds us a lot of a blown-out, bigger-scale FSW — and that’s a great thing. There’s no hokey “fog of war” effect.

Another crucial difference is that Stormrise’s levels are multi-tiered — i.e., built with the Z-axis in mind. “We’ve introduced a kind of 3D spatial awareness that you’d equate to the kind of strategy that online FPS players use,” explains Bhopti. “There are other rooms below you and above you that you have to take into account.”

One of the most impressive missions we saw takes place in a ruined city with a huge series of bunkers running beneath the streets, packed full of enemies. You also have the ability to use flying vehicles here, giving you a limited eagle’s-eye view of the battleground.

Though Stormrise’s focus on line of sight and situational awareness takes a bit of getting used to, there’s a lot going on — yet the control system remains remarkably efficient. Even at this stage, it looks to be the closest yet to bridging the gap between PC and console RTS games.