Valkyria Chronicles

The third-person movement and FPS-style aiming give Valkyria Chronicles the feel of an action game - but in reality, it doesn't stray too far from its turn-based strategy roots. Getting a bead on an enemy soldier's head from a good position will help, of course, but how accurately your soldiers shoot, and the damage they do, is still determined by their level, their class and the stats of the weapon they've got.

The game does offer plenty of numbers for stat fans to obsess over. There are a number of core classes to command - Scouts, who can move long distances but are lightly armed, Shock Troopers, who are heavily armed but less mobile, Snipers, Engineers, and Lancers - the latter being essentially rocket launcher-armed troops, for taking on enemy armour. By "spending" experience points at the Boot Camp in your barracks, you can level up the classes at your command - every soldier in the class levels up simultaneously, which does simplify things somewhat.

Each of those soldiers, however, has a different set of stats, strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes. They can be further customised by outfitting them with new weapons, stolen from the enemy in battle. The degree of customisation falls far short of some other strategy titles - you won't be decking them out in all sorts of different gear, like in Final Fantasy Tactics, for example - but given that you've also got a tank to fit out and upgrade, we don't see lack of depth being a big problem in this regard.

Besides, even half a dozen "chapters" into the game, we feel like we're barely scratching the surface of the tactical possibilities. There's a scissors-paper-stone quality to the combat - so a combined arms approach will be your basic strategy - but the complexity of the environments and richness of the game systems bring some really fresh ideas. Tanks, for example, can knock down walls and some obstacles. Engineers can build cover. Carefully calculated runs can allow you to strike deep in enemy territory, and then run back before your AP is used up.

Also crucial to the game's complexity is the idea of reactive fire. Unlike most turn-based games, just because it isn't a unit's turn doesn't mean it's a lifeless statue. Soldiers will still shoot at anything that comes into their line of fire, which means that setting your units up to have overlapping fields of fire at the end of your turn can result in the enemy being mown down as they advance.

Outside the battlefield, the game follows a cut-scene-heavy storyline, which can at times feel a little overplayed. It may be a symptom of the early game (many games seem to be story-heavy at the beginning, after all), but we did find ourselves wishing Welkin would shut up and let us get to the fighting. That said, the cut-scenes are undeniably beautiful, and the storyline is by no means bad. There's also a fairly comprehensive set of skirmish encounters that you can pop into at any time to improve your unit's stats or earn money to upgrade equipment, which means you're never more than a couple of button presses from a battle.

As well as being absolutely beautiful, the game sounds great too. The soundtrack is instantly reminiscent of genre classic Final Fantasy Tactics - unsurprisingly, since Hitoshi Sakimoto composed the music for both. On a similar note, Valkyria Chronicles' development team has significant overlap with the team that made Skies of Arcadia, and there are cameo appearances from a couple of Skies characters in your party roster.

Turn-based strategy is never going to be everyone's cup of tea, but Valkyria Chronicles' healthy dose of third-person control might be just the thing to attract newcomers to the genre - while old hands can rest assured that beneath the gorgeous exterior beats the heart of a great turn-based game. We're looking forward to getting our teeth more deeply into this one, especially to find out how the battle system develops and whether the cut-scenes ease off as you progress. We'll let you know how we got on with the finished game in our review later this month.