Invictus' roots are rich in Greek mythology, yet it remains relatively authentic. Invictus starts where Homer's Odyssey leaves off. The story revolves around a stake between Athena and Poseidon. Athena seems to think, after Odysseus' victory, that she can make any mere mortal into a hero. Poseidon challenges Athena to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. The divine gauntlet has been thrown down and it's now up to you to thwart Poseidon and his efforts to show Athena up.

Invictus is a real time strategy game that is drenched in combat. There's no resource management involved, gameplay usually revolves around endless melees. Although Poseidon challenged Athena to make a hero out of a mere mortal, he has also allowed this mere mortal to recruit existing Greek heroes to lead the massive armies. How noble of him. There are ten legendary heroes in all, each with a special power based on that character's mythology. For example, commanding Orion will allow you to summon the Rain of Arrows, a fierce storm that'll rip through the enemies flesh. Hercules has the ability to call upon ground-warping earthquakes, Perseus the capability to turn enemies to stone, etc. These powers are unleashed by spending God Points in battle. The bad news is God Points are few and far between, so you have to be choosy when it comes to using them in combat. You begin with two heroes but you can recruit more as the game progresses. The heroes you select affect mission structure so replay value is improved simply by selecting different hero variations to begin the game.

Invictus also features an assortment of recruits. There are over 30 distinct units to choose from, when creating your party, including such mythic creatures as Gorgons, Harpies, Hydras and Minotaurs. There are also human units available but let's face it folks, we all want the bad ass mofos. As the game progresses, you can purchase Power Ups for your party members which increase their attack, defence and speed attributes. It all sounds very nice so far but Invictus fails miserably when it comes time to deliver the goods.

The scenario design in Invictus is laughable. Most missions consist of searching for enemies and killing them while protecting and rescuing innocent civilians. What it boils down too is a massive combat sequence where bigger will undoubtedly win. The element of strategy seems to be missing not only in mission design, but in terms of Artificial Intelligence as well. The AI of your troops and the enemies' troops are absolutely horrible. After completing their original orders, troops tend to stand around awaiting your next call, even if they're being attacked. Innocent civilians tend to stand around getting slaughtered instead of running for cover while the good guys fight the good battle. The only good news, and not really so, is that the enemy AI is just as bad. They don't seem to do much themselves until certain triggers are activated. It's almost as if the missions are all scripted out in terms of enemy AI, so certain troops won't react until you've passed a certain line. As if the AI wasn't bad enough, mission objectives are never totally clear, resulting in at least several go arounds until you actually figure out where exactly you're supposed to be leading your troops.

In terms of audio and visuals, Invictus also bombs. Invictus features a rotatable and zoomable 3D engine, yet the highest resolution in the game is 640x480. The graphics are very poorly rendered and the battlefields are uninteresting to say the least. The so-called special effects are horrendous and add very little to the atmosphere of the game. The RTS genre has made tremendous strides in the last few years, but Invictus is a step back, way back. With an engine that feels so dated, it's also quite the surprise to find out that anything less than 96 megs of RAM will lead to choppy gameplay. How is that at all possible with graphics like this? Audio wise, the voices effects are terrible. Each hero has his or her own distinct script but it seems muffled and more than repetitive. Sound effects are basically on the same level as the voice effects and what it leads too, in cahoots with the visuals, is a gaming experience I'd rather forget.

Besides the single player game, Invictus does offer five multiplayer game styles for play via IPX, TCP/IP and modem play. As long as you experience no lag in the single player game, you should have no problems with the multiplayer game. As I said before though, those without 96 megs of RAM will find themselves in choppy-ville.

Perhaps Quicksilver was having a bad day, month, or year, however long it took them to develop this game. They've shown they have the talent to create an intriguing RTS title, and this isn't it. The idea behind Invictus is riveting but when it came down to putting pen to paper, it came out all wrong (much like when I write my reviews).