Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV is a tactical simulation game in which the player takes the role of a ruler seeking to unite China in the era of the three kingdoms of Wei, Wu and Shu.

First things first - this fourth edition of Koei's long running 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' series is not going to be for everyone. The franchise, based on actual events in China's history, has evolved and developed considerably over the past few years and it's encouraging that VC users are getting one of the better console editions first, rather than one of the earlier, less complex entries.

RoTK is astonishingly deep. In fact it's probably a little too deep for most players. The utlimate goal of the game is to unite a broken and conflict-ridden China and the player can create alliances with other rulers to take out stubborn enemies.

A neat twist is that your allies can turn against you at any point, so the game becomes a finely balanced exercise in tactics as you constantly try to second-guess when the tide will turn against you and making plans before it happens.

It's hard to really compare RoTK to anything else on the VC at the moment. It is undeniably unique, but I doubt many people will get the full value out of it. It requires a lot of time and effort and much of the game is spent simply keeping check of resources and indulging in diplomacy.