The Collection Chamber: BRAVEHEART

You've seen the movie.
You know the legend...
...now live it.

"They may take our lives. But they'll never take our freedom!"

Based on Mel Gibson's award-winning movie, Braveheart the game recreates the atmosphere and excitement of Scotland's legendary struggle for freedom against the English invaders.

UNITE THE CLANS!

Braveheart is a game of epic proportions, combining real-time strategy with 3-D action to place you into the tartan of a clan leader in 13th century Scotland.

Compete for the loyalty of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and dozens of other Scottish heroes.

Guide your people to prosperity, form alliances, undermine enemies, participate in castle sieges and ambushes or wreak havoc on rival towns. Lead hundreds of warriors in open battles to defeat the English King and take his crown, the future of Scotland is in your hands...

Key Features:
Real-time strategy and 3-D tactical combat.
Trade, diplomacy and resource management.
Entire terrain of England and Scotland accurately recreated from satellite data
Night and day battles, weather effects and seasonal variations.
Epic battles in true 3D allowing you to fight at army level or close-in, man to man.
Includes film footage and dialogue from the original film.
Braveheart multiplayer is 4 players via TCP/IP and IPX LAN and WAN.

~ from the back of the box

Braveheart might be best known for Mel Gibson's 1995 film, but by the time the game adaptation finally arrived in 1999, many had already moved on. Four years after the film's release, Eidos Interactive published a PC strategy game based on the Oscar-winning film. And while that movie has cemented itself as an all-time classic (in spite of Mel Gibson's controversial moments of late), it meant that the delayed game had some impossible expectations to live up to. It was somewhat ambitious for its time. PC Gamer UK gave it a glowing 90%, crowning it Game of the Month in the June of 1999 and its mix of strategic depth on an historical backdrop was an appealing one. This was almost one year exactly before the Total War franchise fought its way to release, which would steal any memories Braveheart was likely to give.

Braveheart revels in its history to a point where it can stand on its own outside of the movie's branding. The game takes place in 13th-century Scotland during the reign of Edward I, known as Longshanks, whose conquest of Scotland forms the setting for the many conflicts you'll take part in. You take control of one of 16 Scottish clans, each with distinct traits and starting locations which in itself can determine how difficult the game can be - begin closer to the Scottish border, and you'll likely encounter the English foes far sooner than those making their way from the mountainous highlands. The clans themselves are full of personality - on paper at least. For example, Clan MacGregor is territorial and aggressive, while Clan Farquharson excels in archery. While certainly embellished and fictionalised for the sake of the game, this diversity of factions mirrors the internal strife that Scotland faced during this period. Some clans, while fierce in battle, are weak in politics. Others can weave alliances but are lacking in military might. The changing dynamics of each clan's relationship with one another can drastically shape the campaign's ever‑evolving political landscape making for a deep playthrough that requires a thoughtful political mind to get anywhere.

All of these inter-personal relationships are just one small part of the ultimate goal; conquer Scotland, defeat the English, and secure the crown. This is no easy task, and simply talking your way out of conflict will not get you there. The game is freeform, not linear - there are no set levels, and no pre‑determined paths to success. Each playthrough offers different challenges depending on the clan chosen and the path travelled. As you advance, you will find yourself engaging in everything from tading goods, to espionage, scouting unknown territories to leading military campaigns. You're also faced with balancing internal management, including food production, weapon crafting, and troop recruitment.

You can customise your game so you can focus on the aspects you enjoy most (left).
The Workers Screen lets you manually allocate townsfolk to different jobs. Or you can automate it (right).

In short, strategy is key. Will you focus on military conquests, or will you win the hearts and minds of the people with careful diplomacy? The game leans heavily into managing your clan's settlements and resources, whether by fostering alliances with rival factions or by forcing them into submission. And, of course, there’s always the looming presence of the English, eager to crush your rebellion. This is all done through a series of of managerial menus. The developers at Red Lemon Studios have obviously spent a lot of time on these menus, making them visually pleasing and somewhat easy to use, but there's so much information and tweakable stats here that I felt like I spent just as much time going through them as they did making them. These pages are accessed via the icon strip at the bottom of the screen. Those sporting a blue border refer to information regarding the world map, while those with a red border are about micro-managing your town and its residents.

The first screen you'll see upon starting a new game will be the General Map. This view of Scotland allows you to see everything going on at once, with the option to toggle different elements off and on at your leisure. It's a slow-moving game, so a tap of the F1 key will speed things up a little so you don't have to wait for your army to reach the battlefield in real time. In seperate screens, you can view and manage known settlements, armies and their leaders, and active trade or scouting routes. It you are in control of a settlement, you can hold Ctrl as you clock on it to take a closer look in real-time 3D which is cool, but this engine is mostly reserved for battles (more on that later). Towns are best managed through more menus. You can decide what your villager will work on, such as farming, mining or blacksmithing, and any idle workers can be recruited to your army.

Assign idle workers to the army and equip them in the Military Screen (left).
Then, choose their formation to mitigate their death on the battlefield (right).

One of the more novel aspects of the game is the resource screen. These give you a live, changing snapshot of what's available in your settlements, but it requires constant tweaking to ensure that things aren't running into shortages. That alone is a lot to keep track of, but morale, leadership, taxes, and more are also in need of attention. Each element can fluctuate based on your decisions, which can alter the entire trajectory of your game. While this level of micro-management could be thrilling to dedicated strategy fans, I found them to be somewhat tedious. Thankfully, the game offers multiple ways to approach this aspect, including a host of customisable game options to toggle at the beginning of a new game.

Even though it will likely take you some time before you see one, the real-time 3D battles are the heart of the game, and they make Braveheart stand out from other strategy games of the time. Town exploration is possible - you can walk through your villages, interact with the buildings, and meet the soldiers you'll send to war, but it's the battles that are memorable. When combat erupts, you'll find yourself commanding formations of troops on open fields or within besieged castles. You view the action from a series of manually selected camera angles that can be changed in real time. It can gives you a nice view of the area, or an up-close and personal view of your men fighting in full, bloody detail. It's quite decent, though the trade off is a somewhat simple-looking battlefield. There's no doubt in my mind that the visuals, which supports a commendable amount of troops on screen at one time - was praiseworthy at the time, but it has aged considerably. Soldiers lack variety in their visual design, with all allies dressed in yellow and enemies clad in grey. The strategic possibilities are often undermined by flaws in AI and formation issues. As such, battles often dissolve into short chaotic brawls rather than strategic duels as your troops swarm opponents like ants attacking an invading wasp. It's lack of depth is notably in contrast with the rest of the game and detracts heavily from the experience.

The General Map Screen will show scout, spy and trade routes (left).
Send out a carriage with money to trade at a neighbouring settlement in the Town Trade screen (right).

I found the best way to win a battle is by making use of an archer-heavy army. Though it may take time to train them, once equipped with their bows and arrows, they become your army's secret weapon, attacking from afar without fear of sword-wielding opponents getting anywhere near. However, they don't come cheap. To create these ranged units, you must first build and maintain workshops and trade routes, and keep an eye on the flow of timber and iron. This process is one of the game's more rewarding aspects, as it requires foresight and long‑term planning. But it's also an example of Braveheart's slow pacing.

In terms of graphics, Braveheart offers a solid but unremarkable experience. The 3D environments aren't necessarily groundbreaking for the time but are functional enough for the scale the game is aiming for. The battlefields themselves are sparse but serviceable, and there can be an impressive number of soldiers on screen during combat. Yet, the visual identity could have been stronger. That said, the battles can still be quite exciting when viewed from the right angle.

Braveheart was a game that tried to do it all. It mixed town management, politics, and real-time combat in a surprisingly feature-full strategy game. For those who love to sink their teeth into its complexity, it's a worthy challenge. Yet, it doesn't always deliver these elements in the most enjoyable of way. I'm not the genre's biggest fan so take my opinion with a pinch of salt, but I found it to be rather tedious. I can see that sweet spot where you can lose hours to the minutiae of the mechanics. It's in there, I'm sure, but it was always out of reach for me. It sports a detailed recreation of Scotland's bloody medieval history that's enough for anyone to give it a try, but go in with the expectation of a wildly uneven gameplay loop that takes an age to get anywhere good. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the looming Shogun: Total War does everything this game does but better.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses DDrawCompat to run on modern systems with IMG Drive Portable to mount the CD ISO. Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 408 Mb. Install Size: 748 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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