"Many a mickle makes a muckle", our Sixth Form Physics teacher used to tell us. "Sod off you barm-cake" we used to shout back, only half joking, tired to the bone of his inane and obscurely clichéd jabberings.

Mad as he was, he also prophesised a "Dark Reign" in the year 2000. And with a Nostrodamus-like stroke of predictory powers it appears he was indeed foretelling the release of Activision's rather nifty RTS series. So maybe he did have something (apart from rabies).

Actually the first game wasn't massively nifty, although it did sport some glowing facets, the jewel in the crown being an extremely easy to use and powerful interface. It was mostly lacking in visual terms, as it looked a bit crude by contemporary standards.

Not so the sequel, which looks as stunning as Medusa with a cattle-prod. We're used to 3D landscapes in RTS games by now, but not as fantastically realised as Dark Reign 2 - the animation on the units is extremely slick, the battlefields and backgrounds are superbly crafted, and the spot effects (snow and thunderstorms for example) are breathtakingly atmospheric.

But all that visual elegance would be for naught if the programmers hadn't kept the splendid interface from the original. In fact they've even improved it, giving you more control over your units - it's a superbly flexible control system. The new 3D camera views have been marvellously well implemented too, especially compared to some shambolic efforts of late, mentioning no names (*cough* Force Commander).

The game sports two campaigns played from the vantage point of both sides embroiled in the futuristic war that Dark Reign is all about. There's enough variation in units to make playing either side different; they're not just carbon copies of each other with slightly different graphics.

Naturally there's a multiplayer mode which should make for some intriguing battles given the very well balanced and tactically different factions you can choose between, plus there's a skirmish mode in which you can practice your multiplayer skills against computer-controlled AI commanders.

Dark Reign 2 is a triumph of presentation and polish with an excellent interface and a well thought out unit balance. It still hasn't got the troop movement pathing perfect (although it's good) - no RTS game has yet managed that - but otherwise it's pretty much flawless.

If you're a fan of the Real Time Strategy genre then you need to get hold of this sequel to Dark Reign. It takes all the best bits of the first game, improves them and then adds visual polish of the highest quality into the mix.