On one hand, many would give Gameloft that inconsiderate sneer for taking a faithful and multi-award winning franchise, cake over a pretentiously obvious storyline and blatantly copied design, and call it an original game for a platform that its spiritual predecessor wouldn’t necessarily be released on.

On the other, thank Gameloft for making them and making them look good.

Starfront: Collision is the pirated Gucci bag to Blizzard’s epic opus, albeit with a looser zip. All the familiar elements are reproduced: a futuristic environment and fantastic weaponry, the resource-hungry human Consortium, the alien Myriad and the enlightened Wardens, all three vying for control over a distant planet and its plentiful resources. An original concept it certainly isn’t.

I had to visit the tutorial to get to grips with the new and original resource management, harvesting from “wells” and ordering building units to increase the rate you can retrieve from them. You’re also not limited to those in your vicinity either; advancing through the map you’ll find additional supplies to build a mine over and begin processing, but those need to be protected a bit more arduously.

Fans of the RTS genre will easily get to grips with ordering your units around and tactical planning, pinching out to select a group and moving the map across to tap at a destination. Your troops firing automatically engaging enemy units while marching is a nice touch that I missed from most RTS’s and buildings provide crucial upgrades that give your army that ever-required bonus.

Grouping your units is an important tool, ensuring you’re able to call up squads and manoeuvre them exactly where you need them. Typically a group of varying units all rush in to attack a structure while aliens tear them down, but you can use Grouping to draw in their attack with lesser units and flank them with stronger ones.

All other standard helpings are provided: a full three-chapter Campaign, Skirmish Mode to battle it out with the CPU, and local and Wifi multiplayer through Gameloft’s native matchmaking servers, which provides great coverage for wannabe generals.

Overall, Starfront: Collision copies a true classic and provides a not-unpleasant experience that just misses platinum status by a millimetre.