Battalion Wars

"There can be a good strategy game and action game in one…..but this is not it."

Intro

I have to start with I wanted to love this game. I wasn't a huge fan of the Advance wars series; it was fun but way too much strategy for me, basically playing chess with cute little tanks and bombers. I always hoped that it would be just a little more action packed, so when I saw screen shots of Battalion Wars I knew I would love it, I was wrong, dead wrong.

Graphics 8/10

The graphics are among the highlights of the game. In the true fashion of Advance Wars this game makes the horrors and gruesomeness of war ever so adorable. The artistic style of the game screams out that war should be fun, not bloody or scary. I never thought I would call a guy with a rocket launcher or tank about to run me over, cute. The cut scenes are also done in a visually appealing manner. They take all the seriousness out of war (which actual works for them).

Sound 7/10

Not a highlight of the game but also not a failure. It sounds like you'd expect, bombs blasting, tanks roaring, all that good stuff. Plus some funny stuff from your soldiers once in awhile while fighting.

Story 7/10

Um… there was a story? Really? If you say. Oh? do you mean that whole thing with the Western Frontier and the Tundran Empire or as I call them the Green guys and the Red guys. I mean the story can basically be summed up in 2 words “It's War”. Simple story isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Game Play 4/10

These are not called Video Graphics or Video Sounds or even Video Stories they are called Video Games so there is no score more important than the game play. However game play is where Battalion Wars falls apart. By trying to be both a strategy game and action game it only succeeds in being neither.

The basic game play is you get a mission which 9 times out of 10 consists of killing all the baddies in the given map. Very typical of a strategy war game. However unlike other RTS games you don't really have a say in what units are at your disposal, you're not building your army to fit the needs of the assault you, are using a limited number of units that come with the mission. The strategy is basically playing rock-paper-scissors with the other army, in that each unit is good against a certain other unit but bad against another unit. Which I'll admit can be temporarily satisfying when you can plan things prefect to send your bazookas against their tank and your tanks against their flamethrowers. But since you have no say in what units you have at your disposal, you're not really the coach calling the plays, you're the quarterback doing the plays the coach wants. And that would be fine for a pure action game, but as an action game it has faults too.

One of my biggest complaints in this game are the controls. It could have been an okay action game (like a cutesy version of SOCOM) if the controls weren't so incredibly bad. To start with you can't strafe unless you are locked on to a target and you can't switch between targets while you are locked on one. What's the big deal right? The main part of the strategy of this game is ordering specific units to attack other specific units, if you don't do that very quickly you're cute little men will all be dead. Targeting the right unit is the most important thing in battle, but it is very easy to lock on to the wrong unit, then you can't just switch to the guy next to him, you have to unlock, if you could strafe then locking on to the guy next to him it would be no problem but you can't so you then have to re-aim again until you are sure you're locking on to the right guy, this can take a few seconds; much like in real war the bad guys are not going to wait until you've figured this out to start killing you. Every third person shooter lets you switch between targets while locked on and the absence of that option really hurts this game.
Lastly and it would normally be least but here it's not there are no real extra's. In Advance Wars (which I'll admit I liked but I suck at), even when the campaign got too hard for me I could go out of the main game and play dozens of other maps, even create your maps, or play against my friends (who suck worst than I did). In Battalion Wars there is only the campaign, and although the ads say choose a side it seems you can only be the Western Frontier. Maybe there is slightly more that can be do after you beat the game but I'm not that committed.

Overall: 5/10

A lot of people like this game which is fine, they are probably hard core strategy gamers, I am not. People tell me if you work at it the game starts to be fun, and they are might be right, but when I pay $50 for a game I want it to fun from the second I start playing, I'm crazy like that. I made the mistake of buying this game with out renting it (because I was sure I would love). I would suggest that if you haven't played it but think I am wrong do yourself a favor rent it first. So in my humble opinion this is has all the elements of a strategy game and all the elements of an action game but only a few elements of a fun game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/05