"Much Darker than previous games in the series."

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is the fourth installment in the well-known Advance Wars series, though it is the only one not to be related to the others in the series. Instead, Days of Ruin features a much darker storyline than previous games. That fact aside, though, veterans to the series will feel very comfortable with how the game plays and even though they may miss some familiar faces, the overall experience will still be entertaining and enjoyable.

Story: 9/10

The story features a disaster-struck world trying to recover from a global meteor-shower that killed off the majority of the population. The main character of the story is a young boy by the name of Will who was discovered by “Brenner's Wolves”, one of the only remaining battalions of the Rubinelle Army, who with their leader Capt. Brenner have devoted themselves to searching for survivors and offering them any help they can. They also discover an amnesiac girl who Will names Isabella, and although she can't quite remember her past, she knows detailed information about the military's of both Rubinelle and Lazuria, Rubinelle's long-time enemies. The remainder of the game details how the battalion deals with savages trying to prey on other people's misery, as well as an ensuing war between Rubinelle and Lazuria as well as Isabella's mysterious past.

The story in Days of Ruin is quite good, in my opinion. I love how dark the game gets, as it really tries to instill the feelings of helplessness that the characters would no doubt feel in such a situation. I also loved the character development you see in Will and Isabella, as well as Brenner and various other members of the battalion, though I felt that the character development of certain other characters was severely lacking. Overall though, the story does a good job of catching your attention and making you want to know what will happen in the end.

Gameplay: 8/10

The gameplay of Days of Ruin follows its predecessor's, but also carries its own label altogether with the amount of changes that take place between the two. For example, gone are the days when a CO's (Commanding Officer) power can swing the tide of battle. While CO powers remain, they are much more toned downed and balanced now. However, for the most part the gameplay remains largely unchanged. You will take control of an army as you lead your troops to destroy the enemy's army, capturing cities and factories along the way to receive funds in order to build new units. Of course, certain units are more powerful the other types of units, so knowing what your enemy has and planning appropriately will greatly help in the ensuing battle. Also, some of the new units introduced in Dual Strike are gone, such as stealth planes, but Days of Ruin also introduces new units of its own, such as the Duster aircraft and the indirect unit known as the anti-tank.

The nifty CO leveling-up feature from Dual Strike is also gone, replaced by a type of individual unit leveling-up feature where if a unit kills another unit, it gains a level, up to three levels, which grant it a slight boost in battle. As I mentioned earlier, the CO powers have been toned down, but now you can put a CO into a unit at your Headquarters to instantly level up that unit and be able to fight with your CO. Your CO will be able to grant boosts to any unit in their range as you fight, and will also let you start to accumulate power for a CO power, but if killed you will lose all of your CO power and have to re-deploy your CO.

The main campaign spans through 26 missions, all of which have specific requirements to beat, but there are also numerous training battles you can fight in, and don't forget the multi-player aspect that Days of Ruin offers with the ability to play with friends and even design your own maps to fight on.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics in Days of Ruin are fairly similar to Dual Strike, with the same level of detail put into each unit to tell them apart easier and the overall quality, keeping in mind that Days of Ruin was designed to be a little darker and thus looks a bit greyer. The character design is excellent, as each character no longer resembles a general stereotype and more focus is given to their individual personality in their design. The top screen is once again used in order to display both sides fighting as well as to give info about selected units or the battles overall progress, and looks great while doing it as well. I think the thing that impressed me the most was the use of dual-screen portraits of key plot points presented as the story unfolds, in a rather cinematic fashion. That part was very well done and appreciated. Other than that, everything else was on-par.

Music/Sound effects: 7/10

To be honest, the music was rather un-remarkable. One thing I loved about the Advance Wars series was the theme songs that each CO had and you got to listen to as you fought. They were always rather short and catchy. In Days of Ruin, I can't really recall the music at all, as it clearly isn't meant to be a major selling point in the game. The music is a fast-paced metal soundtrack, as I recall, and as I said before it was nothing too rememberable but it also didn't detract away from the story or the gameplay at all. The sound effects were also your average fair of bullets flying and tanks exploding. Very standard stuff here, but that's to be expected, really. I think it would really sink the game if they couldn't even get the sound effects to sound decent.

Re-playability/Extra's/Etc.: 7/10

Apart from the extra's I mentioned in the gameplay section, Days of Ruin really doesn't give the player too much of a reason to go through the main campaign a second time around. It would've been cool to have been able to branch off the story at key points in order to change certain events, but that's just a dream. Apart from being able to play online via Nintendo's WIFI service, Days of Ruin features most of the same extra's that Dual Strike had, but even less, such as no more combat mode. Unless you have some friends who enjoy turn-based tactical combat as much as you do, you may be done with Day's of Ruin quicker than you expected.

Overall: 8/10

Overall, a great story with solid and entertaining gameplay features that is pretty much average in every other aspect. Being a fan of the series, I thoroughly enjoyed Days of Ruin, but newcomers may want to research the game and series a little more before buying the game. Have fun and keep playing.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/08

Game Release: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (US, 01/21/08)