Toy Soldiers PC: Review

Version Reviewed: 1.0.0.1

What I like: Great atmosphere, lots of content for $10, good enough tower defense game play with a twist, leaderboards.
Not So Much: While fun, taking over weapons makes it more difficult to keep track of the big picture.
Other stuff you may like: Action junkies will probably appreciate manually controlling the weapons more than I.
The Verdict: B- (Good)
* I can definitely see more action-oriented players scoring this game very highly.
About my reviews

Official site: Toy Soldier's for PC

Introduction
I was pretty late to the tower defense party, but have found many enjoyable games in this genre. Defense Grid and Unstoppable Gorg have been my favorites, but there have been other worthwhile entries too. After a very popular showing for the Xbox 360, Signal Studios decided to share their creation with the PC crowd. Toy Soldiers is a tower defense game with an interesting twist. In addition to the standard placement of towers on available locations, the player gets to control the towers and even drive and fly vehicles to cause more personal destruction. Instead of an ultra realistic presentation, toy soldiers, complete with wind-up tanks populate the battlefields, just as the title implies. Even though the soldiers are toys, there is plenty of excitement, punctuated by explosions, to be had.

The Xbox 360 version had a multiplayer mode, but none exists for the PC version. This is OK by me since I only play single player, but I’m sure this will disappoint some players.

Getting Started
There isn’t a manual, but instructions can be found within the game under Help & Options. This is adequate since game play is simple.

The main campaign has 12 scenarios and the player can select the starting difficulty level (casual, normal or hard). The difficulty level can be adjusted later if you wish. Victory must be achieved before progressing to later scenarios. With success in a scenario, an elite difficulty level for that scenario is unlocked. Once unlocked, any scenario can be replayed using all unlocked weapons. Winning the campaign in full opens up campaign+ mode (fight for the German side) and survival mode (survive as many enemy waves as you can). Six additional scenarios are also available in the two included DLC campaigns, along with the requisite survival mode.

Winning the main campaign on normal difficulty took around 10 hours. The 6 additional campaigns, campaign+, and survival mode make for a pretty good deal at the current $10 price. The Invasion DLC takes a bit of turn with spaceships, so if you don’t want scifi mixed with your WWI, Invasion may not be for you. Since this isn’t a historical game I don’t have any strong objection.

A Games for Windows Live login is required, which I didn’t find a big deal, but may be a turn off for some. This is true even for the Steam version of the game.

Game Play
Each scenario has the player building defenses to protect their toy box (or boxes) from enemy invasion. If too many enemies make their way into your toy box, it is game over and time to try again. The map defines the valid locations for your defenses, with only some accommodating your large defense platforms. Money is earned for each enemy killed. The enemy takes multiple routes to get to your toy box, so it isn’t as simple as protecting a linear path. Just as you have different weapons, so does the enemy. There are basic infantrymen who are easy to kill, but some of them may be wearing gas masks to protect against your chemical weapons. Cavalry move faster and can jump over some obstacles. Armored tanks need heavier weapons to take down and planes force you to protect the skies.

As mentioned earlier, Toy Soldier’s twist on the tower defense game is allowing the player to jump in and command the various defenses. This is encouraged by giving the player extra money for kill streaks – killing multiple enemy within a short period of time. The kill streak bonus is reset if the player doesn’t manage a kill within a couple seconds. I’m not sure if the campaign can be won without this hands-on approach as I always commanded my defenses at some point in each scenario, but it may be possible. Once vehicles are introduced, they can be entered in the same manner.

When zoomed out, the player is treated to a birds-eye view of the battlefield, typical of tower defense games. When manning one of the defenses your view is zoomed in for a close over the shoulder view. While the hands-on action was fun, it’s more difficult to keep track of the big picture. I prefer the more cerebral aspect of tower defense games. Since Toy Soldiers handles the action so well that I am glad it exists, but I wouldn’t want all tower defense games to go in this direction. All wasn’t perfect for me as I found targeting with artillery a little difficult in some of the terrain and the planes slightly tricky to control. Neither of these is a big deal and could very well just be me.

Zoomed out

Zoomed in

Your defensive structures can take damage from the enemy and are repaired by spending a little cash. Structure upgrades are unlocked during the campaign, boosting firepower and / or range. Like repairs upgrading a structure requires spending cash. During a repair or upgrade, your structure goes offline for a short time, so time your repairs wisely. Structures can also be sold off if you need the cash or decide a different structure would be more advantageous in that particular position.

The tower defense portion of the game didn’t feel as strategic as some of the others I played. It felt like the map layout and approach routes were optimized for the action aspect of the game. Whether this was a good choice will depend on your gaming preference. While the action is fun and a nice change of pace, I prefer a stronger strategic focus.

There is an adequate, but not a large variety of items to build – machine guns, mortars, chemical / gas weapons, artillery, anti aircraft, and barbed wire. Each has 2 upgrades except for the barbed wire which doesn't have any. Even though they behave differently, they don’t feel as different as the towers in Defense Grid and Unstoppable Gorg.

Every 3 or 4 scenarios are punctuated with an enemy boss battle. They keep you on your toes because they each have their own unique behavior and add some variety to killing of the usual troops. They were a welcome diversion.

Online leaderboards exist for total score and individual scenarios, so competitive or curious players can see how they compare to other players. I enjoy this feature because I like to try and get within the top 25% or better. The greatest component of the score is based on how many enemy troops entered your toy box. Unspent cash further increases the score, along with a time bonus. The time bonus is achieved by releasing the next enemy wave before the timer counts down by pressing the F key. If you are ready for them there isn’t any point in waiting. A nice extra is the Display Case, which shows all unlocked weapons, along with a brief description. For those interested it provides a close up of the weapon artwork.

Display Case

User Interface

Defenses are built by clicking on a deployment platform to open a menu of choices and then clicking on the desired defense. The same method is used to repair, sell, or upgrade towers. Hotkeys can be used to expedite the procedure, but as far as I can tell they can’t be customized. They were easy to pick up, so I had no issues with this limitation. They are laid out for quick access, but don’t always make sense from a language perspective – i.e. sell (z), repair (x).

The user interface is minimalistic due to the simplistic nature of the game play. The two most important bits of information are how many enemies need to enter your toy box to trigger defeat, and how much money is available to purchase weapons (upper left). The next 3 types of enemy waves are displayed in the center to allow the player to plan their defenses along with the timer alerting the player how much time before the next wave attacks. The player is reminded they can press the F key to release the wave early, increasing their score. In the far right upper corner, the player can monitor the number and type of enemies on the map.

The WASD keys are used to jump from one defensive structure to the next while manning them to avoid forcing the player to exit, scroll to the next one and enter it. The WASD keys are also used to control the vehicles.

The interface works smoothly and never got in my way, easily allowing me to build and control my weapons. A scenario can’t be saved while in progress, but they don’t take too long. I didn’t time them, but the scenarios probably ranged from about 10-30 minutes or so.

Difficulty and AI
The player can choose one of three difficulty levels when they start a campaign, but can change to a different one later. At the normal difficulty level I had to replay 2 scenarios one time and 2 scenarios 2 times. By the time I figured out how to beat some bosses, it was too late and required another try. In the casual difficulty level, the enemy units have less hit points, more cash is awarded for kills, and more enemies must enter your toy box to trigger defeat. Enemies have more hit point on hard and fewer enemies need to enter the toy box to hand the player defeat. The elite difficulty places much more importance on the action portion of the game as the AI no longer will fire your unmanned weapons for you. The player must take control of the defenses and fire upon the enemy. I only attempted the first 2 scenarios at the elite level and beat them very easily. I did have all of my unlocked weapons and the first couple scenarios are very easy, so I’m sure this is not an indication of the elite level on later scenarios. The number of enemies needed to enter your toy box to trigger defeat is increased with the elite difficulty level, so the player does have more leeway and the opportunity to score more points.

The AI does a respectable job at manning your defenses, but I did see some enemies sneak through when I thought they should be stopped. I would think in most cases the player is better off commanding the defenses, but you can’t be everywhere at once. Enemy soldiers seem to fire and throw grenades in random directions, but enemy tanks seem to fire intelligently.

Graphics and Sound
I found the graphics were well done and very immersive. When zoomed out, it is obvious the game takes place in a tabletop diorama. When zoomed in the level of detail is impressive, craggy terrain, trenches, barracks, explosions all very well-done. The available resolutions only range from 800x600 to 1680x1050, but the game still looked great on my 1920x1080 native resolution LCD monitor. A small portion of my display remained unused.

Technical Performance
The game performed flawlessly without any crashes or hiccups.
My Specs: Windows 7 64-bit. Intel Core i7 860 @ 2.80 GHz. 8 Gig RAM. ATI Radeon HD 5850.

In The End...
Toy Solders is an interesting take on the tower defense genre, perhaps pleasing the action-oriented gamer more than the strategic one. I didn’t feel there was quite enough strategy involved and the game was more focused on the action than I prefer. Both aspects are done well enough to make Toy Soldiers a worthy purchase for both types of players. The artistic presentation of the game is very attractive and really adds to its personality.  This will temporarily be my game of choice when I want something quick to fill in some time, but won’t have the legs Defense Grid has had for me. Scores represent the amount of enjoyment I got from a game. Even a well-made game, such as Toy Solders doesn’t automatically get a top-tier score, but it does get my recommendation to purchase it if you’re a fan of this genre.

Score: B- (Good)
* I can definitely see more action-oriented players scoring this game very highly.

Tin Soldiers – Julius Caesar: Review

Version Reviewed: 1.1.1

What I like: Easy to get into, enough factors to make combat interesting, challenging.
Not So Much: Dated visuals, click-heavy controls, can’t specify attack path, a little slow, limited resolution choices.
Other stuff you may like: Multiplayer offered, included historical background.
The Verdict: B- (Good)
About my reviews

Official site: Tin Soldiers – Julius Caesar

Disclaimer: This review is based on a free review copy provided by Matrix Games.

Introduction
Many review sites only give you the games hot off the press. Not me, here you also get the old stuff! Tin Soldiers: Julius Caesar was released in 2005. Does it hold up to more modern games like Risen 2 and Gettysburg: Armored Warfare? Hey no fair, you looked at the score before you read this. Tin Soldiers is an enjoyable turn-based tactical wargame depicting the historic battles of Julius Caesar. It uses a initiative system to carry out unit orders. This game has an older sibling based on the exploits of Alexander the Great, but I don’t have any experience with that one. Tin Soldiers was recommended to me on the Wargamer forums several months ago as a quality tactical wargame, which is why I dusted off the time travel machine to get a copy (I could have just headed to the Matrix Games site).

The game can be played head to head over an IP connection, but as a single-player gamer I can’t vouch for it.

Getting Started
I recommend reading the manual, at least pages 13-22, even though the gameplay is pretty straight forward. It does a good job of explaining the mechanics (except for the effects of the Charge and Counter-Charge commands). There is no in game tutorial and the forum hasn’t had a post in over a year (except for my one unanswered question), so it is a good thing the manual does the job.

There are two avenues for playing the game, the campaign and set battles. The campaign wraps the scenarios into a loose structure where money is used to replenish troops and buy action cards. One of three difficulty levels must be selected at the start of the campaign and can’t be changed, so select one and hope for the best. Being a pretty normal guy, I selected normal. The Gallic campaign is the first set of 6 scenarios and represents Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. The scenarios can be played in any order, and the campaign wrapper is simple. There are 5 levels of prestige. Winning a regular victory increases prestige by one level, a major victory by two levels, and a loss has no effect. Once you increase the prestige beyond the last level, you must quell an uprising by winning the Battle of Alesia. This is followed by the Roman Civil War containing a new set of 7 scenarios. Don’t despair if you lose a scenario as a major victory in another one can make up for it, or you can choose to immediately replay the one you lost.

Any of the campaign scenarios can be played as a set battle. Your units are already placed on the map, waiting for their first command. If the campaign proves too difficult, you can always play the battle on its own without missing any content. The set battle defines what action cards are available, so the player does lose the ability to customize his hand.

Game Play
The campaign screen displays the scenario choices, along with your current prestige level. The scenario description gives some historical context for the battle you are about to begin.

Unit Organization
The presentation of Tin Soldiers is based on tabletop wargaming, with men on stands that slide around the terrain. A unit is typically comprised of 2-6 stands that act as a group. Below are 3 units, each comprised of 6 stands. Each stand has 5 steps of strength and loses one step each time it is hit in combat. Once 5 steps are lost, one stand is removed from the unit. This is important, because each stand is worth a number of chances to hit in combat. The unit loses combat power as stands are removed. Each unit is lead by a historical leader, which may provide 1 or more of 4 tangible benefits or penalties. If the leader is killed in battle they are permanently lost.

The Order of Battle
The Order of Battle is the first step of each scenario in the campaign. Use the funds in the treasury to mobilize your legions for the selected scenario. In the first scenario, they are all at full strength and are trained to various levels. As they take casualties, and they will, the player has 3 options; pay the re-enlist cost to return the legion to full health, rest the legion by sitting them out of the current scenario to recover 50% of their losses at no treasury cost, or send them to battle at less than full strength. In either of the first 2 cases, they will lose a level of training for every 2 stands that are regained. I tended to replace their losses, but I’m not sure that was always the best choice as an experienced unit performs more effectively in combat. The choice is yours General. Units that survive in battle gain one level of training.

Scenarios may also offer auxiliary units, which do not carry over to the next scenario. Hmm, if someone has to be sacrificed I wonder who it will be?

Action cards can be purchased in the campaign game before each scenario. These offer some useful benefits and are a fun way to introduce some strategic choices during the battle. The cards can improve the combat ability of a unit, affect the unit’s morale, restore lost health, improve initiative, scout an area of the map, and improve a unit’s defense. I found many of them to be well-worth their cost.

I don’t fully understand the treasury mechanic and how the game determines how much money is added after each scenario. I used the funds I had and didn’t think about it too much. It would have been nice to get a clear explanation from the manual, but the lack of clarity didn’t affect my enjoyment of the game.

What It Takes To Be Victorious
Each scenario has victory point thresholds for defeat, minor defeat, minor victory, and major victory. Victory points can be earned and lost in a variety of ways - due to casualties in combat, killing leaders, and meeting objectives (with bonus points for early completion). Typically objectives are either to hold area(s) for a number of turns or capture area(s) within a number of turns. Areas are controlled by having ‘x’ more of your units surrounding the flag then the enemy does. Some scenarios have a mixture of these objectives, such as hold location 1 for 10 turns and then capture location 2 within 20 turns. You can still be victorious without meeting all objectives if your combat performance is strong.

 

Action!

When fighting in the campaign the player has the opportunity to deploy his troops within specified locations. Some locations are limited to a particular unit type. The set battles already have the units deployed. There isn’t a lot of variety in deployment locations, so it didn’t add a lot to the game. Keeping units in the same legion together does provide a morale benefit. Other considerations are where you put your stronger units - support the middle, support weaker units, etc.

Battle Factors
The combat model is pretty basic, but has enough factors to keep it interesting. Each unit has 6 basic attributes that determine how it performs in battle. There are four levels of training, armor, and morale. The unit’s weapon, number of stands, and any leader attributes further determine a unit’s ability to fight. Unit morale and training provide simple +/- to a unit’s attack, as does the opponent’s armor. The leader attributes can provide +/- to attacks in addition to affecting morale checks and reacting to battlefield events. The number of stands in a unit determines the number of chances the unit has to score a hit in combat. Finally the weapon comes into play. Spears are better for charging and defending cavalry attacks, swords have the advantage when attacking spears, and ranged units can rain death from afar. Don’t forget, your cavalry does not like attacking war elephants and may refuse to do so!

Terrain also comes into play, but its role is very simple. Melee units receive a penalty when attacking an enemy on higher ground or behind a wall. Yes, there are scenarios where you must either assault or defend a walled structure. Passing over a wall also uses up the units entire action for a turn. Ranged attacks gain an additional benefit when they are attacking from higher ground.

Maneuvering units to flank the enemy provides benefits to the attack. Be careful, because the AI is pretty adapt at flanking your units.

The manual has a handy appendix that displays the effects of the various combat modifiers. Tin Soldiers has an enjoyable combat engine with enough to chew on to make the player feel like they are commanding a battle, but easy enough to jump in and understand what is going on.

Three Phases For 3x The Fun
Each turn is made up of 3 phases: command, reaction, and reserve. The first is the command phase in which both sides issue their orders. Each unit on both sides is assigned an initiative number, which controls the sequence units carry out their orders. Typically cavalry goes first. Press the play button to execute the first 5 minutes of the order. The reaction phase may give each side the opportunity to issue new orders if certain events occur, such as blocked movement or the attacker’s target moved away. Press play again to execute the next 5 minutes of the battle. One of the orders that can be assigned to a unit is the reserve order. This holds the unit in reserve until the last phase, where they can be issued an order. This lets the general hold back some units to respond to the enemy’s actions. Finally, the last 5 minutes of the battle are played out.

This is a great system. I enjoy simultaneous systems as they do a better job of modeling the uncertainty of battle. There is more tension when you are unsure which unit will attack first. Will the enemy unit still be there when your unit gets to attack? The reaction and reserve phases add some welcome fluidity to the action.

You Will Obey My Command!
No, I’m not talking to my son. There are 9 orders to issue to your units – move, melee and ranged attack, charge, retreat, change facing, defend, counter charge and reserve. Unit facing is key as your units can only move and attack in the general direction they are facing (front left, front, and front right). Having your units positioned and facing in the desired direction is probably the most challenging aspect to the game. If they aren’t facing where you want, the change facing order is available to set the facing to any direction. It is best to use this sparingly as it uses up the entire turn’s actions for that unit. I am unsure of the exact affects of charge and counter charge. There are some attack modifiers for charging units, but I couldn’t find any information for counter charge. The defend order gives a small combat penalty to the attacker if they attack a defending unit. This works well with the initiative system as you don’t know which units will be defending when you unit attacks. Retreat orders the unit to move directly in reverse and then change unit facing 180 degrees. As mentioned earlier the reserve order withholds unit action until the reserve phase.

Ranged attacks can be quite useful and well-protected ranged units can cause quite a bit of damage. Roman infantry carry a pilum, which allows a single ranged attack per battle. One quirk with the movement and attack orders is that while the target can be specified, the path to get there can’t. Sometimes this can lead to units impeding each other when it could have been avoided by specifying waypoints. It isn’t a huge deal, but it can be annoying.

Combat
I’ve already touched upon many of the combat basics, but there are some more interesting details. A unit that takes more damage than the opponent may get pushed back one square. If they get pushed back through an enemy unit, extra damage is inflicted. If they get pushed back through a friendly unit they lose extra morale and may cause the friendly unit to lose morale too. This adds some extra strategy since it is beneficial to push back the enemy units while making sure your units are not pushed back into friendlies. A unit that pushes back another even gets a reaction order in the reaction phase.

There are a number of opportunities for units to lose morale:
- One check per combat step of damage a unit takes.
- One check for each stand removed from a unit.
- A unit pushed back through a friendly unit will always lose a level of morale.
- One check per nearby friendly unit eliminated or routed in battle.
- One check if a unit's leader is killed or wounded in action.
- One check if any nearby friendly heroic leader is killed in action.
- One check if a supreme leader is killed or wounded in action (e.g., Caesar)
- Lose one level of morale if any friendly routed unit is pushed back through it.
- A cavalry unit must check morale if ordered to attack or charge an elephant unit.

Reduced morale reduces combat effectiveness. After each turn a unit has a chance to recover lost morale. Once a unit is routed they continue to retreat until they recover one step of morale. A routed unit can’t be issued any orders. A Roman Legion unit adjacent to any other unit in his Legion receives a small bonus to morale rolls.

A combat log displays the various combat modifiers in effect per attack, and the results of an attack. The problem is that it is difficult to match the results with the units, unless you can memorize the names of all the leaders. It would have been helpful if the player could click on a log entry to highlight the units involved. The action can be paused to view the log as combat occurs, but that makes each turn a bit tedious. Combat already is a little slow in that the camera jumps around from unit to unit in the sequence orders are carried out. The camera could move a little faster.

One other minor issue is that I couldn’t find any information as to the base chance a unit has to successfully attack another. You start to get a feel for combat after playing, but it would be nice to know your chances.

User Interface
Most information is available at your fingertips while in the midst of a battle. The player can rotate, pan and zoom the battle area. This works pretty smoothly during the battle, but panning was a little jumpy with the mouse during unit deployment. Using the keyboard during unit deployment solved the problem. To issue an order, select the unit, click on the order button, and then click on the target if necessary. This results in quite a few clicks, but is simple to use and not prone for errors. Hotkeys are available for the order buttons for those who prefer them.

Facing is depicted by the small arrow in the red circle at the bottom of the unit and is one of the most important items to keep track of. The morale and training level are displayed to the left and right of the facing icon. Above that are circles representing the number of remaining steps for the unit taking damage (all damage is applied to the right most stand in the unit window). The unit’s weapon can be identified on the units themselves. In addition there is an info panel in the bottom left corner of the screen that displays all relevant information for the selected unit.

Terrain height is important, but it clutters the display quite a bit (the white numbers in the squares). I had a hard time noticing changes in the terrain without the numbers turned on. In some scenarios I could keep the terrain height indicators off, but I kept them on for the most part.

The red lines depict your unit’s movement and attack orders. Other orders display an icon above your unit, such as the shield for the defend order. The blue lines show your unit’s line of sight. This can be turned off, but what enemy lies beyond your line of sight is always a mystery (unless a scout card is played).

While issuing the attack order the combat modifiers are displayed as a tooltip so a bad plan can be halted before it starts. The game also reminds the player that some units haven’t been given an order, which helped me several times.

There are a couple items missing that would have been helpful. A visual representation of a unit’s maximum range for a ranged attack would have been welcome, along with the area of effect when playing the scout card. As a whole, the UI does the job of keeping the player informed while letting the player easily command his units and survey the battlefield.

Difficulty and AI
As mentioned earlier, there are 3 levels of difficulty, but I have no idea what it affects. I stuck with normal. The AI provides a good challenge and will take advantage of stray units, maneuver to flank, and generally make good decisions. The one weakness I saw was that the AI will sometimes return a formerly routed unit back to combat on its own which may leave it vulnerable.

Part of the challenge is that the player usually / always seems to be outnumbered. Sometimes our units must be spread a little thin. Our infantry units tend to be a bit stronger by having more stands than the enemy, providing us with more chances to hit. Patience is rewarded. During my first scenario, I moved ahead too quickly and lost. The second time I paid more attention to terrain levels and tried to take advantage of match ups better and won. After my first loss I ended up getting 5 minor victories and 2 major ones in my next 7 scenarios.

Graphics and Sound
The available resolutions range from 1024x768 up to 1680x1050. It may be less than optimal if your monitor’s native resolution isn’t available. My LCD monitor’s native resolution is 1920x1080. In my ATI Catalyst Control Center I used the settings to display the image centered on my monitor, instead of stretching it. The game used most of my monitor and the image quality wasn’t degraded due to scaling, so in the end it wasn’t a big deal for me.

Hopefully you can see from the prior screenshots that the graphics are serviceable, but they probably weren’t cutting edge when the game was released in 2005. The units could be a little sharper and the terrain more detailed, but didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the game.

I found the sound unremarkable as I can’t even remember what the sound effects or music sounds like. I didn’t turn them off, so they couldn’t have been too bad.

Technical Performance
The installation required version 1.1 of the .NET Framework. A warning message displayed that there is an incompatibility issue between this version of .NET and IIS (internet information services) on my platform (64 bit Windows 7). I’m not using IIS (used for publishing websites and related services), so I continued with the installation. I haven’t noticed any problems. It may only be an issue if you are developing software using the 1.1 version of the .NET Framework and deploy that software to a 64-bit Windows 7 system.

For some reason I couldn’t download the 1.11 patch from the Matrix website. I’m not sure if it was a temporary glitch or a more permanent issue. I downloaded it from FileFront without issue.

Other than a couple crashes while loading a saved game file, the game performed flawlessly without any crashes or hiccups. I never lost any saved games or had my progress hampered. The crash only occurred when loading a saved game on my first turn before doing anything else.

My Specs: Windows 7 64-bit. Intel Core i7 860 @ 2.80 GHz. 8 Gig RAM. ATI Radeon HD 5850.

In The End...
Did I find my trip back in time fruitful? I would say yes. The mechanics were interesting and made sense. The gameplay was challenging and suspenseful as I sometimes didn't know I was going to win until close to the end. The use of the simultaneous order resolution provides a more authentic feeling experience then a strictly turn-based one. I know because I was a former general in 45BC. The game provided a nice mix of offensive and defensive objectives. Defending and assaulting a walled structure provided more of a diversified challenge than having all battles occur in the open field. I loved having powerful ranged units on my towers to rain down death (until of course the enemy breached my defenses and crushed them). A more sophisticated use of terrain would have been interesting, but perhaps that wasn’t applicable to warfare during this period (I have no idea).

Tin Soldiers is a tough game to sit down and play for a marathon session. Each scenario typically took over an hour and they were challenging. Waiting for the camera to follow the active unit is sometimes tedious. I played through the set of Gaul scenarios, including the final conflict in the Battle of Alesia. I still must persevere through the Roman Civil War scenarios. I know there are some mighty war elephants to be encountered. If there is anything worth noting in the latter part of the campaign, I will either update this review or have a part 2. From what I saw it looked like there were not any game changers in the remaining scenarios.

Perhaps if we showed some love for Tin Soldiers back in 2005, Koios Works would still be with us today. Even 7 years later it is a worthwhile game if you enjoy tactical warfare.

Score: B- (Good)

I Stand Corrected

I've been reflecting on my scores and in retrospect I feel I have been a little harsh on some of the games I reviewed. Not within the review itself, but on the final score. When I started, I was worried about grade inflation. I didn't want to fall into the same trap as many review sites. The thing is I select what games I want to review, so chances are I'm not going to hate it unless the game was very poorly made. I view a 'C' grade as a game that I had some fun with, but wouldn't really have missed anything if I never played it. A 'C' game isn't a bad game and I don't regret spending time with it.

I was also getting a little out of hand with the grade granularity. I actually graded some games a 'C/C+'. What is wrong with me??? I have come to terms that there will be some games I like more than others even though they received the same score.

That being said, here is an updated list of the games I reviewed, along with their old and new scores.

Unity of Command:      A-    (was B+)
Battle Academy:        B+    (was B)
Limbo:                 B+    (no change)
Tropico 4:             C     (was C/C+)
Conquest of Elysium 3: C+    (was C/C+)
R.U.S.E.:              B-    (no change)
Legend of Grimrock:    B     (was B-)


The toughest change for me was Legend of Grimrock. I really thought the combat was uninteresting - do the Grimrock shuffle. The thing is, I had a lot of fun with the puzzle and exploration aspects of the game. Do I wish the combat was better? Yes! But I still had a lot of fun playing the game. Grimrock was a good game despite the combat, so up to a 'B' it goes.

Someone Please Make This RPG!!

Jon Shafer made the following request on the Idle Thumbs forum, " Let's say you had the ability to snap your fingers and a new strategy game would come out tomorrow, exactly to your specifications. What would it be?"


I stretched the rules slightly in my response and included a RPG with tactical combat as a strategy game, mainly because I think RPGs need more help than pure strategy games.  I want a RPG that:

1a) I want time to actually matter. I am tired of being on the all important quest to save the world, but always motivated to try an explore every last nook and cranny of the world. If I really had to kill the foozle to save the world, I wouldn't explore every last inch of the world to earn a couple more coins. I would be focused on getting the job done. Now if I learned about a dungeon that may contain a powerful sword that will aid me in my quest, that makes more sense, but there should be potential consequences if I go that route and take extra time getting my main task accomplished. If my current quest is to save a town from marauding orcs, there should be consequences if it takes me an extra week to get there because I decided to explore for the fun of it. Perhaps the talented blacksmith gets killed if I don't save the town by a certain date and he could have taught me his craft or sold me a great set of armor. 

1b) Now, there could be ebbs and flows of important quests so the player has some time to just explore. Perhaps the important quest isn't revealed until later in the game, so you do have time to take minor quests and do some exploring.

1c) Have different scales of success for completing quests in a timely manner. Solve it fast and everyone is ok. Take extra time and the towns economy takes a hit. Take more time and nothing is left of the town.

2) Have a realistic reputation system. If I steal from a guy in a town but I'm not caught, it shouldn't hurt my reputation. Now if I rob everyone in town blind, I was new to town, and I leave after I am done, perhaps people are suspicious of the new comer. Maybe there is a chance I left behind some clues based on my thieving skills. Maybe not enough to convict me, but perhaps there is some mob justice. Perhaps there is a chance someone in another town hears the news of my actions and recognizes me from a description.

3) Good turn-based tactical combat along the lines of a good tactical wargame, but in a typical fantasy setting (like Dungeons and Dragons). Have a detailed system where there is lots of room for strategizing. No reflect-based combat please.

4) Make death matter, but not common. In RPGs where it is expected you will die every 5 minutes and must save and reload have the effect of making death insignificant. It ruins the tension because the player isn't that concerned about avoiding death. There should be meaningful consequences for bad play, but death isn't the only option. The Dark Souls mechanic is interesting, but I don't think that it should be the common way death is handled. Make me play on with the consequences of my actions, not just reload the last save constantly.


5) Have a good world map and make travel meaningful. Provide clues as to where we need to go, but don't just automatically reveal it. Remember  to make time a resource we must manage. It would be a shame to die of old age before I complete my quest, but that should be an option. Perhaps have the ability to start a family and take over as a child, a la Crusader Kings.


I'm sure there are more aspects for a compelling RPG. Someone please hop on this so I can have really good RPG to play.

Legend of Grimrock - Review

Version Reviewed: 1.1.3

What I like: Sense of exploration, many of the puzzles.
Not So Much: Uninspired combat, too much reliance on teleporters & pressure plates, undeveloped rogue class.
Other stuff you may like: Nostalgia factor
The Verdict: B (good)

About my reviews

Official site: Legend of Grimrock

Introduction
While cleaning out my closet in preparation for the neighborhood garage sale, my foot clanked against something hard. As I removed my old clothes, my eyes caught my reflection and I jumped. My old set of plate mail. It has been a long time my old friend. My adventures under Waterdeep were long ago and my sword arm not as strong as it once was, but I wondered if I still had what it takes.

As I rode through the Kingdom of Theraen on my way to Icefall Bay, my stomach rumbled as my supplies had run out. Obviously my skills for planning an adventure had atrophied along with my strength. Luckily, some magnificent deer grazed in the field next to the road. As I prepared my kill, I was unaware of the men who crept up from behind and knocked me senseless. When I awoke, the cold wind scratched unseen wounds across my face. I was chained to three others who I had never made the acquaintance of. Our charges were for poaching on the king’s land. The guards had no interest in my protests; after the charges were read we were informed our only salvation would be escape from Mount Grimrock and we were pushed over the edge.

Legend of Grimrock is a first-person dungeon romp, in the spirit of Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master and other classics. I remember these games with a certain fondness, but did this style of game disappear for a reason? I also recall the original Dukes of Hazard, the A-Team and the Six Million Dollar Man as the pinnacle of prime-time adventure and high jinks. Could my memories of quality entertainment be a bit hazy when looked at through such passage of time?

The premise is simple, work your way through the dungeon, combat creatures, and solve deadly puzzles to escape.


Getting Started
The game play is pretty simple and covered well-enough in the 17 page manual and 4-screen static tutorial. Tooltips explain the character attributes and other in game items.

The game is all about making your way through the levels of the dungeon. These are not randomly generated levels in roguelikes, so the same puzzles and monsters are encountered on every play through. On the plus side, the creature placement is well balanced and puzzles more intricate.

When setting up a new game, the player can choose from 3 levels of combat difficulty. I stuck with the normal setting. One option that old-timers may appreciate is the ability to disable the automap feature. If you do so, be prepared to get out your graph paper and sketch your own maps. Otherwise traversing the dungeons will be much more difficult. I for one had no interest in disabling the automap as it is the most important discovery since penicillin. I can’t imagine wanting to undo 20+ years of progress. Players anxious to get into the action can use premade characters, or those who want a little more control can create their own (like me).

Once you are ready, you are treated to a bit of back story with some rather attractive static artwork. Then your adventure begins and your first objective is to locate some equipment, because the guards threw you into the pit without anything.

Game Play
Three character classes are available (fighter, mage and rogue) each sharing a set of 4 attributes and having its own set of 6 skills. Strength-affects your attack’s power and carrying capacity, dexterity-affects the accuracy of making attacks and ability to evade attacks, vitality-affects health and ability to overcome harmful cold and poison, and willpower-amount of energy for magic and special attacks.

The player can allocate points to these skills upon character creation and each new level to tailor it to their liking. Unfortunately the rogue is really more of a ranged-based fighter rather than a class with unique thieving abilities. The mage’s role is essentially to bring some ranged firepower to the party. The spells aren’t particularly interesting. To be honest, I didn’t explore every spell, but the ones I did basically just caused some elemental-based damage. There is slightly more variety than that, but I don’t think much more. As skills are improved, different perks are gained (i.e. – more effective use of shields, greater strength, new attack, etc…). None of these really made the game more interesting, but just provided a way to improve the abilities of your character to meet the greater challenges as you progress through the dungeon. Two traits can also be granted to improve some aspect of your character (i.e.-more health, evasive, etc…).

As you can see from the screenshot below, 4 races are available. Humans can excel at any class, while minotaurs are geared to fighters, lizardmen to rogues, and insectoids as mages.

Off to Explore the Dungeon
Your party is arranged into a 2 x 2 marching order. The front row is able to use melee attacks (and is susceptible to them), while the back row is limited to ranged attacks (unless they have a special skill). In general the back row is safe from melee attacks, but can be hit by some magic and elemental based-attacks. Creatures attacking from the side or rear can also hit the back row.

Exploration is the most enjoyable part of the game, along with solving puzzles. Movement is handled via the WASD keys, or using the optional on-screen arrow button interface. I opted for the WASD keys. Your party moves one grid square at a time, turning 90 degrees per turn. A mouselook option is available using the right mouse button, but I never really found the need for it. There are sometimes interactive elements, such as chains, levers, or small buttons. Secret rooms and passages can be discovered, which frequently have some goodies to aid in your escape from the dungeon. Bits of the story are revealed now and then, but don’t expect something along the lines of a Bioware adventure. There is enough to add some context to your predicament.

Combat is handled in real time. Party members’ attacks are initiated by right clicking on the weapon. There is a cooldown period for each attack, so you can’t spam attacks without limit. Special attacks, such as a bash, are unlocked as weapon skills are increased. The user has no control over when they occur and they essentially just give a damage boost during random attacks. Heavily armored fighters are better at absorbing damage, while evasive characters may be able to dodge and avoid the damage entirely. Unfortunately this combat mechanic isn’t really explained, so one really never knows which is better other than through observation. My agile fighter seemed to live longer than his heavily armored counterpart.

Spell casters are handled a little differently. Spells can be learned by finding scrolls with the required rune pattern illustrated (top image in above screenshot) or through trial and error. To cast a spell, the player must initiate the attack by right clicking on the spell caster’s staff. This opens the rune interface (bottom image in above screenshot). The user must click the runes for the desired spell, and then press the cast button. This must be repeated each time the spell is cast. Some players have complained this is too cumbersome in the heat of battle. Since I typically cast the same one or two spells, this wasn’t too big a deal. I think a happy medium would have been to retain the last spell, so the player only had to jump through hoops when changing their spell. There are 19 spells in the game, but the player will typically only learn 4-8 of them.

Different potion recipes can also be found on your travels and can be created if you have the reagents. Characters must be fed, but I never ran short of food. I suppose if you rest a lot your food supply may dwindle, but I usually made use of other methods of healing.

For me, combat was a pretty big letdown. There are not a lot of choices to make during combat. The biggest key to success is the player’s ability to manually move their party out of harm’s way. Then move in to spam your attacks as fast as the cooldown allows, sip an occasional potion, and run away if necessary. It felt more like a simple arcade game than a role-playing dungeon romp. I fought all creatures in essentially the same manner. There were a couple that stood out as more interesting, but I will let you discover them rather than mention them here.

Puzzles are primarily of the pressure plate, teleporter, and lever flipping variety. There are some more, but these are the most common ones. They are generally well done and solvable. I did resort to some online help 3-4 times, but in general I felt like I should have figured it out on my own. My trouble usually stemmed from ignoring something I shouldn’t have. There is one very frustrating sequence towards the end that forces the player to click repeatedly in several different places to find the right spot. I have to admit I hated that puzzle.

I think the biggest missed opportunity in Legend of Grimrock (other than having interesting combat), is that the secret buttons on the walls were nearly identical. More creative use of buttons and other interactive elements would have made exploration a little more engaging. It is a fine line between making it interesting and too frustrating, so I understand the developers’ caution, but it could have been better. I did only find 55 out of 71 secrets, so perhaps I missed some more interesting ones, but I doubt it. Minor spoiler coming up, but it may save you a lot of wasted time-> I never encountered any illusionary walls, so I don’t think there is a need to bump into every single wall to see if you can move through it.

The Steam version offers 40 achievements to obtain. I obtained 25 of them during my play through without trying. Other than that there are not any multiplayer / online features.

Graphics and Sound
My favorite visual aspect of the game was the static artwork displayed during the introduction. They captured the mood perfectly and were quite attractive. The dungeon graphics themselves were fine, along with the creatures, but nothing extraordinary. They did get pretty repetitive, but perhaps that is expected in a dungeon crawler. More effort could have been done to have greater visual variety.

The only music is played in the menu screens and during character creation. There wasn’t a lot of variety to it, but was enjoyable. I’m a sucker for stringed instruments. In game sounds were pretty limited, but useful. Some monsters made more noise than others, so you can hear their approach. Press some buttons and you can hear something opening in the distance. These auditory clues are much more useful than an elaborate musical score during play.

Technical Performance
The game performed flawlessly without any crashes or hiccups.
My Specs: Windows 7 64-bit. Intel Core i7 860 @ 2.80 GHz. 8 Gig RAM. ATI Radeon HD 5850.

In The End...
I have to admit I bought into the fervor on the Legend of Grimrock forums and was pretty excited for the game’s release. While a decent game, it isn’t the urn full of awesomeness I had hoped. The sense of exploration is there. Whenever I found another button I wondered what secrets would be revealed. Most of the puzzles were enjoyable, but a lesser reliance on pressure plates, teleporters, and the like would have been welcome. Some did require the player have a sense of timing, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on your outlook. Combat is mostly an exercise in strafing and dodging, instead of making meaningful tactical choices. To be honest I wouldn’t miss the combat if they removed it completely. Instead, I hope they figure out how to make it more interesting to take their next game to a higher level. Despite the many shortcomings, I did have a pretty good time playing it. For those who don’t think they would enjoy these styles of puzzles, I would downgrade the score significantly as the combat doesn’t really add much value.

It has been a long time since I played Eye of the Beholder or anything similar, so perhaps those older games had the same weaknesses. I’m tempted to see if I could get it to run on my system. Were those older dungeon romps the classics I remember them as, or are they just another Dukes of Hazzard? I did have a bit more fun than apparent by just looking at an explanation of the features.

Score: B (good)