Developer: Petroglyph Games
Publisher: Petroglyph Games, Soedesco
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Tested on: PS4
8-Bit Armies (PS4) – Review
The last couple of years have been quite good for the retro community, and thanks to certain influences such as Minecraft you can say that although modern machines can show billions of pixels at a time, many still miss the simplicity of the old days. 8-Bit Armies is no exception to that rule as it is designed in a modern way with a retro twist. This Real-time strategy game will surely grab your attention with its many strong points.
Story
8-Bit Armies has two campaigns, you can play as the Renegades who are a more old-school guerrilla-like force or as the Guardians, which are the modern USA kind of troops. Each mission has a short text-based introduction about what happened or is going on. The game will follow your progress as a rookie commander that is rising through the ranks, or one that escaped death, depending on which faction you choose. Overall, the story progression is great, you want to keep on playing to uncover what happened in the beginning and get revenge on those who wronged you.
Graphics
As the title implies, this game has been designed using pixilated graphics. This gives a retro charm but will remind players more of Minecraft and Roblox than of retro 8-bit titles. Everything is blocky and the landscapes look really nice. Although some characters have unique appearances, a large number of buildings and troops are completely the same for both teams. In other games each faction has their own visual representation, in 8-Bit Armies, however, there are many recycled assets, which isn’t a bad thing because this makes the game run quite faster.
Sound
The music in this game is fantastic, ranging from really old-school Midi-styled songs that take you back to the Nintendo Entertainment System days to mash ups between retro and other styles such as hard rock. Troops are nicely voiced with some radio effects to create this on-the-field experience.
Gameplay
8-Bit Armies is a Real-time strategy game that is available on both PC and console. Why is this a big deal? Well, most console ports of RTS games play like utter crap because controlling the game with mouse and keyboard gives much better overall performance than a remapped controller. Now we tested the game out on PlayStation 4 and it plays splendidly. Controls are refined for quick access on a controller and this makes the gameplay as fluent as possible.
When getting started with your campaign it is essential to keep your income steady. In this game you have two decisive factors that must be maintained at all times. First is your stream of income, this is obtained by refining oil, for which you must have trucks pick up oil and bring it to a refinery. You can block or stop the stream of income of your opponent(s) by destroying their harvesters. Secondly you need electricity to keep buildings running. Without power, everything stops and your defenses will be gone. At the beginning of each match you only have your HQ and you must build everything that you want. The only downside to this is that, because you are only allowed to erect one building at a time, initial startups can be a bit slow. If you’d like to jump straight in the action instead of following the campaign, you can play skirmishes with completely customizable options such as up to six player maps and team-based combat.
Fighting a war can only be done with troops and in 8-Bit Armies we can sort them out into three categories: infantry, land and air-based. Infantry are your basic Boots on the Ground troops that although they are versatile and can pick up supply drops, they don’t have that much health and can be defeated easily by most enemies. Land-based vehicles range from light scout jeeps to heavy tanks that will destroy the world with ease. Air-based are, as the name implies, aerial vehicles that can easily traverse the map and pack a serious punch.
You will need to invest into more advanced buildings after a while to unlock more buildings like turrets for base defense, more advanced soldiers and even super weapons. These toys of mass destruction will take a few minutes to prepare but when they are ready, they can be used cost-free to seriously do a number on your opponent. In most cases you win by completely wiping the opponent off the map, but in some missions there are other win scenarios so allowing you to resort to different tactics.
Conclusion
8-Bit Armies is a really fun game and the console ports have been optimized to play with a controller. The fluent gameplay mixed with the lovely sound and graphics make for a really nice game that allows you to sink your teeth in both the campaign, as well as the skirmishes.. The game will get you hooked after mere moments as it is an easy pick-up-and-play title, for both newcomers and veterans alike.
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