Developer: Signal Studios
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Tested on: PC
Toy Soldiers: War Chest – Review
“Playing with little plastic soldiers is for kids.” “Nuh-uh, it’s not.” That’s usually how the whole conversation goes between kids when they are talking about their toys. When things escalate the parent usually intervenes. “Well what if you could play with your toy soldiers and you aren’t a kid?” “Grown-ups play with them too?” This is where Toy Soldiers: War Chest comes into play.
Disclaimer: This game has been tested on a computer that was updated to Windows 10, and thus whether or not the resolution and windowed mode will persist in previous versions is unknown.
Story
You are someone who likes to play with toy soldiers, commanding your armies to overcome the advancing forces of the enemy. The battlefield is set, and you and the enemy have fortresses to defend, lives to keep safe and battles to win. So you have to make sure you’re prepared for everything and make sure you take down the enemy fortress before he/she takes yours down. The story in the Campaign mode is inconsistent in tone, but that’s not a bad thing. This is because the story in Campaign mode takes you through several worlds inhabited by your adverseries. When you win the battle, you take on the adversaries of the people you just beat. This way you’ll see all manner of scenery, giving the game a certain flow.
Graphics
Toy Soldiers: War Chest looks kiddy. It’s not kiddy, but it looks that way as there are bright colours, easily identifiable enemies and menus that are easily navigated. There is no gore whatsoever in the game, which is strange because war never felt so quaint before. When you are shooting down hordes of the advancing enemies and they fall down, you feel glee. They topple, just like true toy soldiers would. They halt, freeze up and fall down. Toy Soldiers doesn’t promote the grittiness of warfare, but keeps it light and by doing so, tells you: “It’s just a game.” The game is rated “Teen” as it is still war we are talking about and there are themes that suggest this rating, yet it could still be played by younger gamers and there would be little to nothing for them to be offended by. The war zones are not always gritty depictions of death and decay, some levels are filled with nothing but gingerbread figures and happy bright colours, in which you’ll be slaying advancing teddy bears, unicorns and fairies…
The game’s resolution can be adjusted, but for some reason, it doesn’t full screen when you want it to, it just stays windowed and cuts off parts of your screen. This is bothersome as nothing kills immersion more than windowed mode.
Sound
When you are in the menus a different tune can be heard, depending on whichever menu you are currently in. However when you are on the battlefield, things become less musical. It fades away and the only thing you’ll hear are the explosions and the gunfire. Next to that, you will also hear the reloading of guns and the screams of agony as you mow down the advancing enemies. When enemies are loosed upon the battlefield you’ll hear a notification. A soundtrack during the battles would make it all seem even more epic than it feels, as it currently stands, it feels a bit lackluster. The battles don’t really have the ‘OOMPH’ they could have if the air was laced with a bombastic tune.
Gameplay
Toy Soldiers: War Chest is a tower defence game. These type of games are easy to master and fun to learn but when it is too difficult it becomes trial and error to see just which piece of defence works in which part of the map. This isn’t something that will happen in Toy soldiers though. At certain positions of the map you’ll be able to set down artillery, which will take down your enemies. Certain artillery only works on certain enemies and the larger pieces of defence take up the larger plots on the map. Things like ballistae and air defences are examples of these bigger constructions. When you’ve accumulated enough money, you can upgrade your weapons and make them more effective. There are three kinds of upgrades: the strength of your bullets, the distance your defending weapon can reach, and the defence your defending weapon has. At first you’ll unlock the minor perks, but when you play the game, you’ll unlock better upgrades, which you’ll be able to outfit your weapons with.
Toy soldier: War Chest lets you operate your defences. You can mount any gun you’ve placed and take control, basically taking down opponents as you see fit, threats the A.I. might oversee or choose to ignore. Every mission has the main objective of making it through the assault without letting your toy box’ health reach zero. It depletes as enemy soldiers walk through its gates so it’s your job to take down the enemy before they are able to. Alongside this, you’ll be given optional goals, like don’t let your toy box’ health reach X health, repair your artillery X amount of times or kill X amount of enemies with a certain gun. Doing so will level you up and give you better perks for your chosen hero. These heroes are unlocked by playing or by buying the DLC packs.
If you don’t want to take on the A.I. because it’s too easy or it’s too predictable you can always take down another player or team up with another player to annihilate an enemy. This mode is fun because you never know what’s going to happen, as there is nothing more unpredictable as the mind and decisions of another thinking, feeling, decision making, human being.
Conclusion
Tower defence games are a pain to program, either the A.I. is too hard and it becomes tedious and frustrating, or the A.I. is too lenient and the stakes too low for it to be interesting. Toy Soldiers: War Chest finds that sweet spot and makes it interesting. Soundwise it might not feel all that massive, when you are in battle. If you want something nice to look at, Toy Soldier: War Chest has that covered too, the graphics are vibrant and colourful, and the destruction is abundant. So if you are looking for a decent tower defence game then sink your teeth into this game. If you are looking for a game that is easy to play and fun to learn, then jump unto the bandwagon also. If you have no affinity for tower defence games or don’t want to play with toy soldiers, then pass this up. Be mindful however, that you might miss up a barrel of fun.
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