Battalion Wars (Wii) Preview

[Lovingwii]

Battalion Wars (Wii) Preview



Imagine a game that combines Advance Wars, superb level design, glorious 3D graphics and addictive gameplay; the outcome? Battalion Wars of course. Released back late 2005 as one of the Gamecubes last ever games to appear on the console, it delivered what was one of the best real time strategies ever. Players controlled their own character as well as an entire battalion consisting of soldiers, tanks and aircraft. Sounds confusing, well it wasn’t. Kuju created a great control scheme implanting the C-stick to select the different parts of your battalion and by pressing either Y or X would send them to attack the enemy or defend different areas. Each level was incredibly well designed and it could take ages to master. Fast forward to 2007 and Kuju are in the final stages of the long awaited sequel Battalion Wars 2 (Also known as BWii - see what they did there). So what have Kuju done to improve on the already great Gamecube game?



So the game follows on from where the first Battalion Wars left off. Tricked into believing that the Solar Empire is developing a devastating super-weapon, Commander Pierce and Colonel Windsor of the Anglo Isles launch a pre-emptive strike. General Herman and Brigadier Betty of the Western Frontier are on garrison duty in the Solar Empire when the Anglos strike and assist Empress Lei-Qo and Admiral A-Qira in repelling the invaders. But as the nations of the world, including the Tundran Territories, are once again propelled into all-out conflict, it becomes clear that a shadowy figure is pulling the strings from afar. This time, players will travel back in time back to when the Solar Empire are at war with the Iron Legion and try to change the course of history. Like the original Battalion wars, the main story is split into 20+ chapters.

So Kuju have really taken advantage of the Wii’s graphical power. Screenshots really don’t do the game justice, sure they look ok in the stills, but its nothing compared to what it will look like in motion. The game runs at a solid 30 Frames Per Second with literally hundreds of bullets flying through the air and with explosions constantly going off; its none stop stuff. Also character expression has been improved over the previous game, for example taking your men into a patch of flowers will cause them to start sneezing and wipe their nose or when you’re reversing in a recon unit, your character will look behind them to see where they are going. Although small, the details add a lot of personality to the characters and despite the cartoony graphics build a more realistic effect.



Unlike Advance Wars, Battalion Wars didn’t use bases so you couldn’t rebuild your units if they died or were destroyed, but this time you can. Scattered around the map are various buildings that you can capture. These can include airfields, docks (more on that in a minute) and factories. Each base obviously develops their own type of unit. So airfields would develop aircraft and factories would develop tanks and infantry. How is making each unit done? Well to be honest that hasn't been confirmed yet but in Advance Wars you had to spend money to make a certain unit and once you had built the unit you would have to wait a turn before you could use it so we're expecting something along those lines. This will be cleared up in an upcoming review for the game. As well as bases there are HQ‘s to capture, (your main base - if that gets captured its game over) and defensive barracks, so already the game is more strategic than its prequel.



So as I semi-mentioned earlier, naval units now make an appearance in the game. There will be 5 naval units in the final game. They are: Battleships, Frigates, Submarines, Dreadnoughts and Transport ships. Each unit has its own special ability. Battleships can be used like artillery and fire across large areas both over land and sea while Frigates are used to attack mainly submarines since they are fast and well armed. Submarines are vulnerable when exposed, but deadly underwater, they should be used mainly to attack Battleships and Dreadnoughts - the most powerful unit in the fleet. With various different weapons that can attack any unit, the dreadnought units will be key for the success of your battle. Finally, the transport ships; pretty self-explanatory, these units can carry units from one beach head or port to another.

Some of you may of played the original, but you couldn’t help but feel how great a multi-player mode would of made the game. Well Kuju thought that too. But, not only have they added split screen multiplayer, they’ve added full online play as well. There are three different modes to choose from, these include Assault (which is just an all out standard war), Skirmish (much more tactical than assault and with smaller armies) and finally Co-Op (work with friends) - I’ll go into more detail for each mode below.

First off, assault. So as the name suggests more or less, you have to search for your opponent on the map and go all out with your team and shoot every single one of their battalion. Its up to you whether you incorporate tactics or not, but the main idea of the game is to destroy the enemy as quickly and as effectively as you can.



Now for the Skirmish mode, this is the most tactical of the three modes since it involves you having to use strategy to out-wit your enemy; so you’ll need to use everything to your advantage. Whether that would be, using navel units to send troops in via sea or using the base’s to deploy more units into the enemies territory, the battles could last hours.

Last but not least is the inclusion of the Co-Op mode. This can be done with either 2 players playing through on one Nintendo Wii console or it can be done wirelessly through the Nintendo Wifi Connection. This is a fantastic addition to the game since it will be the first time players can control battalions with a friend on all 15 co-op missions. Hopefully Nintendo will include full voice chat for the game, since it would seem impossible to do co-op online without any communication as you couldn't discuss tactics or battle plans; perhaps this is why the game is taking so long.

If like me you loved the original, you should already be saving up to purchase the game but if you didn’t you should start planning as well. With improvements the game needed over the original, you can expect this to be a finely crafted game. With the addition of online, bases and new naval units, this is one game you simply must consider to purchase. With the game getting released in America on the October 29th and Europe sometime in 2007 stick around with Nintencast for a full review and plenty more media to come before.

Source

[victorye]

hope this is gonna be good