Kotaku
I spent way too much time playing Advance Wars: Day of Ruins over the weekend. The latest in the franchise, remains just as addictive as its predecessors. I was disappointed to find that the more detailed, grittier look found in the game's cut scenes vanish when you drop into play.
Once you're in the game, duking it out with a new slate of bad guys across a post apocalyptic wasteland, the game looks an awful lot like Advance Wars Dual Strike. Fortunately you don't have a whole lot of time to sit around marveling at how the vehicles still look like Tonka trucks, because the game's artificial intelligence ramps up quickly.
By level 14, in fact, I had hit the sort of wall that required me to play the conflict over, and over, and over again, getting so annoyed at my imaginary adversary at one point that me wife asked me who I was playing. (She walked off in disgust when she realized I'd been yelling at the DS and not a real person.)
In fact, some of the single player campaign battles almost feel like tactical brainteasers. These levels are constructed so tightly that I suspect there are actually only a few ways to win.
The gameplay is pretty much the same as found in previous versions, though a few tweaks and a few new units help to make the experience feel fresh.
The game allows your units to level up in battle, up to level three. Each time you defeat an enemy and go up a level that unit gets a bonus in attack and defense.
While the commander special attacks found in Dual Strike remain in the game, you can also now pick the commander up in a unit, which gets an instant jump up to level 3. A zone around the commander's unit also gets offensive and defensive boosts. The zone increases as your commander's power boosts with victories. When the unit carrying the commander is defeated the commander is sent back to camp to await a new ride, but not removed permanently from the battle.
The new units also add a couple of twists to gameplay. For instance, rigs can build temporary ports and airports. Other new units include motorcycle-mounted infantry units, a land or air attacking Duster plane, a mobile anti-tank unit and a unit that can shoot a flare to reveal hidden units.
Since I was tucked away in the mountains, internet free, over the weekend I wasn't able to test out the coolest new feature of Days of Ruins: The voice-chat enabled online play.
The game supports up to four players either in online play or local multi-card play. It also allows you to create and trade maps, which should give the game plenty of legs.
Having spent the weekend, mostly, beating up AI, I'm psyched to test out my tactics on real live opponents.
Even if the game hadn't changed a thing from Dual Strike the inclusion of online multiplay would make it worth the price, but the beefed up AI and play tweaks mean that I've got a new addition I can carry around in my pocket.
Comments
Nice impression Crecente!
Will be looking foward to getting my hands on this game.
"The game introduces weather"
ummm.... huh.
@Moonshadow101: Yeah, Dual Strike had weather too. Snow sucked...
Oh I really want to buy this but I've been playing Dual Strike and I need money to buy Brawl.
Can you play Wi-Fi battles with random people online or are you restricted to friends only?
The experience system sounds as though they cribbed it almost directly from Age of Empires DS, which is a good thing as that game made a lot of really good design decisions.
But if the scenarios are as tightly-designed as you say, I'll probably wait on someone FAQing this to obsession before picking it up.
I think I will be picking this game up after I beat Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones. My friend loves AW and since this one is online I can play online with him. I hope this game supports the headset because I still haven't opened mine.
The wifi.
Divulge on the wifi...
@fyren:
You lose for not reading after the jump :/
LOL "(She walked off in disgust when she realized I'd been yelling at the DS and not a real person.)".....priceless
Your wife walked off in disgust, Brian?
Really?
That seems rather harsh!
I need to pick up a DS again.
....
someday..
i keep on reselling the one i buy off of ebay back on ebay.
sigh.
@badasscat: Whoops, that's what i get for writing impressions from a location without the previous version of the game handy and no internet. Sorry, fixed it.
Either mike or i will be writing up online impressions later today.
Gah, here we go again. It seems that where the 360 took all of my money in the fall, now the Nintendo wants it all this spring. No More Heroes, Brawl, Advance Wars, and I'm sure there are some I'm not mentioning.
I'm still playing games from the fall.
@Moonshadow101: Is it me, or was there some weather influence (namely Blizzard) already in the very first Advance Wars?
@crecente: You know....having been married to you, seems like your wife would expect nothing less. XD
But anyway, it's nice to see this game is worth a purchase. I need me a new DS game.
Crecente just punched me right in the wallet. Dammit.
Hey um quick question about this game.
From the TV the game looks a lot like Fire Emblem, if that is true I will have to buy a DS and this game, so uh, is it true?
Hmmmm. This tactical focus reminds me of he VC's Military Madness... never did finish that game. I was just getting increasingly annoyed at how you had to jump through the very specific hoops for each mission, so that to win there was basically only 1 viable set of moves you could do... I suppose I'll have to give this a try anyway. The first several levels of MM WERE decent enough.
I find it interesting to note how AW differs from FE... FE seems to be far more freeform, but I think it loses on scale, due to individual units (and rarely more than 10 of those).
AW, despite the plot which is at times quite intriguing, is very much not an RPG. I mean you have characters, but besides the different commander skills, which come in pretty late in the campaign, they're really not a part of the battles. It's a dyed in the wool turn-based strategy game, a really good one.
Oh, and feel free, once the game launches, to come back and bitch about level 14. GAH!
Massive advance wars fan, and this impression has just made me want it more...
@PXShaman: The differences between Fire Emblem and Advance Wars are many, but the gameplay is similar. The biggest difference is that while Advance Wars units gain experience and power in battle, it doesn't carry over to the next field. Your units don't stay leveled up. Also, Fire Emblem has a great amount of focus on what happens between battles, and you can somewhat control that with user input. Advance Wars is more about text scrolling between battles, where you have no real input.
I would also say that barring level 14 according to Crecente, Advance Wars is a more forgiving strategy game compared to Fire Emblem. Not forgiving like it's easy, but forgiving in that there are multiple ways to win and screwing up doesn't necessarilly mean starting over.
So far I'm enjoying Days of Ruin, but disappointingly, it's not the leap forward that the first DS iteration was. Still, even if it's not something new, it's still the same solid Advance Wars that we know and love.
You know, there is only one thing I want to know right now, No more Heroes or DMC4?
AWDR is coming for sure.
Damn this game for being so good, I'm going to be months catching up to the point where I have time to play it, I'm still working through the 2007 stuff! ;)
Cannot wait til this comes out here in England in a few days. You have to love Advance Wars.
@Cruithne: Hey Cruthine, want to play some online today? What's your friend code?
Ah Crescente, with your silvery tongue and your dazzling birdy shirts, how could I say no?
Uh, I have to find the WEP key for my WiFi and I'll be right with you.
Give me five minutes or so.
@Cruithne: I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. Vehicular infantry. Infinite replayability through custom maps tradeable over Wi-Fi.
Creating buildings using units. COs on the battlefield.
This is a pretty damn huge leap forward, if you ask me. I'm only on Mission 5 or so right now, so I can't say exactly how awesome some of these new units are yet, but I'm willing to bet that they're pretty damn good.
Somehow, this impression just makes me want the game quite a bit more, but do not have the money for the day it is available in store...
[glances over at still-shrinkwrapped copy of Dual Strike]
Must find time...
Really that hard? I'm at mission 9 or so and it hasn't been hard at all. The only time I've had to repeat mission was for an S rank.
My friend code is 412440-877865 if anyone else wants to play.
Played, and loved, the first GBA iteration. Superb series but feel very been there done that.
If you have enough spare time for such a time sink (in a good way!), or havnt tried any of the earlier ones, I understand you may want to pick this up thou.
You guys must be in bed with this game.. If I here that new breath quote from your website on TV one more time I'm gonna break something..
That commercial is ON so many times.
I'm sure this games campaign has nothing on the original GBA Advance Wars Advance Campaign. That was less of a brain teaser and more of a brain melter.
By the way, NA gamers are on average abysmally bad at tactics games, so it's no surprise when something remotely difficult is decried as 'too hard'.
I cannot wait to get this game. And a DS.
@mjemirzian: Well, that's not very nice. What are you going to say next, white men can't jump?
Come on, now.
This game, and its ridgedly structured pathways to success is reminiscent of one of my favorite games of all times! Military Madness. Another game in which there are only a handfull of viable strategies per level, and deviation from that strategy will result in cataclysmic failure.
God I love games with zero tolerance!
These levels are constructed so tightly that I suspect there are actually only a few ways to win.
No Days of Ruin for me then. I can't stay far enough away from games like that, I learned my lesson with Jeanne d'Arc. In a lot of the battles in that game, you really only had one way to play it to survive- you had to be exactly correct with the way the game wanted you to play or you're toast.
OK Back
Friend code 532700-011753
I added you, Cruithne, so let me know if you want to play later.
@Cruithne: Good luck against Crecente. Kick his ass for the team!
@belain:
yeah, that's what I meant. On the other hand, you don't have the FE-style "start over if there is any lucky hit or unexpected battle and you just lost a unit" gameplay... man, I wish there was more of a blend. I really like the more military feel of AW but having a rigid road to victory is hardly a good thing. Although I suppose it is a bit more tactically interesting, as opposed to FE, where many of the battles are variations on "overpowered melee units kill everything while magic/bow units kill anything wearing armor". I'm glad they mixed that up a bit in PoR with the defense missions and odd enviroments.
We really need a new series that combines the best of both worlds...
I just added you too viper, so We're good to go, I don't know what's happening with Crescente.
Does this game still have the dual CO powers? I thought that was too broken in Dual Strike
Alright then. Do you want to host?
Is it me or id the cover/artwork very SNKish?
It said you were hosting, but
er
you're kind of in and out. got connection problems?
Tried joining again and it said you disconnected.
And a third time.
Huh. Now I got disconnected.