The RTS tower-defense genre is one that I enjoy, since games in the genre are normally simple, but with tons of strategies to employ to beat either the AI or another player. Some are good, some not, and some can keep you coming back for more. The beauty of these types of games is that no two battles are the same. Now we have a sequel of previous game Sword and Soldiers, with Sword and Soldiers II Shawarmageddon (SaSII), and I must say that I was definitely surprised of the improvements when compared to the WII U version.
In SaSII, like the previous game, your units move from left to right and enemy units move contrary on your movement patterns. War is an expensive business so you need money to hire the different types of units from simple axe-throwers to elite heavy units, so each battle, while the starting line is similar, never plays out the same way twice. You need to send the gold collectors to a mine to get resources for your plans of domination, luckily often times the gold mine is close to your home base. After collecting a certain amount you can start to send units to conquer the enemy, however the AI is doing the same as you, so it’s a battle to see who can manage their resources better to come on top. Sometimes the gold mine is not enough so in each stage you can find gold chests that are dropped from above. To collect them you move your cursor over it and press A, then a gatherer will travel to pick it up and return to your home base adding it to the gold reserve, making it easier to summon units. There is also the option lo let them pile on each other so you can haul a large amount back, however each chest has weight, the more weight they carry the slower the gatherers walk. This makes them easy targets for enemies to kill and then they can claim the gold or mana for themselves. Just like gold boxes fall from the sky, there are also mana boxes that fall and when you pick them up your mana increases to use magic and skills.
Because of the game’s nature as a RTS, the control you have over your minions is like wind-up toys. They walk towards the enemy base, fighting against enemy minions automatically once close, you can use mana to heal them or even give them a small power-up, but they are expendable. As such if one couldn’t get far maybe 10 could succeed. Where the strategic elements of SaSII come into play, depends on the faction that you choose: Vikings, Persians, and Demons. Each faction has different ways to gather mana and gold, for example, the Persians sword fighters can heal after defeating an enemy, it’s not much but it guarantees the unit will survive longer on the field. The Demons have a small imp rolling down in a explosive barrel, that deals massive damage but at the cost of losing that unit (1-hit kill). The Vikings have an ax thrower that begins attacking at a certain range, so the enemy takes a couple of hits before it starts attacking your unit. Each faction has a lot of different units and spells to choose from so you can experiment to your hearts content. The Story campaign is as wacky as you could imagine with more missions seen that in the WII U version; just beating that mode can give you several hours of fun, though I don’t want to spoil it so you’ll have to experience the story for yourself.
A Review code was provided for this review.