Advance Wars: Days of Ruin Review
Our good friend and resident DS expert MasterP has written an awesome review on the new turn-based strategy game Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. I’m posting it on his behalf for now…mainly to experiment and see how reviews should be posted here before setting the general format guidelines us authors should try to follow. Anyway, hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
“Days of Ruin” places a dark veil on the Advance Wars series that we’ve come to know and love. While I am typically a huge fan of games that take a light hearted approach, I have to be honest in the fact that after playing this game, I wholeheartedly welcome the majority of the changes that Intelligent Systems has made. The removal of the “Blue Sky” atmosphere, along with a wonderful narrative, has worked wonders for the game in comparison to its predecessors.
In this latest installment, the Earth has been blanketed in a maelstrom of meteors that have left nothing but death and destruction in their wake. 90% of the world’s population has been annihilated and you immediately take control of “Will,” a young man who has just spent the better part of a week digging himself out of the rubble that used to be his military academy. Almost immediately afterwards, he is accosted by a band of raiders. Things immediately look bleak for him but just as the enemy is closing in on him, Capt. Brenner and his first lieutenant, Lin, rescue him. This sets the player up for the adventure that lies ahead as they command a legion of troops across the devastated countryside searching for war survivors. The plot becomes increasingly complex, with several surprises but I don’t want to spoil anything.
The gameplay takes place in a Turn Based Strategy environment where the player must command various squads against the opposition. The conditions required for victory change between fights and these include “capture the enemy HQ,” “defeat all enemy units.” The type of units range from ground units, such as infantry and war tanks, to airborne units, such as helicopters and fighter jets and all of their strengths and weaknesses are determined by a simple-yet-complicated rock/paper/scissors format. Each of these different units cost a certain amount of money and you acquire this by commandeering cities using your infantry units. With enough money, you can then build units from any captured “base”, “port”, or “airport.” There are other units that can be built outside of this system but they are introduced later in the game.
Intelligent Systems has made a number of changes between this game and its previous incarnation, Dual Strike that make for a very pleasant experience. First of all, Commanding Officers (CO’s) have had their involvement tweaked downwards quite a bit. In this game, depending on the CO that you choose for your army, their respective troops can receive a stat boost depending on how close they are to the unit that the CO is riding with. As units within range of the CO’s unit (determined by a “CO Zone”) inflict damage on enemy forces, a power meter fills up. Initially, this only affects the size of the CO Zone, however once its actually filled to maximum capacity, a “CO Power” can be activated which causes various things to occur on the field or to the player’s units for the duration of one turn. This seems to have been toned down since the previous games where many had considered CO Powers, which were far more outlandish at the time, to be a rather broken component.
Another change that was made to the game was a severe rebalancing of the units along with addition more types of units to support this balance. Some examples of these new units are Bike Infrantry, which have a greater movement rating than typical infantry but the same level of firepower, and the Duster, a new flying unit that doesn’t cost a great deal but lends a helping hand when those pesky Fighter Jets want to come out and play. Unfortunately, some units were removed to be replaced by these new models, mainly the Black Hole units that were introduced in Dual Strike (Black Bomb and Black Boat). Also, some of the pre-existing units have received some tweaks with the most obvious one being that Battleships are now the only indirect attack unit that can move and attack during the same turn.
Unfortunately, I had to save the negatives for last and there are a few. This game is the first in the series to feature Wi-Fi battle sessions. They give you a wide variety of levels to choose from and I’ve not experienced any lag or slowdown during gameplay sessions. The inclusion of a new Map Editor that allows for trade over Wi-Fi means that you’ll never be without a new challenge should you desire one. However, it is most unfortunate that this option only supports two player battles while the normal game supports up to four. Secondly, the features and options in this game are severely toned down from what was offered in Advance Wars Dual Strike. They have removed both the store and survival modes. Lastly, aside from the CO’s, which you acquire from playing through the campaign, there isn’t anything to unlock in this title. Of course, some people may find this to be more of a blessing than a curse since you won’t have to spend time struggling to get those “S” ranks for anything aside from personal satisfaction.
In summary, I was originally worried that the sudden decision to change the series’ atmosphere would be a death knell lurking in the shadows. Oh, how wrong I was. And fortunately for that fact, we all can benefit from erroneous logic. Go out and pick this game up ASAP! You’ll thank yourself for it later. This much, I can guarantee!
DISCLAIMER: Master P’s Guarantee bears no financial or emotional compensation in the event that it fails you.
