As you progress through the game, you’ll take part in a somewhat confusing narrative which involves numerous factions and armies fighting each other over specific weaponry while other nations are building their own super-weaponry, which of course causes more conflict later on. Luckily, the game doesn’t dwell on this narrative for too long and is more focused on the mission-based campaigns that you’ll play through and the tasks you’ll need to complete. You’ll have access to a number of different vehicles and infantry types, including soldiers armed with bazookas, flame-throwers and your other basic artillery along with light tanks, jet-fighters and the new addition to Battalion Wars 2 – battleships so that you can attack from the water. The variety in different ways of attack is good and means that if you’re bored using one particular unit, you can switch to control another one by simply aiming at it and holding down the A button.
They may look cute, but they'll blow your head off.
Controls in the game are quite simple; moving around is done by moving the analog stick on the nunchuk combined with the Wii remote pointing in the direction you wish to look. When you spot an enemy, lock onto it with the Z button and then fire at it with the B button until it’s defeated. Pretty easy, eh? Of course, you’ll have the rest of your battalion to worry about as well, but they’re basic to control too. Once locked onto an enemy, pressing the A button will signal your troops to attack them, and you can assign your entire battalion to do this or separate your units to give them different tasks. A flaw with this control scheme is that the only generic commands you can give are ‘Wait’ and ‘Follow’. So if you’re in trouble, there isn’t really a way to retreat; you’ll just have to set your battalion to follow you and retreat yourself, which isn’t always the best course of action.
There are some added Wii controls that don’t quite work as well as the point, click and attack style controls do. The nunchuk can be moved to the left and right in combination with the analog stick to dive out of harms way if on foot, and can be flicked upwards to jump, though we found these particular controls tacked on and mostly ineffective, with the jumping in particular not being very responsive. There is also the unintentional flaw of locking on doing most of the work for you. Simply holding down the lock-on button means that after you defeat what you’re aimed it, you’ll quickly lock-on to the next nearest enemy, and even though this does make the game feel a lot easier, it takes away from the idea that you should strategically decide what to do next by simply choosing it for you with great effectiveness.
Take to the skis. Erm... skies, we mean.
Despite the gameplay flaws in Battalion Wars 2, the campaign is still quite fun to play through. Objectives remain similar throughout each mission, whether it be capturing a point, destroying a number of targets or defending a base, but given that you’ll have access to different units at different times, they never feel too samey. Other elements are introduced such as enemies which require flanking due to having cover and many other ‘rock-paper-scissors’ style elements where anti-air vehicles are great against flying enemies, but useless everywhere else. This style is present in every battle, with every unit having its own unique strengths and weaknesses. Each mission also has a rating system based on how well you perform. Getting 100% is difficult here, as you’ll need to complete the level in a set time limit while keeping all of your units in tact and making sure to defeat every opposing unit you come across. It extends the lifespan for the completionists out there and gives players something extra to strive for.
Also featuring in the game is online multiplayer which can be played competitively or cooperatively. You can participate in a Skirmish, which is basically one-on-one throwing everything you’ve got at each other until there is only one player left standing; Assault, where you’re given numerous objectives that you’ll need to complete over a set time period while your opponent does their best to defend against you; and the Cooperative mode where you’ll need to work together to do a number of set objectives, controlling different units to tackle the situation strategically. Although the game has flaws that other Wii games have when taken online (friend codes, no voice chat etc), we found the games that we played relatively lag-free and didn’t suffer many connection issues when trying to find a game. There are also some other helpful on-screen indicators, such as in the cooperative modes, the target that your partner is locked onto will flash so that you know exactly where they are attacking, making combined assaults easier. We really had a good time in multiplayer, even though it may not be as expansive or have as many options as some other games on the market.
Battling on the sea is a nice change.
The art style in Battalion Wars 2 is similar to that of the prequel, with armies looking kind of cute and colourful despite being rather damaging. Explosions look good, and the graphics are overall a major improvement over the original, which is great to see. There is a variety in the different locations you’ll battle on and the units all look unique to each other so there is no confusion. The soundtrack to the game is also very easy on the ears and helps to create the whole ‘wartime’ feeling, but the voiceovers are really more of a hit and miss area, with some sounding good and others sounding like terrible caricatures.
Battalion Wars 2 successfully translates the fun strategic battle gameplay over to the Wii, with a simple yet effective graphical flare combined with what is for the most part, fairly solid gameplay. While it does suffer from some strange design decisions with some ineffective controls mapped to the nunchuk, there is still a fun game to be had here. While it may not be packed with features, the online mode is also one of the best experiences we’ve had over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The major issue with the game is that it isn’t vastly different from the original, but if you were a massive fan of the original Battalion Wars or if you’ve never played the Gamecube predecessor, then you’ll probably find a lot to like here if you have any interest in the genre at all.
Loading...
