4th January 2008, 3:57 PM
Did anyone else get this? Holy krap the last levels are hard and before you say go to gamefaqs this is a small effort at generating some convo
brief review:
visuals: not blow you away awesome but better than GC. Lots of care in the effects and tiny details like the bump mapping look great. In general, nice to look at. The increased draw distance (nearly infinite) comes with a price: pop-up. It's rare but it happens. Explosions look CGI, really well done and of course there's more on screen, bigger armies and larger battles.
Sound: I dont have my surround sound hooked up so i'm just in stereo. They had fun designing the sound and incorporating the wiimote speaker, there's satisfying sounds of reloading in the battleships that just beg to be admired and the aural effect of ambience has been increased. Something I keep noticing on Wii with its sound in games is the dynamics of position and distance. Think of a car driving by you or hearing a train pass you, yunno how it changes in pitch and depth? I heard it in MP3 and SMG as well and BWii is no different. Play it with the music off to get the full effect. Your army talking shit back and forth is back too. After using an assault vet to take down a bazooka vet and hearing him say "Stay down!" you cant help but smile.
controls: odd, takes some getting used to. There's absolutely no learning curve with the controls, you're just thrown in (which is kinda nice), once you get used to it though it becomes second nature.
Gameplay: I love it when a well made game can make you feel like a genius when you figure something out and accomplish a victory, BWii tells what to do but not how to do it so much as hint as it. In some levels it leaves things open to go explore and in others it's very linear. It's a good mix. The AI is increased and the rock, paper, scissors mechanic is in full swing but has been made more detailed and dynamic. Subs can dive to avoid all enemy fire (except for subs and frigates), frigates themselves are anti-air but automatically switch to depth charges when near a sub. It's all very polished and perfected, if you lose some of your men it's entirely your fault since you can "perfect" the level with practice. At first, you'll die all over the place but once you get it down, you'll wipe entire armies out without having to join the fight. It is real-time Advance Wars in every way, much more so than the first BW. Major downside (imo) is that you cant point to a location and send your troops there, something you could in the first BW. However there is a new command called Guard, point at a friendly location and hit A, they dig in and secure the location... pretty cool. No local multiplayer and I haven't tried wi-fi multi yet but I hear it's a lot of fun. The ability to control units from the map screen, as far as I can tell, did not make it in to the final version
Presentation: Think of every great war film. Make it a cartoon. Throw in british humor. Now make it feel like you're playing war with the most interactive toys ever made and you have BWii. What's also nice is that you can unlock concept art and a gallery to get info on units and view the models. Sometimes the voices are questionable in their ability to offend, I cant help but think as a designer and making General "Ah-Qira" (get it?) sound like a bad Japanese impersonator and how well that would go over with... yunno, Japan. But everyone is made fun of evenly, including the Western Frontier (guess who they represent) with making comments of shock and awe and being overbearing assholes and the Anglo Isles commanded by a semi-retarded Gretson - "I say I do believe the Solar Empire is launching an offensive, wot. Care for a tea? *chandelier lands on the table as the house is bombed* Right..." It's great stuff and of course lighthearted.
If you like strat, buy this. If you liked Pikmin, buy this. If you're looking for something like a third person shooter, avoid it - it's an AAA strategy game through and through.
brief review:
visuals: not blow you away awesome but better than GC. Lots of care in the effects and tiny details like the bump mapping look great. In general, nice to look at. The increased draw distance (nearly infinite) comes with a price: pop-up. It's rare but it happens. Explosions look CGI, really well done and of course there's more on screen, bigger armies and larger battles.
Sound: I dont have my surround sound hooked up so i'm just in stereo. They had fun designing the sound and incorporating the wiimote speaker, there's satisfying sounds of reloading in the battleships that just beg to be admired and the aural effect of ambience has been increased. Something I keep noticing on Wii with its sound in games is the dynamics of position and distance. Think of a car driving by you or hearing a train pass you, yunno how it changes in pitch and depth? I heard it in MP3 and SMG as well and BWii is no different. Play it with the music off to get the full effect. Your army talking shit back and forth is back too. After using an assault vet to take down a bazooka vet and hearing him say "Stay down!" you cant help but smile.
controls: odd, takes some getting used to. There's absolutely no learning curve with the controls, you're just thrown in (which is kinda nice), once you get used to it though it becomes second nature.
Gameplay: I love it when a well made game can make you feel like a genius when you figure something out and accomplish a victory, BWii tells what to do but not how to do it so much as hint as it. In some levels it leaves things open to go explore and in others it's very linear. It's a good mix. The AI is increased and the rock, paper, scissors mechanic is in full swing but has been made more detailed and dynamic. Subs can dive to avoid all enemy fire (except for subs and frigates), frigates themselves are anti-air but automatically switch to depth charges when near a sub. It's all very polished and perfected, if you lose some of your men it's entirely your fault since you can "perfect" the level with practice. At first, you'll die all over the place but once you get it down, you'll wipe entire armies out without having to join the fight. It is real-time Advance Wars in every way, much more so than the first BW. Major downside (imo) is that you cant point to a location and send your troops there, something you could in the first BW. However there is a new command called Guard, point at a friendly location and hit A, they dig in and secure the location... pretty cool. No local multiplayer and I haven't tried wi-fi multi yet but I hear it's a lot of fun. The ability to control units from the map screen, as far as I can tell, did not make it in to the final version
Presentation: Think of every great war film. Make it a cartoon. Throw in british humor. Now make it feel like you're playing war with the most interactive toys ever made and you have BWii. What's also nice is that you can unlock concept art and a gallery to get info on units and view the models. Sometimes the voices are questionable in their ability to offend, I cant help but think as a designer and making General "Ah-Qira" (get it?) sound like a bad Japanese impersonator and how well that would go over with... yunno, Japan. But everyone is made fun of evenly, including the Western Frontier (guess who they represent) with making comments of shock and awe and being overbearing assholes and the Anglo Isles commanded by a semi-retarded Gretson - "I say I do believe the Solar Empire is launching an offensive, wot. Care for a tea? *chandelier lands on the table as the house is bombed* Right..." It's great stuff and of course lighthearted.
If you like strat, buy this. If you liked Pikmin, buy this. If you're looking for something like a third person shooter, avoid it - it's an AAA strategy game through and through.