Toy Soldiers is an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive release that looked interesting and didn't disappoint. It is a simple RTS game mixed with some shooter characteristics, as the objective of the game is to prevent enemy soldiers from reaching your toy box by strategically placing artillery and using vehicles to kill them before they get there.
Gameplay: 9.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
This game is definitely an innovation on typical RTS games that focus on gathering units and watching them duke it out. You can take control of any emplacement you put on the map and use it to take down enemies more effectively than an AI would.
Enemies will rarely attack your emplacements, but rather mostly focus on moving from their starting point to the end point. If you allow a certain number of units past, you lose. Pretty simple stuff.
You get money for killing units and even more money for killing units in large combos. That money is used to build, repair and upgrade your weaponry.
The weaponry you can put on the map can be howitzer-style artillery, mortar cannons, machine guns, flamethrowers/poison gas, and you can also take control of planes, tanks and a sniper in order to repel the enemy forces.
It would be a little better if the maps were more intricate and you could place weaponry anywhere on the map as opposed to within specific slots. It often feels like once you've figured out the right unit combination, the computer can take over and win the game for you while you watch stuff die.
The difficulty sliders are actually pretty insane, so you can choose your level of involvement. I played on Normal and it was pretty good.
Presentation: 10.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
It is an Xbox Live Arcade game meaning they had limited space to work with, but the audio is in an old-timey style, the visuals are all tinker-toy looking and there are a lot of nice touches that make this a good-looking game.
Theatrics: 1.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
I don't know if their missions try to have a story behind them - you get little videos and text kind of telling you what is going on, but they don't seem to go in any sort of order.
The battles are supposed to be the Kaiser versus the Allied forces, and seemingly notable battles between the two are re-created through this little game.
No real story, and it doesn't try very hard to have a story. Low rating, but this is basically meaningless.
Controls: 8.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Since most RTS games are really rocky on consoles, Toy Soldiers plays pretty smoothly for an RTS-style game. It took me a little while to get used to all of the controls, but once I did they were pretty seamless. I do wish the game played a little faster because chugging around in your tank and taking literally 5 full seconds just to turn around can get really tiresome.
The flying controls for the airplanes are a little strange, but once you get used to them they are actually pretty good. The control issues are mostly due to being unusual, but if more games used their methods I think it would be for the best.
Replay Value: 9.5
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
This is a huge bang for the buck. The last I checked it was $15 on the Xbox Live Arcade, and I played all of their campaign missions plus their Campaign+, which is mostly the same battles but with more difficult obstacles to overcome, like darkness or hoards of enemies.
This would get a perfect score if their multiplayer wasn't so glitchy. I played a few games (or tried to) against a friend and the game crashed within the first few minutes every time, and it didn't seem to be network issues. It was as if a game event happened that was a little strange and the game didn't know how to handle it, so it quit. That was a little disappointing, but even without multiplayer this is a great value. I probably got about 30 hours of play time out of it.
Fun: 8.5
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
Toy Soldiers, overall, is a reasonably fun game. There are no big wow moments, and occasionally the game can get a little dull and hopeless if you make unknowing mistakes and lose, having to re-start the battle.
The game really is slow, and I think speeding it up and therefore making more intense action would have really helped it out.
My Overall Rating: 8.8
Complexity Level: Reasonably Simple. Anybody who has played shooters should be able to pick this up with no problems and have fun with it. It's a pretty simple strategy game and the most difficult parts are manning some of the weaponry. There is a quick tutorial mission to show you what you're supposed to do, but it's not like there's much of a learning curve.
Gameplay: 9.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
This game is definitely an innovation on typical RTS games that focus on gathering units and watching them duke it out. You can take control of any emplacement you put on the map and use it to take down enemies more effectively than an AI would.
Enemies will rarely attack your emplacements, but rather mostly focus on moving from their starting point to the end point. If you allow a certain number of units past, you lose. Pretty simple stuff.
You get money for killing units and even more money for killing units in large combos. That money is used to build, repair and upgrade your weaponry.
The weaponry you can put on the map can be howitzer-style artillery, mortar cannons, machine guns, flamethrowers/poison gas, and you can also take control of planes, tanks and a sniper in order to repel the enemy forces.
It would be a little better if the maps were more intricate and you could place weaponry anywhere on the map as opposed to within specific slots. It often feels like once you've figured out the right unit combination, the computer can take over and win the game for you while you watch stuff die.
The difficulty sliders are actually pretty insane, so you can choose your level of involvement. I played on Normal and it was pretty good.
Presentation: 10.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
It is an Xbox Live Arcade game meaning they had limited space to work with, but the audio is in an old-timey style, the visuals are all tinker-toy looking and there are a lot of nice touches that make this a good-looking game.
Theatrics: 1.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
I don't know if their missions try to have a story behind them - you get little videos and text kind of telling you what is going on, but they don't seem to go in any sort of order.
The battles are supposed to be the Kaiser versus the Allied forces, and seemingly notable battles between the two are re-created through this little game.
No real story, and it doesn't try very hard to have a story. Low rating, but this is basically meaningless.
Controls: 8.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Since most RTS games are really rocky on consoles, Toy Soldiers plays pretty smoothly for an RTS-style game. It took me a little while to get used to all of the controls, but once I did they were pretty seamless. I do wish the game played a little faster because chugging around in your tank and taking literally 5 full seconds just to turn around can get really tiresome.
The flying controls for the airplanes are a little strange, but once you get used to them they are actually pretty good. The control issues are mostly due to being unusual, but if more games used their methods I think it would be for the best.
Replay Value: 9.5
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
This is a huge bang for the buck. The last I checked it was $15 on the Xbox Live Arcade, and I played all of their campaign missions plus their Campaign+, which is mostly the same battles but with more difficult obstacles to overcome, like darkness or hoards of enemies.
This would get a perfect score if their multiplayer wasn't so glitchy. I played a few games (or tried to) against a friend and the game crashed within the first few minutes every time, and it didn't seem to be network issues. It was as if a game event happened that was a little strange and the game didn't know how to handle it, so it quit. That was a little disappointing, but even without multiplayer this is a great value. I probably got about 30 hours of play time out of it.
Fun: 8.5
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
Toy Soldiers, overall, is a reasonably fun game. There are no big wow moments, and occasionally the game can get a little dull and hopeless if you make unknowing mistakes and lose, having to re-start the battle.
The game really is slow, and I think speeding it up and therefore making more intense action would have really helped it out.
My Overall Rating: 8.8
Complexity Level: Reasonably Simple. Anybody who has played shooters should be able to pick this up with no problems and have fun with it. It's a pretty simple strategy game and the most difficult parts are manning some of the weaponry. There is a quick tutorial mission to show you what you're supposed to do, but it's not like there's much of a learning curve.
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