Warside

I hate to recommend against a game like this, but I really just can't find myself to tell people they should spend their money on it. Warside has extremely charming art and a lot of love put into it, but it's campaign felt far too short to me, and I just wish in pretty much every way it had more. I was really excited for an Advance Wars like game that took the strategy further, but while it adds units with some interesting powers it overall falls flat in the fun aspect. Maybe if you're super into the competitive side of these games it holds up better, but I really just wish there were more. More types of buildings to interact with that had something unique to them (capturable turrets? Hell I'd settle for AW radio towers...), more types of units, more interesting commander powers and commander strengths and weaknesses... It's not a bad game, I just don't see how it offers a more compelling experience than that which inspired it, or those that have come before.

[b]TL;DR You won't regret getting this if you hunger for more Advance Wars[/b] [h3]First off, the bad news[/h3] - [b]Don't expect much in the way of multiplayer,[/b] as there just isn't enough of a player base to make it happen at the time of writing. My review is solely based on the single player experience. - Two missions are grindy, many are a bit too easy depending on your taste. Do try Brutal difficulty straight off the bat as I believe it will give you a better overall experience as you progress. You can always lower it for the hard missions. - There are a few missions where you have an unsatisfying deus ex machina of the opponent scoring a significant victory despite your efforts, or with surprise additional troops appearing with no warning - Perhaps I missed something obvious, but there isn't a reliable way to see the enemy CO's charge meter, which is VERY significant in some later missions. You can still roughly guess what will happen. - Some CO powers have balancing issues, especially those that reward metagaming on the part of the player (massive area blasts and unit mindcontrol whose targets are reliably predictable). Many COs have the exact same power which I don't fully understand. Then again it's hard to come up with new ideas. - Some faction units are far better than others. The rhino and giant are amazing on their own, but a bit OP when both are given to the Blue guys. You can trivialize many maps by just building those two against the AI. Green's boomtruck (love the name) takes some thought to use effectively and is well worth the effort, but the blightguard is mostly pointless. Cyan's railgun looks and sounds insanely cool but is actually crap compared to what else you could use with the money. The situation where you can line up all those juicy units just doesn't happen enough, and your icefang also has to survive the response since it's not indrect fire and has mid armor. Orange's flame tank is very useful, and the bike unit has its moments, but they seem more like backup, situational units. - Capture paralysis, where a property changes hands every turn and you have two units incentivized to be locked in a battle of wills until reinforcements arrive, is common due to the way the capture mechanic and the AI works. In general, the AI is a bit too vulnerable to capture bait. [h3]A few aspects are up for interpretation[/h3] - Some reviewers found the characters flat and the storyline boring, but I disagree. I genuinely laughed (and cringed) a few times. Just like in Advance Wars, there's an intentional disconnect between the dialogue and the gravity of the situation the characters are facing, which I personally find endearing. - The fuel mechanic is scrapped outright. I really enjoyed this, but it's an balancing aspect that may be controversial - Air units are stronger than usual. The copter in particular cannot be targeted by infantry or regular tanks, only by the IFV (typically a favorable matchup), AA tanks, missiles, and the cruiser. Airport control is key to victory in maps that feature them. This is further evidenced by the amount of community maps that involve a rush to a central airport - Naval combat is quite different from what you are used to, and the balancing is perhaps questionable. Roughly speaking, the tense positional dancing is even more important, and small margins can spell disaster or crushing victory. Naval units are almost entirely defined by their relationship to the bomber and copter. There's much to say here but I will let you discover it on your own. [h3]I had a ton of fun in the end[/h3] - With all the community maps, you'll get [b]at least 40 hours of content[/b], easy. - [b]The good ol' Advance Wars [i]just one more turn![/i] syndrome is oh so present[/b]. I actually had to intentionally uninstall the game before typing up this review! - Not just a clone, but has many elements that change gameplay in fundamental (and IMHO positive) ways - Banger tracks, though I hate a few of them (looking at you, Jackson...) - They did a good job with some fundamental unit concepts, such as the IFV and Sniper - CO powers are very powerful, and fun to use. Certain maps can completely change your appreciation of the weaker-seeming ones like Medusa's. - Long, satisfying campaign - Enjoyable universe even though the world building is bare-bones (Advance Wars wasn't that much better really, even Days of Ruin) - The Rhino is so much fun to use, probably the most fun mechanic I've seen in this micro-genre - Thoughtful devs. I'm not sure what they have planned for the game's future as given the number of reviews and the low multiplayer count it might not have sold so well, but they seem to be motivated to release additional content. The game is already great as is.