Lock and load commander, because Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is another great addition to the hailed series.
Days of Ruin's story is a little more mature than past ones. A meteor shower has hit the planet, destroying 90% of the world's population, killing plant life, and blocking out the sun with a thick cloud of dust and smoke. You will command Brenner's Wolves, a band of soldiers who have attempted to restore order and find survivors. However, there are many who would rather exploit the situation and rise to power or raid the innocent, it will be up to your forces to stop the chaos and restore order. As if to make matters worse, a deadly parasitic disease is rapdily spreading throughout the world, causing flowers to bloom on the human body, slowly and painfully killing the victim. As you can see, the world isn't exactly in the best shape as of now.
Like all AW games, you fight your opponent by taking turns moving your units, building more units, and engaging the enemy. You'll be using a wide variety of units ranging from infantry and bikes to gargantuan tanks and crop dusters outfitted with machine guns. The gameplay, while turn-based, it fast paced and challenging, and many times, you wil find yourself outpowered, outmanned, and outgunned, with only your intellect to save you.
The graphics are another change in the series. Gone are the bright, cheery, and bubbly tanks and infantry of old, here you will find stark, gray, and cold units, effectively reflecting the chaos and destruction that have occured here. The sound is also new. Instead of hopeful and happy tunes urging you to never give up hope, we have techno-metal themes bringing in the theme of apocalypse and hard reality. The themes are just as memorable though, my personal favorite theme song being the revenge-obsessed chick, Tasha's.
The character designs are also changed. The bright red and green uniforms are gone, replaced with dark gray and brown schemes, fitting in nicely with the rest of the doom and gloom. However, despite the dark aesthetic, Days of Ruin still manages to keep the same sense of humor that the older ones had, especially in the random dialogue that occurs when you visit the Tactics section in the Mission Info section at the beginning of every mission.
Multiplayer is also a blast to play, and while Friend Codes continue to be rather restricting, still offer a lot of replay value. And if you're friends with your opponent, voice chat is also enabled, allowing you to taunt or hassle your opponents. There's little lag and as long as your opponent and you aren't taking forever (there's also a time limit), games go by quickly between two skilled commanders.
Overall, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, while being drastically different, is also more of the same, which in Advance Wars, is definitely a good thing. With fast-paced and enjoyable gameplay, a new style, great music, and lots and lots of replay value, you'll be sure to be playing Days of Ruin for weeks, months, or in my case, years to come.