Allsome sequel
Battalion Wars, as a series, is pretty unique. It's a blend of Real-Time Strategy with a squad-based Third-Person shooter. Think Pikmin meets Ghost Recon. Okay, maybe that doesn't help much.
You control squads of soldiers, and your objective in each scenario or match is to conquer a series of objectives like blowing up certain structures, taking over enemy headquarters, or even cleaning up defaced national monuments. To do that, you'll be controlling infantry, tanks, battleships, and airplanes, oh my! Each unit has specific strengths and weaknesses. You'll find yourself using missile vets against enemy aircraft, tanks against infantry, bombers against ground troops, frigates against aircraft, etc, etc. Meanwhile you'll be controlling one of your own little buggers and shooting stuff up yourself. It's good fun.
You'll be conquering scenarios in the single player campaign. The campaign is about 6-8 hours long on the first run through, but you'll be doing a wide variety of scenarios using five different armies. The story is like a half-baked block of cheese, but it's interesting enough to keep you pushing forward.
New to this game are various conquerable buildings. As you go through your objectives, you'll find various areas on the map you can conquer to get reinforcements, such as factories and airstrips. Controlling these bases is key to keeping your small army healthy and conquering scenarios.
Other improvements from the first game include a new Wii-specific control scheme. Controls was one of the complaints from the first game, and BWii fixes all of them. Picking out certain enemy units is easier, selecting your own units is easier, tanks are more effective due to free-aim, and the camera isn't bugger-all difficult anymore. Another improvement is in the AI. In the first game, you would often have to put your troops in wait mode in order for them to be self-sufficient. Well now in BWii, troops aren't such dumb sacks in follow mode. So, overall the need to micromanage your troops is minimized from the first game.
The last complaint from the first game was a lack of multiplayer. An RTS game without a multiplayer mode is surely lacking potential indeed! BWii adds online multiplayer into the mix. There's three different modes, skirmish, assault, and co-op. In skirmish, you'll be going head-to-head against another army trying to control territory, earning points for blowing your opponent into the ground. In assault, you'll be trying to conquer a series of objectives and push towards the enemy HQ to capture it. In co-op, you'll be working together with a buddy in scenarios similar to the single-player campaign. Skirmish is great and is perfect for a quick game. Assault is a bit deeper, but often it feels like it's easier to be on the defending side. Co-op is great when you play with friends who know the ropes, but playing with strangers is a bit of a mistake due to a lack of voice chat. Sadly, local multiplayer is not available.
Battalion Wars II is a fun and unique title that's sure to be sadly overlooked by the masses. Grab your copy now before it's too late!