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thenah's Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS)
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| [February 9, 2008 02:35:09 AM]
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Gameplay: Further into story mode they introduce factories, ports, and airports which greatly expands the emergent behavior of the game. The first few levels serve as a buffer so that new players can learn the attributes of the different units without having to worry about which units to produce. You commonly started out with a standard force with no factories on the map. Now that the story and gameplay have really picked up I'm completely hooked. The map creator is extremely well made and easy to use. I really enjoy the sound effects too, bullet shot every time you put down another tile. The main objective that kept me going, personally, was the rank at the end of levels and trying to get the highest score possible ('S' rank). Online play is great, in the past Advanced Wars games they had multiplayer functions, but you would have to find another person with a game and Gameboy. With online play I was able to verse real people with leads to harder battles and more rewarding victories (due to the difficulty). Unfortunately, a lot of the unsuccessful changes to this game series were to facilitate the online feature.
Design: Though the emergent game play was innovative of its original release (back with the original Nintendo), it surely has grown stale for many players. With only four new units and a different CO system, there is a lot to be desired. But when you buy a sequel you know what you are getting into. The story content was the only major improvement, which is the main focus of their advertising scheme. Another good element is the level design, each different mission gives you the sense of different gameplay, even though the emergent behavior restricts you to a very finite set of inputs. I love the war tone too, the last few games have been very 'happily ever after-esque.' The game focuses around a demented professor testing the human element, by making clone armies and recording your raggy tag armies heart pulse and vitals. It is the classic case of civilization v. anarchy and for most people it is an awesome premise. The cutscenes may not be very well made but mostly the whole idea is text based anyway, they play both before a mission and after, providing a narrative reward structure. And for those who don't like storyboards, the other reward system is unlocking new COs and your score at the end of a successful mission. Try to get all 'S' ranks! I know I am. Great standard design that has proven good in the past, why change it?
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| [February 8, 2008 07:35:28 PM]
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Summary: In this game you are a survivor of a horrible apocalyptic meteor-struck Earth. You are rescued by a Commander and join his ranks to find other survivors. Along the way your group faces many challenges such as starvation and demoralization by The Creeper (a disease). The main gameplay focus around the control of your army, taking advantage of cities, factories, docks, airports, and various terrain in order to destroy the opposing army or capturing their main base. The main objective of the story changes, but the level objects usually do not.
Gameplay: I've always love these games ever since my neighbor introduced me to the series with Advanced Wars 2. Like many of its predecessors, Days of Ruin focuses on a turn-based emergence game where you control an army (much like a variant free-form chess). The story was where this game made some big improvements of the earlier games. In the past, relevant characters were limited only to commanding officers, and the story was all the armies hate each other, then they find a common enemy and try to destroy that enemy. Days of Ruin includes a whole cast of characters and a story based around 'the human condition.' While playing I always wanted to find out what would happen after the next big battle; I'd relate this experience to reading a good book. But it does have its disappointments. The music was not as intense as the other two games; half the fun used to be using your Super CO Power to get a turn of total destruction and awesome music. They also got rid out the CO bar in this game too. Instead of gaining special charge from killing enemies or taking damage to get your CO Power, you must put your CO in a unit and have that unit and all within the 'CO Zone' kill enemies. Halfway filled bar increases you CO Zone by 1, and a full bar increases it by 2 and allows you to use your CO Power. If that unit with the CO dies you lose all the special charge and must start again; making it much more difficult to pull it off. And in addition to making CO Power harder to get, they also dramatically decreased their usefulness. I found that with making these changes this game became less fun to play (but perhaps more balanced for when you play other people online, this is probably what this change was intended for). So far, those have been my main complaints. It seems like most of the changes I find annoying where implemented for balances the new online play feature.
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thenah's Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 19 January, 2008
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