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I usually don't play strategy games and especially turn-based strategy games like Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is because I don't like to think so hard, but once I pick up the game to play it, I will...think hard that is. I'll also take a long time to think before making a move. It's like chess to me. I didn't play online that much because I'm a nice guy and wanted to spare the people on Nintendo WiFi Connection from using their precious time to wait for me to make a move. Trust me, I can take more than five minutes to make a move. People have complained about me in card games.
Although I don't normally play strategy games, I decided to give Advance Wars: Days of Ruin a shot because so many people were praising it and game sites were giving it good reviews. I thought 'what the heck' and decided to give this game a chance and maybe I'll like it too. I was pleasantly surprised. The game moves along at a good speed and the buttons and menus react instantly to the touch or push. You can quickly skip over animations to get straight to the action by pressing A. It's like they knew I was going to play this game and already felt compassion for my opponents when they made this. It's a good thing because I do take a while to think.
Well, just as I thought, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is like chess, but more advanced and complex (from a non-expert chess player's point of view, so please don't get mad at me if you're the world champion chess player). You have to take a lot of things into account when you plan your next move. Some units can only move a certain distance depending on the wheels and terrain while others like the infantry and mech can get on mountains. The limitation on movement of the units plays a big part in planning your strategy. Sometimes you'll want a certain unit to be somewhere important, but it may not get there in time for what you want to do.
Different units also have different firing ranges. Some can shoot from a distance while others have to be directly next to the target. The infantry, mech, bike, recon, tanks, boats, anti-air and planes have to be next to a target while the battleship, missile, rocket, artillery and anti-tank can hit their target from a distance. The units that can shoot from a distance also have different firing ranges and attributes. For instance, the rocket can hit targets five squares away from it, but not the two squares in front of it. These little differences make the game interesting and chess like because you're required to carefully plan where to place your units and what units to place together.
You also have to take into consideration what units the enemy is using when producing your own unit. Some units are weak against others like the infantry is against tanks while some are deadly like the bombers are against tanks. Then there are some units that can't touch other units like the bomber can't attack other air units even though it's strong against ground units, but at the same time, other air units can attack the bombers. This also makes Advance Wars: Days of Ruin a more advanced and complex game of rock, paper, scissors (from a non-expert roshambo player's point of view, so world champs, please don't get mad if that offended you although I believe I'm pretty darn good at it myself.)
In order to produce more units to increase your army size, you'll have to capture factories for ground units, airports for air units and sea ports for water units. Capturing cities will give you more points each turn to produce more units. Only infantry, mechs, and bikes can capture buildings. This means you can't forget about producing these weak little units in a battle because you'll need them to increase the size and power of your army.
In one player mode, the computer is not too hard, but it is no pushover neither especially if you're new to the Advance Wars series like I am. I would say the game is at medium level difficulty so it's not too hard to the point where you want to give up even though it feels like it sometimes at the beginning of a level. Once you put some thought into it and familiarize yourself with the maps and units, you should be ok.
There is a story mode to the one player campaign. The story in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is wild, crazy, twisted and has a dark feel to it. It's kind of like what the movie Terminator would be if humans actually lost. What happened is that a meteor struck the planet so hard that it left the world in a post nulear-ish state during a war between two countries. It was enjoyable and I followed the storyline all the way to the end.
The graphics are simple and clean. Strategy games like this don't require awesome 3D graphics to get it working. As long as the pictures are clear enough to tell apart the units then it's good enough. You can also zoom in on the screen if you want a closer look at your units with bigger and better graphics, but I mostly played the game with the screen zoomed out so I can see more of the map and more of my enemy.
So will Advance Wars: Days of Ruin ruin your days? It can if you get addicted and play for too long and lose attention to reality. There were even days that I played until 4 am, but I was playing to review so it's ok ;) Time flies by quick with this game and it flies by even faster when it takes you 5 minutes to make a move. This game is definitely fun and should be given a chance even if you don't like strategy games. Since Tetris, I've never played a handheld game for so long in one sitting. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is a must buy.
More Information on Advance Wars: Days of Ruin by http://www.nhotspot.net - A Nintendo WiFi Connection Games Site
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Posted by frankvgmgzny | 9:09 PM | E-mail this post 
