Battalion Wars 2 (Wii) Review

Unlike its predecessor, BWii features a number of modes in addition to its single-player campaign, but we're going to begin by discussing the latter. The game begins with a prologue mission that actually takes place in the past, during what is referred to as the Lightning Wars – specifically a conflict between the Solar Empire and the Iron Legion. Players take command of the Solar Empire's forces (leg by Qa-Len) in a last-ditch attempt to prevent Lord Ferrok and his Iron Legion from conquering the world and so forth. The mission, though not without significant causalities, is a success, but players soon find themselves back in the present day where a new conflict threatens the world's fragile peace. And so begins a series of missions that spans multiple continents and puts players players in control of a number of different armies.

At the beginning of each mission players take control of one of the following: an infantry unit, a ground-based vehicle, an aircraft, or a naval unit. From then on it is possible to take control of other units as well as issue commands to them. The latter is achieved by pointing at a target using the Wii Remote, locking on with the Z button, and tapping A to either attack, capture or defend. Two more commands come in the form of wait and follow, which are both fairly self-explanatory. Of course, all of this must be done at the same time as controlling the player's main unit, which generally involves moving with the analogue stick, firing with the B trigger and strafing/rolling/jumping by shaking the Nunchuk. It all sounds quite complicated, but it actually works rather well. Unfortunately, there are a few problems you should probably be aware of.

Firstly, whilst selecting targets is mostly an intuitive endeavour -and we certainly can't imagine doing it without the Wii Remote- the game's third-person perspective (combined with limited camera control) can often make accurate selections troublesome. For example, because it is possible to lock onto both friendly and hostile units (as well as buildings), we often found ourselves issuing incorrect commands, such as 'wait' rather than 'attack', which you can probably imagine is somewhat detrimental to cohesive assaults on enemy strongholds! Selecting friendly units doesn't depend on the same system, instead relying on D-Pad navigation of on-screen HUD graphics, but it can also be just as fiddly when dealing with large amounts of units. Furthermore, the Nunchuk-dependant controls suffer from lacklustre motion-sensitivity which, although not the fault of the developers, ultimately meant that we steered clear of certain actions almost entirely.

All in all, though, BWii's control system works well, and the above criticisms are more like irritating niggles rather than game-killing oversights. So, let's move on the aforementioned strategy elements of the game. Just like Advance Wars (and its various sequels), BWii's combat relies on a paper-rock-scissors-esque system that allows the outcome of a battle to be predicted before combat has even begun. Anti-air vehicles will always best air units (unless severely outnumbered), bazooka veterans have the edge against most ground vehicles, and so on. The problem is, unlike the chess-like strategy involved in winning an intense Advance Wars mission, most BWii challenges ultimately come down to selecting the most appropriate units for a battle, sending them on their merry way and occasionally assigning new targets when previous ones have been dispatched. As a result of this, “common sense” might be a more accurate term than “strategy”.

Provided you have a modicum of common sense then, what is there to keep you entertained once you've zipped through the twenty, not-particularly-challenging campaign missions? Well, first of all there's a grading system: players are awarded either an 'S', 'A', 'B' or 'C' depending on how many units they dispatched, how many friendlies were kept alive, and how quickly the mission was completed. The 'S' ranks are particularly challenging to acquire, and will undoubtedly force players to play through each mission multiple times in order to come up with a game plan that satisfies all three criteria. Earning a complete set of high grades also unlocks a selection of hidden content including concept artwork, unit dossiers for the game's various factions, and so on, which should be a nice touch for the perfectionists amongst you. But more exciting than medals is the long-awaited online multiplayer functionality that fans of the original so strongly desired.

Three separate online modes are included; assault, skirmish and co-operative. The former pits players as against each other as one attempts to defend and the other attacks. A time-limit helps to keep things frantic right up until the final seconds. It's certainly an enjoyable diversion, and nicely complements the standard skirmish mode, which simply pits players (who each have access to a set number of gradually-respawning units) against each other. Last up is co-op, although it's probably not what you're expecting. Rather than allowing players to progress through the main campaign, four co-op-specific missions are presented instead. Each one features more enemy units than most single-player missions, forcing players to work together and use their specific units appropriately in order to succeed. Whilst the lack of voice chat does lead to encounters that feel somewhat impersonal, each of three mode's objectives are so simple that it doesn't really have much of an effect on gameplay, even if it does occasionally feel like you're playing against a bot... (which you never are, because there is no offline multiplayer).