GDJustin said:
As a LOOONG time AW vet, my early (~8 hours in) feeling is that the actual strategic gameplay might be the best found in the franchise yet, and that's saying a LOT. The new units and gameplay tweaks don't just feel "tacked on" - they really do change the dynamic of the strategy and give the game more depth. It's obvious they actually playtested all their unit changes for strategy and balance.
-Infantry costing more and mechs & bikes costing less greatly reduces the "Inf. spam" technique.
-The entire sea game has been completely revamped and barely even resembles previous AW titles (in a good way). Sea battles are more than just Rock Paper Scissors now.
-The Md. Tank TRULY being a medium tank and the addition of the War Tank spices up the mid-match ramp-up quite a bit. Do you build a Md. Tank this turn, or a War Tank next turn?
-Fog of War is actually a lot more fun this time around thanks to the Radar buildings (iluminates five square when you cap one), the Flare unit, more terrain that provides cover, etc. I used to hate Fog of War, and in DoR I've found myself really liking it.
-CO's being ON the battlefield is a bigger addition than you might think - they turn the tide of a battle, but it's a risk vs. reward thing. Do you send your powerful CO unit into the fray, or do you hang him back a bit, but still close enough that nearby units get the area of influence boost? Another GREAT strategic addition.
-Lots of other little things like Landers getting a price drop, sea units passing under bridges, etc. It seems like IntSys took a close look at balance for the first time since AW1, and it really does make the strategy just "feel" better. It's fantastic.
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BUT, all that being said, I think the *package* is probably the worst since AW1.
-No War Room
-No Hard Campaign
-No Battle Maps/unlockables
-No Survival Modes (they weren't great, but were still a nice change of pace)
-No tags/rankings, besides on the medals screen (which doesn't count)
-Less CO's (I know the CO's have been de-emphasized, which is a good thing and helps the game strategically, but they still could have had more of them with unique influences).
So at the end of the day, the strategy itself is the best found in the series to date, but the package is pretty gimped.
Make of that what you will.
Read the last two pages, and this is what I most agree with.
Got the game from the Nin-World launch event today (finally won a lottery from there, jeez) and the game seems a step harder, and there are at least 10 new units out and about now. They completely changed the balance of the game, much more so than any other Advance Wars beforehand.
There is a War Room type mode, however. In the Campaign you find "Trial Missions" which are there for no other reason than to just play as a test of skill. You get ranked at the end as usual and they are a lot harder than whatever campaign mission you are up to when you find the Trial Mission. Some of them are unlocked after beating a certain Campaign map, and others are unlocked after beating a different Trial Mission.
Without an actual War Room, you still have the Versus maps. Unlike with the War Room, you have no incentive to play them, but you can still go in there and do whatever you want. You get many of the old Classic maps (many of which being War Room maps), some new maps, and any Trial Mission Maps you've unlocked, whether or not you've played them yet.
So the game focuses more on just playing for the sake of playing, rather than playing for points to buy stuff. Trial Missions are new War Room style maps, Versus Mode and Design Room are well suited for wasting the day away, and in general the game is moving away from lots of unlockables and more make your own content.
I somewhat prefer it this way though. If the only thing that kept you playing was OCD towards the Shop Room, then don't buy this. If you liked the game for anything else, including playing in the War Room, I'd say you'll still love it, but you'll just have to play Versus Mode more often and set up challenges for yourself.
Anyway, who's going to start up the Online Battle and Map Swap thread for this game, or is it already up?
Edit: Also, there appears to be some sort of dog tag description you get under your name in the Wifi screens. I need to investigate it further, but it may already be answered in a review.
