Battalion Wars 2

Something of a battle, says Paul

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The original Battalion Wars was based around one of those ideas that sounded really good on paper, a mix of third-person shooter and RTS that allowed you to control whole armies as well as allowing you to hop between individual troops as the mood took you. However, mixing those two distinct ideas resulted in a game that was something of a disappointment failing to deliver on either front. Now, on the Wii, we're treated to a sequel (BWii, can you see what they did there?) based around the same central idea but with the cheery promise that everything else is much improved. Time to find out.

The game kicks off detailing an ancient conflict between the nice and friendly Solar Empire and the evil Xylvanians. It seems that when on the brink of defeat the Solar Empire unexpectedly triumphed thanks to a super powered staff that harnessed the power of the sun to create the ultimate weapon. After their victory the Empress, fearing the staff's power, does the obvious thing and lobs it off a cliff to hide it from anyone who may wish to use it. Now, after many years the Xylvanians are back, and the only hope of the Solar Empire is to find the staff (which would have been a whole lot easier if they'd just locked it in a cupboard to start with) and again use it to defeat their enemy.

What all this means in real money is that the game is broken down into six campaigns which take you through the conflicts as various nations. These six different nations are generally thinly disguised digs at real world powers, the Solar Empire for example being remarkably Japanese and the Anglo Isles a very obvious riff on the stereotype of wartime Britain. Amusingly the first campaign sees you in charge of the Solar Empire tasked with fending off a hostile invasion by the Anglo Isles under the guise of a weapon of mass destruction search. I think we can see where you're going with that one Mr Developer.

On the battlefield the controls are remarkably suited to the Wii at first glance, the Wii Remote acts much like a mouse would, moving the target around the screen and with it the camera, while the A and B buttons work as select and fire accordingly. The Nunchuck's analogue control moves you around and the Z button locks on to whatever target you're pointing at to make combat a bit easier. You can directly control any of your own units on the battlefield by locking on and holding down A (or selecting it from the list at the bottom of the screen with the D pad) which makes battles hugely entertaining as you flick from rocket launching foot soldier to anti aircraft tank on the fly, it's just the kind of thing anyone who's ever played an RTS has been dying to do.

Unfortunately, while the chance to get behind the wheel, so to speak, of any unit is a large part of the charm of BWii, the overlaying RTS elements that form the rest of the game suffer because of it. Since you're always in direct control of one unit you have to issue all your orders from that view point as well, this means that the same interface that works so well from an action point of view has been forced into controlling the strategic side of things too. The limits of this are immediately apparent and the first bone of contention is that while you can zoom the camera out to a degree, the lack of any real overhead view from which to control your troops is a real pain.

The AI of your fellow units, as well as your control over them is also basic to say the least. Each unit's default state is to follow you, you can toggle that to 'wait' by selecting the relevant unit type using the D pad and pressing A, or issue an attack or defend order by pointing and locking on to a target before pressing the A button. In principle this works fine but considering how very similar the aiming, locking on and issuing orders controls are to your own aiming and firing controls it's easy to end up running all your units around in a big messy pack all gunning for the same thing. It doesn't help matters that the unit AI isn't the best. I'm all for having my troops follow my orders, but it'd be nice to think that if a new, bigger threat comes within range and starts taking shots at them that they may break off their assault on the grunt with the pea shooter and start worrying about the large tank with the rockets that's stood next to them performing an apparently unnoticed slaughter! Ahem.

The claustrophobic view of the battlefield, the slightly messy strategy side of things and the almost non existent AI all sound like they could be show stoppingly irritating, so the realisation that they're not is a testament to the fact that despite all it's weaknesses there's something about the whole jumping around between units side of things that keeps the game's head above water. In a strange way the very fact that you can't rely on other units to behave as you'd hope and that the interface means you're often better off either going solo or in a huge bunch rather than using any kind of real strategy actually helps keep things exciting. If you could plan the whole thing out issuing detailed instructions left right and centre then there'd be little need to pop into the units themselves and blow stuff up and there's no doubt that the manic flitting around trying to do everything yourself is where the fun is to be found.

Helpfully none of the campaign missions tend to be too long and your current objectives are always clearly signposted meaning you're never bored or lost which all helps you forgive the game for its other problems. There's also the addition of online play (yes, proper online in a Wii game!) should you fancy your chances. As well as the expected Assault (one of you attacks, one defends) and Skirmish (deathmatch basically, keep killing each other till the time runs out) modes there's even a few co-op maps for those of you with friends up for the challenge.

The overriding feeling when playing BWii is that it's meant to be fun, it's well presented in a brightly-coloured cartoon style, often frantic and importantly doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest. You get the feeling it understands that it's really only pretending to have strategy leanings and that the action is what it loves best. Sure there's frustration and flaws to be found if you go looking for them, and they're definitely enough to stop me slapping a huge score at the end and recommending it to everyone, but if you can accept it for what it is and don't look too hard at the ropy bits there's a hell of a lot of fun to be had here if you give it a chance.

77%

By Paul Newcombe