I…have..the power! (of DLC)
Over the years, I haven’t really paid that much attention to the Toy Soldiers series. I mean, I played them a bit, but never truly gave the games their due. With War Chest however, the crazy injection of nostalgic IPs like He-Man and G.I. Joe have piqued my interested, and I just knew I had to check it out.
War Chest is actually a pretty good little strategy game, but it’s bogged down by a few typical Ubisoft practices.
Toy Soldiers: War Chest (PC, PS4, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: Signal Studios
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: August 11, 2015
MSRP: $14.99 (base game), $4.99 (premium armies), $14.99 (all four armies)
The gist of Toy Soldiers is that it melds together elements of RTS and action gameplay, with both a top-down camera and the ability to jump into turrets and control infantry units. You’ll start off with an empty battlefield and a base (much like tower defense), with specific plots in which to build turrets. These range from anti-infantry guns to satellite-based artillery, depending on which army you choose. All of them have upgradable capabilities like more range or more damage, but at a cost of cash, which you’ll slowly accrue during each round.
In short, there’s a decent amount of strategy involved despite the fact that the flow is rather fast-paced. You can jump into any turret at any time, and easily switch between them by way of the d-pad. Once you’ve earned a super by killing enough enemies, you’ll be able to take control of your hero unit, or do something flashy like call a bomb strike. The campaign is really fun, and that’s mostly due to the amount of variety packed into it.
You’ll have the option of controlling four base armies — the World War-themed Kaiser, the sci-fi Phantom, the My Little Pony-like StarBright, and the fantasy-based Dark Lord. Everyone has their own themed units, levels, and turrets, and again, they all have different functionality. It’s especially fun to take control of a hero unit while your turrets do their thing automatically, sprinting about the battlefield, throwing grenades, dodging, and sniping enemies at will. While this is a timed ability, you can gather battery pickups to increase said timer, before you’re taken back to the RTS and turret viewpoint.
The campaign is meaty enough to justify the purchase of the base game (more on that later), but there’s also two-player local co-op, and a four-player online mode, which can be both public and private. Local play was pretty flawless in my testing sessions, but online games took a little while to populate, likely due to the fact that the game only launched today.
While the core experience is great, I have an issue with the way it’s packaged, namely by Ubisoft. For one, the frame rate, even on a current-gen system like the Xbox One, can drop a bit during heavy waves. It’s not a game-breaking drop, but it’s annoying all the same, especially since Toy Soldiers isn’t all that demanding visually. Another issue is the inclusion of microtransactions. Now, like most Ubisoft games, they aren’t required and the game doesn’t feel weighted towards them specifically, but the fact that they’re there for in-game currency feels odd. To top things off, Uplay is crammed in there as well.
This is further exacerbated by the premium army pricing scheme. While the base game with the four aforementioned themes is $15, you’ll need to pay $15 more (or $5 per) to net all of the new armies — you know, the exciting ones — G.I. Joe, Cobra Commander, Ezio, and He-Man. This brings the price up to $30, which doesn’t feel quite right.
The good news is that these guest stars are worth it; they look and feel differently enough compared to the vanilla forces, complete with their own signature looks and sound effects. They also play in a unique way, as He-Man and Ezio focus on melee damage, and the G.I. Joe duo are ranged. While I won’t begrudge the inclusion of an Assassin’s Creed character (it makes perfect sense), two G.I. Joe additions feel like a wasted slot — imagine instead if there was a Transformers army (foiled again by Activision!), or even something wild like Swat Kats.
I have problems with the way Toy Soldiers: War Chest is packaged, but thankfully it does uphold the same classic focus on strategy and action. You’ll have to foot the bill for those costly licenses, but it’s mostly worth it, warts and all.
[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]
