XBLA Release Toy Soldiers

Set in a World War One Diorama, the player is given control over a bunch of Toy Soldiers, as the name suggests, and the stationary defense postions, in order to stop the advancing enemy hordes which plague you as they did in Wolrd war One.

The game attempts to balance a style of gameplay which works on three levels, Tower defence, Real-time strategy and action shooter, which roughly translates as "you have your units, you place them in set positions before your base, the enemy run at you, you look around the battlefield while the AI tear each other to shreds or you can shoot from the set positions and not move" or in multiplayer "send waves of troops at your enemy let the shred yours and shred theirs with your positions"

Of course it takes more than those elements from the gameplay styles it uses, it has the whole "some units work better against others" from RTS games, which translates into WWI terms as "everything beats infantry, explosions beat tanks and big bullets beat aircraft" and with the plethora of positions up for grabs all throughout the campaign most of the enemy units won't have time to get out of their trenches or factories before your Howitzers have shredded them to pieces.

This isnt to say it doesn't have it's plus points, the game does feature a wide array of WWI weaponry which can be upgraded for more firepower and effect on different units. These range from the famous Vickers Machine Gun, which can be upgraded to a mini shell launcher, to the early Anti Aircraft batteries, which can be upgraded to flak cannons for complete ownage. Other units include the Howitzer shell launchers, mortar postitions, chemical and flame units and a seemingly endless supply of barbed wire. Although all these units don't seem to have much bearing on the battle, the winning formula for any serious battle in campaign seems to be: at least 2 Howitzers, 1 Flak/AA Battery, a chemical/flame unit at an infantry choke point, some mortar lauchers for vehicles and maybe some MGs if you fancy taking a few pot shots at the infantry as they run at your positions very slowly like lemmings before your Howizers shred them.

I mentioned before you could control your units, this works for both entrenched positions and the small array of vehicles they have placed down for the player to use. These are: two different types of Tank, Big willie and Whippet for a ground assualt to take out enemy positions if your artillery can't reach, or a Bi/Tri plane (depending on which side you play as) and a bomber plane, for again assualts on infantry/positions your artillery can't reach or having a small dog fight with the AI.

The game does not really have any separate feel to it in its game modes. Each mode, be it campaign, survival or online, is just the same thing, lay down some positions and shred the enemy, build/upgrade positions, shred enemy, repeat process until work is done, which is where it falls short of an RTS game. Online play differs only slightly in the sense that you can send units to be slaughtered and then slaughter your friends/enemy's units as they come aswell, or until you get called for tea.



While the game does bring s new feel to a seemingly endless array of shooters, sandbox and RPG game which try to mimic COD4, GTA4 and Oblivion respectivly, it falls into the trap which many arcade game titles fall into, becoming tedious, an i don't care how much of an attention span you have or if you are the most patient person person in the world, that damn Umbrella song will get annoying until the point where.....sorry lost my train of thought, ummm yes Toy Soldiers.
But I suppose monotony is the only major fault here, the game is relativly easy to play and master and it will make you feel a good sense of achievement as your artillery blows up alot of enemy forces before they have had a chance to get out of their trenches, and i guess the first campaign run through and first few rounds of survival are challenging enough to warrant a trial download for all you who aren't convinced by all the positive reviews online.

I guess if you do have a few spare points lying around, you want a change of pace, or if you want to see what all the hype is about then by all means download this arcade title but don't come crying to me when you get bored with it, which you will.

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Welcome, in this blog I plan on reviewing several different Video games over the coming months, this is not only because i enjoy writing these reviews, but i notice that alot of reviews are not as critical to some games as i would like them to be.

I will try to review all the big releases I can depending on time and budget availability, I will also review a few of my personal favorites and take requests should anyone who decideds to follow this blog want me to review a game they find particularly satisfying.