Wargroove Review
Advance Wars was a turn-based tactics game that came out when I was in sixth grade in which 2-4 players duke it out in a small-scale military conflict. To win, each side must secure local resources, build an army, and capture the enemy stronghold. It had simple controls, vast strategic potential, and a fantastic cartoon art style. It was a game I loved to be bad at. So when I heard that Advance Wars was coming back with a new game, and this time on PC and consoles, I was ready to dive back in. From trailers and screenshots, I saw that the developers had kept all of the things I loved about the old Advance Wars games, but for some reason they had changed from a modern military setting to a medieval fantasy setting and changed the name to Wargroove.
Putting pretense aside, Wargroove is a new release from Chucklefish games, publisher of the amazing farming game Stardew Valley. Wargroove is a game that wears its inspiration on its sleeve. It knows it is taking the Advance Wars concept and bringing it into the fantasy world, and I’m OK with that because it’s been 10 years since the last Advance Wars game and 13 years since the last good one. Much like Advance Wars, Wargroove tells the story of warring nations escalating when the evil, blue-themed bad guys invade the benevolent, red-themed good guys, prompting conflict with two more factions who would’ve been happier if just left alone. It’s rote but it’s enjoyable.
Every aspect of Wargroove is built on the Advance Wars foundation but improves it in some way. The biggest example of this is the commanders. In Advance Wars, each player chose a commander who had two unique abilities. One was a passive bonus that effected all of their units and the other was a one-turn bonus power that could be used multiple times in each match, but had to be charged up before use. In Wargroove players have a commander, but instead of serving as a back-lines general they serve as a unit on the war front. They each have a rechargeable unique power that gives you one of a variety of benefits, but they are also powerful units that can tear through enemy forces. They no longer have constant passive benefits, but I prefer that because in Advance Wars these passive benefits had the habit of pigeonholing each commander into certain play styles. As a trade-off for their combat prowess, commanders can also be killed, causing that player to lose the game. This opens up a lot more strategic options, because now players can choose to either hunt the dangerous but mortal enemy commander or fight through the enemy ranks and capture their well-guarded but stationary enemy HQ.
Another improvement Wargroove brings to the table is the setting. As mentioned earlier, the setting has gone from a modern military theme to a fantasy world, and although it’s not a big deal, I do prefer it because it more readily embraces the light-hearted and cartoony themes that seemed at odds with bombs and machine guns in Advance Wars. This fun theme pervades the whole game. The commanders are funny and well-written characters, the different units and factions have colorful and creative designs, and, most importantly, there are dogs. Each of the playable factions has access to a dog unit, all of which are very cute. And, where any other unit disappears as cartoon ghosts when reduced to 0 health, the dog units give a yelp and run away to safety, which is a really cute and wonderful choice by the developers.
Theme doesn’t mean a lot if the gameplay isn’t good, but Wargroove wasn’t content with just one way to play the game. Players have the option of five different modes to play: Campaign, Arcade, Puzzle, Multiplayer, and Creator. The campaign tells the story of the forces of Mercia, the traditional good guys of fantasy, fleeing from the invading forces of Fellheim. In Arcade mode, players choose one of the 12 commanders of the game and take on a customized series of 5 smaller battles following the trail of a mysterious super-weapon. Puzzle mode gives players a specific situation with an objective to accomplish with a limited number of turns. Mutliplayer mode is exactly what it sounds like, inviting friends or AI to play on any of the game’s maps. Creator mode is what I’m most impressed with. Custom map creation is not unique to Wargroove, but the variety and accessibility of the tools given to players in Wargroove is fantastic. Players even have the option of creating entirely new campaigns, complete with cutscenes for the introduction of story and/or rules.
I’ve had a lot of good things to say about Wargroove, but unfortunately a lot of the good parts of it are just updated parts of an older game. It’s like microwaving a meal, yes it’s still good but I’ve never been all that excited to eat reheated leftovers. Beyond that, though the story is good, it’s also pretty predictable. The conflicts with other nations follow the classic comic book style of conflict where two good guys meet without knowing that they’re both good guys, fight a bit, then talk and realize they’re on the same side. The dialogue suffers a similar problem. The characters are funny, but they’re not very original. Wargroove from top to bottom is a perfectly fine game, inoffensive and safe in most aspects with some excellent choices in a few places, but never really blows your mind.
The team behind Wargroove set out to make a new Advance Wars and there is no question they succeeded at it. However, they perhaps aimed too low, because the final product is good but not very noteworthy. I know that treating dogs well is, has been, and always will be important and good, but when the main thing that sticks out about a fantasy war game remake of a classic tactics juggernaut is the dogs, maybe you didn’t do all that you could have.
Buy this game on sale
It’s worth playing, just not at the price they’re asking
