Swords and Soldiers HD

Today's game, Swords and Soldiers HD, is one that makes me realize just how bad I am at strategy games. I always seem to struggle with the idea of quickly playing an RTS game, usually devoting multiple hours to any one mission, since I would rather build up an army, upgrade everything to max, and then roll out and crush my opposition. My insistence on doing so has made for some truly awful moments in online games, usually when I discover that I've been upgrading my units, while my opponent has actually been building them. Swords and Soldiers HD doesn't have many of those aspects of traditional RTS games, instead presenting something far more simple, and easier to manage. The sad thing is, even at that lower level, I still loose. A lot.

You see, Swords and Soldiers is a, seemingly, simple game. While most RTS games have you building up your army, while managing your squads, while doing research, while guarding against enemy incursions into your base, all of which adds up to the point where I question if some of the pros are just very good about keeping track of the myriad of going ons in the average game, of if they are just so scatter brained and unable to focus on one specific thing that it all works out in their favor, Swords and Soldiers is much more basic than that.

But it does have Fog of War!

Your actions are limited to only a handful of options. Essentially, you decide two things - which units to build, and what abilities to deploy. You do not control your units directly, and are in fact limited to choosing their path, if the particular level you are playing on has a branch in it, and using abilities that could help them out, such as a heal or a shield, which belong to the Vikings and Chinese, respectively. So you can mostly forget about much of the more hands on aspect of many RTS games, though key ability deployment is critical if you want to win, and instead focus on managing your two resources and deploying units and abilities as need.

There are three races in the game, with the Aztecs rounding out the grouping. Each race has it's own unique units and abilities, and the result is that they provide a different approach to playing. There is nothing so drastic as needing to build on the creep as the Zerg or the ability to move buildings as Terrans from the original StarCraft, but differences nonetheless, and it is easy to become attached to a particular race, being more familiar, and comfortable, with the options it presents.

Personally, I think the Dwarfs, err, Vikings, are over powered.

There are four combat units for each race, consisting of a melee unit, a ranged unit, and then two special units, with at least one heavy hitter. Of course, each race brings something special to the table, and the units do vary - in cost, power, and health. For example, the Viking Berserker, the melee unit of that race, costs 65 gold to build, versus the equivalent Aztec unit, the Jaguar Warrior, which you can build for 50 gold. However, if they meet in a one on one scenario, the Jaguar Warrior will only deal about half the damage needed to kill a Berserker before he dies. Start mixing in the other units, and developing strategies about how to combat what unit with what unit/ability you have available, and the game can quickly become much more complex than it seemed at first blush, even without the ability to command your individual units.

Now I shouldn't give you the impression that you can automatically respond to whatever enemies are heading down the map to your side with whatever you like, as there are a few limitations. The first being that you do have to research a unit to unlock it, which takes some gold and time to accomplish. However, you also cannot simply research any unit at any time, because the game does have a mild tech tree, and each one is laid out differently for the different races. This is nothing so complex as systems where you must have a central base to build a drone, and the drone builds the armory, and the armory lets you build a tank, but only at the mechanics building. Instead, it's more "you can't research the Viking Heal until you've unlocked the Berserker." Some trees are completely linear, while others have a few more prerequisites, but all and all, it is much easier to follow than I've seen in other games, some of which provided a huge fold out paper that explained everything.

Okay, even I don't think I can screw that one up.

Of course, research isn't free, and neither is constructing units. What you'll need a lot of is gold, and this is acquired over time, as well as through your gold finders. You can have up to 10, and at that point the cash comes flowing in. This allows you to keep up a steady stream of units, each of which spawns instantly, but triggers a small cooldown before you can buy another of the same, so you can't just spam your Sun Giants or Zen Masters all you want. Therefore, you can spawn units in wave of 4 or so, but different movement speeds, unit abilities, as well as the actions your opponent might take to trap or mind control your units, can drastically change the situation.

The final actions you can take include building your race's one tower and using your abilities. Each tower is different, from the Aztec's which attacks enemies, to the Chinese that provides a bonus to mana, and they can only be built on predestinated spots on the map, but they can be very useful. Abilities are more so, since, depending on what race you're playing as, you can do things like mind control your enemies strong unit, turning him around and making him fight for you, though if you do this to the last unit in a wave, he'll proceed all the way back to the base, so long as he doesn't encounter anything before he gets there. Other abilities shield or heal your units, or spawn a group of clay soldiers to fight for your, or rains down fire arrows on your enemies. There is one ultimate ability for each race, which is really cool. The Aztecs summon a huge boulder the rolls across the map, which you can jump over your units, and squash your enemies with. The Chinese summon a dragon that breathes fires when you press the left mouse button, so save it up for high value targets. The Vikings have Thor send down his lightning hammer, which acts as a tower and damages enemies where it was called down. Now all of these abilities cost mana, which is accumulated over time, but can be modified by research, towers, and a sacrificial ability, again depending on which race you're using.

And now I've managed to get a mind controlled catapult in the enemy base.

Though Swords and Soldiers HD strikes me as a simple RTS, I'm sure there are those whole can still theorycraft which race is better, why you should spawn more Rocketters than Swordmen, and so on. Me? Well, I just enjoy the simplicity of the game, the humor found in each race's campaign, and the occasional skirmish where I inevitably end up setting the handicap to 100% easier. The game is normally $10, which is a little pricey for the 5 or so hours I put into it, but the game is brilliant in it's simplicity and approachability, and, if I had any I cared to try it with, I could see easily jumping into a multiplayer match with friends, or just getting this on a phone/tablet to pass the time during work or on a vacation. I suggest going for the game the next time it's on sale at $5 or less, though I'm certain sure it was $2.50 when I got it, because the game is pretty good - 7 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 7/10

Suggested Price: $5