Advance Wars Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict

[Dogg Thang]

Picked this up this morning and, yes, it's different. About feckin' time. I love the tone and the backgrounds. Yeah, I miss the light fun of the first GBA outing but I felt that had been watered down anyway for the repetitive sequels so I was happy to get a change.

I think the battle animations could have been a lot better. The blurry scaling isn't pretty and some actual, well, animation would have been nice.

But I'm enjoying the new units, the new atmosphere, the music is great and, overall, this feels like the first proper sequel.

[Btang84]

It's a good game, I'm rather indifferent to the new style, though the amount of talking sometimes slightly annoys me and the merrier style is missed. The balancing without the powers and the new units are pretty cool. Does anybody feel there are too many indirect units now with the anti-tank? Or that this anti-tank unit is slightly overpowered.

The leveling up of units is interesting, but is the difference noticeable? It doesn't completely seem it so far. Still, having said that, cracking game regardless!

[briareos_kerensky]

he leveling up of units is interesting, but is the difference noticeable?

I think there's a 10-15% in defense and attack with a veteran unit.

Or that this anti-tank unit is slightly overpowered.

Yes, it can be. ATs are only afraid of other indirect units and bombers...when I tried to attack an enemy AT with an Attack Copter unit the frigging thing fired back knocking off 2 HPs from a full health unit!
However, it's the best way to counter Wartanks against some COs (well, pretty much everyone with a stat boost...damn

->Open Spoiler<-

Tabitha

).

However, while I welcome these new additions I'm starting to wonder if the formula is wearing thing: I still lose the concept of time when playing, but most tactics work here as they did in the previous games...dunno, it just feels "old".

[angelx]

The new style is pretty bad and I find the story and dialogue stupid and irritating. But do I like the gameplay changes and that's what counts.

Any tips for the 25th (final?) mission?

I have yet to play this but the story & dialogue in AW 2 was pretty terrible by all accounts

[HHarm]

I have yet to play this but the story & dialogue in AW 2 was pretty terrible by all accounts

I'm not sure if I completed AW2, but a stupid plot doesn't really bother when it's lighthearted and doesn't have too much dialogue/plot. DoR tries to be serious but ends up painfully corny and with too much irritatingly cheesy dialogue. It's good that they dumped the old faces and style after the three games but I don't think they went the right direction.

But gameplaywise I really like what they did although I wouldn't have minded if they would have made even more changes to the core game and units.

The last mission wasn't hard really. I never really liked the last missions in AW-games (at least compared to the missions before them) and this is no exception.

[MattyD]

I finally got around to buying this last week and it's sooooo awesome. I only put it off this long because there were other games out and the whole internet going BAWWW IT'S GONE SERIOUS AND EMO kind of put me off, but I have to say it's not like that at all.

After the annoying trash-talking Jake and his teeny friends in the last game this is a very welcome change in tone and pace. The old cutesy graphical style may have been 'fun' and very Nintendo-esque but it glossed over and trivialised the realities of war IMO, whereas in this game the scenario and story constantly impress upon you how precious life and resources are in the post-apocalyptic setting. This is reflected quite well in the unit preservation mechanic, whereby units that survive in combat grow stronger, encouraging you to pull back and repair damaged units rather than let them provide fodder for the enemy until you can field fresh units.

The storyline deals (as far as a Nintendo game is ever likely to) with the worst aspects of humanity - there are bandits preying upon the weak, villagers who beg for your protection but refuse to part with their food, gangs of ex-soldiers running amok in the chaos and power-hungry fanatics trying to insert themselves into the vacuum of power. There is, ultimately, however, a cackling comic-book madman at the top of the tree, which is a bit of a cop-out. It's not exactly All Quiet on The Western Front but like I said it's a nice change from the usual self-righteous baddie bashing stuff.

I haven't seen all the new units yet nor have I had an opportunity to use the APC's new ability to set up temporary resupply points for aircraft or naval forces, but what I do know is the anti-tank unit is a little over-powered. It's not expressly vulnerable to anything but rare and expensive units like bombers or naval artillery, and its abilities to fire both directly or indirectly, counter-attack aggressors and even attack choppers, all with considerable firepower, makes it both an invaluable unit on your own side and a frustrating foe when deployed against you.

I also like the new music. The introduction of geetar to signify toughness is a trap that often leads games into mediocre territory but I think they've struck a good balance in this, and as well as setting the tone and pace much better than previous efforts, it's also much more dramatic and, it must be said, less asinine and annoyingly twee.

I'm really looking forward to playing this online at some point too although I'll have to sort out a wireless router first as my USB adaptor doesn't work on my new lappy

[vjoe]

I am thinking of buying this game. In order to play in local multiplayer, both players' game have to be from the same region?