Four years have passed since the release of Wargroove(WG1). And as someone who loves strategy games and dearly loved the first title. This was a no brainer to pick up at launch. So, I’m confused to report the newest entry ends on a weird mish-mash of good ideas and questionable decisions. First, let's start with the story. Three years have passed since the events prior. Now a new plot unfolds. With a new faction to boot! Mouse! Who has sneakily landed on the shores of the continent of Aurania. What are they here for? Cheese?! Nope! Researching forbidden technologies! But that’s not all. You have three campaigns to tackle and one final act to see how each faction’s stories will interweave with one another. Feels good to come back to one of my fondest indie’s take on Advance Wars. And there’s quite a bit to sift through.
The gameplay has been expanded much to my satisfaction. With a very beginner-friendly tutorial and handy codex with lore pages to unlock as you progress further into the narrative. Grooves are upgraded. No longer are charged to 100%. Now you can charge for 200% and release a more powerful version with new effects as well. Similar to how Advance Wars 2 upgraded their commander ability. You too can dish out more damage than before! Items have arrived, sadly we can’t have our leader equip any, however, these items provide powerful new changes to the unit composition. Armors that reduce incoming damage by fifty percent. Deal more damage if your health is above eighty percent, and move further without being impeded by terrain modifiers. There’s more I could list, but I’ll keep those as a surprise. You’ll encounter them regularly as you progress through the campaigns. New buildings, units, and faction heroes are also given fair treatment and I found their inclusion to be a breath of fresh air alongside the old cast from the first game. Not too powerful, and not too weak with enough charm, personality, and lore to sink your teeth into. Heck, You can use a Mecha and ride cats as your mount!
Mission variety is fantastic. You have sea, land, and air units to utilize. Different terrain of nearly every biome. Unique mechanics with their twists during a main objective to complete. Defend against a wave of enemies, reach the objective while trying not to fall onto chasms, defeat enemy bosses or strongholds with recruitment and sometimes no recruiting, complete battles within one turn, chess battles, go island hopping, and my new favorite change has to be simply exploring a map without fighting. Yeah kinda a weird one, but hey I love the fact we can talk to our allies in missions and open chests for lore or items. Very nice change of pace from the constant battles. Think of it similar to how Fire Emblem Engage had players conversing with their units after the battle ends. Side objectives are also overhauled. No longer are we restricted to completing missions to gain stars via turn limits and difficulty. Here, we have proper side-objectives. With a diverse amount to complete. Destroy the enemy stronghold, don’t attack the enemy commander, go to a certain place on the board, kill the ‘x’ amount of enemies using a troop critical hit, have the ‘x’ amount of units alive, and more I could list. Far better than the previous installment. Completing side activities makes the difficulty ramp up since you’re essentially handicapped to complete objectives. Yet the reward is worth it. Lore pages, unique events, and getting stars are nice incentives to reach for.
As much as I could go on and on about praising what WG2 does well compared to the previous game. I must talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative, but for the sake of transparency I'm noting them down.
Minor bugs and glitches with how stars are gained. Occurs very rarely depending on maps with tricky side-objectives not registering. Like a mission not ending properly if you send a boss into a chasm. Thankfully, this didn’t happen regularly. I'm not sure if this issue is prevalent among other players, but I did notice a small pause when music tracks are being played. Usually, during battles we hear the background music, yet as it loops there’s a slight pause. Didn’t impact my experience in a major way, but it’s something I noticed when playing with headphones on. Speaking of which, the soundtrack is pretty forgettable. But no bad tracks are here. Wish it was more memorable and not too similar to one another. Wargroove 1(WG1) did a good job of making newcomers feel invited to a new world to explore. Here we don’t get that.
Multiplayer is buggy as heck. I tried more than five times playing with a buddy of mine for a co-op map he made and we could not progress after the 2nd turn due to desyncing, random ejecting from the game and freezes happening constantly. I’m surprised how far multiplayer has fallen since I was praising the hell out of it years ago when WG1 first arrived. So to say I'm disappointed is a major understatement.
Next, the story is lackluster. It is my biggest ‘ehhhh’ since the ending is pretty unsatisfying to hook newcomers for a WG3. I was puzzled at the shift because I had a great time going through the story in the earlier title. Turns out Chucklefish got another developer to work on the sequel called Robotality. Which may explain why it was so lacking to me. WG1 did a fantastic job of luring the player into a fantasy world filled with interesting characters, world-building, and great moments in the cutscenes between villains and protagonists. Here we get slices of greatness mixed with mediocreness. The starting campaign after the prologue in WG2. If you follow the recommended order. Has a great start while the 2nd in Felheim is such a tonal shift, I’m quite honestly flabbergasted as to why the devs ran with it. The third does a nice job fleshing out the new faction that was introduced in the co-op DLC from the earlier title, yet the last set of missions is pretty underwhelming. Overall I'd personally rank it as Floran/Pirate > Felheim > Final act. I think additional missions to let the moment-to-moment scenes settle in, change some elements in the writing to be consistent in tone and themes and intertwining missions would’ve been better. Granted there is a sufficient amount of lore and character development towards my necromancer fella. The rest receive a modicum of development here and there that is ultimately decent. I’m still kind of bitter that I couldn't use my favorite faction… sigh. However, the Mouse faction has very cool characters with personalities. Lytra for instance, is endearing and her backstory made me slightly emotional to hear.
The roguelike mode is serviceable, yet feels constrained. You traverse on a non-linear map taking missions to fight your army against enemies. Against an elite boss. Fighting in the fog of war etc. As you progress you can encounter helpful nodes to recruit, replenish, and for those daring to march to a mystery spot which can be good or bad for your army. Good for rewards like items to equip and healing. But bad if it's a trap or you see a battle onsite. Regardless, it is nice to attain rewards and gradually become stronger. Yet the lack of incentive coupled with barely any plot inside the four mini-campaigns leaves much to be desired. Despite the fact that I completed all of them on the max difficulty. There just isn’t enough meat to hold people over. I’d only recommend this mode for those who enjoy roguelikes and want to experience more of the satisfying gameplay in the main story.
Overall, short and sweet to taste, but leaves a bitter aftertaste. Took me sixteen hours to finish the story on normal difficulty and tweaking the options so I can have ten undo turns instead of one for default. Five hours to finish the roguelike mode. Thankfully, it doesn't take many hours to finish. Despite my mixed feelings, there is somewhat a good indie strategy game here for those interested solely in the campaign. And an unacceptable performance in the multiplayer for me. I am crushed to recommend this for newcomers since I still think of the series highly for giving me so many great memories in WG1. Yet the taint of the multiplayer leaves a bad taste in my mouth making it brutally difficult for me to recommend for those interested in playing with friends and others. Only play this for the campaign for strategy enthusiasts, fans of the first and especially for those interested in the genre or hungry for similar games to Advance Wars. Don’t bother with the multiplayer until the dev’s fix it.
6/10 current state with multiplayer
6.5/10 without multiplayer
The gameplay has been expanded much to my satisfaction. With a very beginner-friendly tutorial and handy codex with lore pages to unlock as you progress further into the narrative. Grooves are upgraded. No longer are charged to 100%. Now you can charge for 200% and release a more powerful version with new effects as well. Similar to how Advance Wars 2 upgraded their commander ability. You too can dish out more damage than before! Items have arrived, sadly we can’t have our leader equip any, however, these items provide powerful new changes to the unit composition. Armors that reduce incoming damage by fifty percent. Deal more damage if your health is above eighty percent, and move further without being impeded by terrain modifiers. There’s more I could list, but I’ll keep those as a surprise. You’ll encounter them regularly as you progress through the campaigns. New buildings, units, and faction heroes are also given fair treatment and I found their inclusion to be a breath of fresh air alongside the old cast from the first game. Not too powerful, and not too weak with enough charm, personality, and lore to sink your teeth into. Heck, You can use a Mecha and ride cats as your mount!
Mission variety is fantastic. You have sea, land, and air units to utilize. Different terrain of nearly every biome. Unique mechanics with their twists during a main objective to complete. Defend against a wave of enemies, reach the objective while trying not to fall onto chasms, defeat enemy bosses or strongholds with recruitment and sometimes no recruiting, complete battles within one turn, chess battles, go island hopping, and my new favorite change has to be simply exploring a map without fighting. Yeah kinda a weird one, but hey I love the fact we can talk to our allies in missions and open chests for lore or items. Very nice change of pace from the constant battles. Think of it similar to how Fire Emblem Engage had players conversing with their units after the battle ends. Side objectives are also overhauled. No longer are we restricted to completing missions to gain stars via turn limits and difficulty. Here, we have proper side-objectives. With a diverse amount to complete. Destroy the enemy stronghold, don’t attack the enemy commander, go to a certain place on the board, kill the ‘x’ amount of enemies using a troop critical hit, have the ‘x’ amount of units alive, and more I could list. Far better than the previous installment. Completing side activities makes the difficulty ramp up since you’re essentially handicapped to complete objectives. Yet the reward is worth it. Lore pages, unique events, and getting stars are nice incentives to reach for.
As much as I could go on and on about praising what WG2 does well compared to the previous game. I must talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative, but for the sake of transparency I'm noting them down.
Minor bugs and glitches with how stars are gained. Occurs very rarely depending on maps with tricky side-objectives not registering. Like a mission not ending properly if you send a boss into a chasm. Thankfully, this didn’t happen regularly. I'm not sure if this issue is prevalent among other players, but I did notice a small pause when music tracks are being played. Usually, during battles we hear the background music, yet as it loops there’s a slight pause. Didn’t impact my experience in a major way, but it’s something I noticed when playing with headphones on. Speaking of which, the soundtrack is pretty forgettable. But no bad tracks are here. Wish it was more memorable and not too similar to one another. Wargroove 1(WG1) did a good job of making newcomers feel invited to a new world to explore. Here we don’t get that.
Multiplayer is buggy as heck. I tried more than five times playing with a buddy of mine for a co-op map he made and we could not progress after the 2nd turn due to desyncing, random ejecting from the game and freezes happening constantly. I’m surprised how far multiplayer has fallen since I was praising the hell out of it years ago when WG1 first arrived. So to say I'm disappointed is a major understatement.
Next, the story is lackluster. It is my biggest ‘ehhhh’ since the ending is pretty unsatisfying to hook newcomers for a WG3. I was puzzled at the shift because I had a great time going through the story in the earlier title. Turns out Chucklefish got another developer to work on the sequel called Robotality. Which may explain why it was so lacking to me. WG1 did a fantastic job of luring the player into a fantasy world filled with interesting characters, world-building, and great moments in the cutscenes between villains and protagonists. Here we get slices of greatness mixed with mediocreness. The starting campaign after the prologue in WG2. If you follow the recommended order. Has a great start while the 2nd in Felheim is such a tonal shift, I’m quite honestly flabbergasted as to why the devs ran with it. The third does a nice job fleshing out the new faction that was introduced in the co-op DLC from the earlier title, yet the last set of missions is pretty underwhelming. Overall I'd personally rank it as Floran/Pirate > Felheim > Final act. I think additional missions to let the moment-to-moment scenes settle in, change some elements in the writing to be consistent in tone and themes and intertwining missions would’ve been better. Granted there is a sufficient amount of lore and character development towards my necromancer fella. The rest receive a modicum of development here and there that is ultimately decent. I’m still kind of bitter that I couldn't use my favorite faction… sigh. However, the Mouse faction has very cool characters with personalities. Lytra for instance, is endearing and her backstory made me slightly emotional to hear.
The roguelike mode is serviceable, yet feels constrained. You traverse on a non-linear map taking missions to fight your army against enemies. Against an elite boss. Fighting in the fog of war etc. As you progress you can encounter helpful nodes to recruit, replenish, and for those daring to march to a mystery spot which can be good or bad for your army. Good for rewards like items to equip and healing. But bad if it's a trap or you see a battle onsite. Regardless, it is nice to attain rewards and gradually become stronger. Yet the lack of incentive coupled with barely any plot inside the four mini-campaigns leaves much to be desired. Despite the fact that I completed all of them on the max difficulty. There just isn’t enough meat to hold people over. I’d only recommend this mode for those who enjoy roguelikes and want to experience more of the satisfying gameplay in the main story.
Overall, short and sweet to taste, but leaves a bitter aftertaste. Took me sixteen hours to finish the story on normal difficulty and tweaking the options so I can have ten undo turns instead of one for default. Five hours to finish the roguelike mode. Thankfully, it doesn't take many hours to finish. Despite my mixed feelings, there is somewhat a good indie strategy game here for those interested solely in the campaign. And an unacceptable performance in the multiplayer for me. I am crushed to recommend this for newcomers since I still think of the series highly for giving me so many great memories in WG1. Yet the taint of the multiplayer leaves a bad taste in my mouth making it brutally difficult for me to recommend for those interested in playing with friends and others. Only play this for the campaign for strategy enthusiasts, fans of the first and especially for those interested in the genre or hungry for similar games to Advance Wars. Don’t bother with the multiplayer until the dev’s fix it.
6/10 current state with multiplayer
6.5/10 without multiplayer