Toy Soldiers - The Video Game

Toy Soldiers is classed as a tower defense game, these have been known in the past to be incredibly frustrating and restrictive in game play. Thankfully the creators have eliminated this problem by allowing you to jump in to any of the defenses, giving it a much more strategic feel about it. The ability to man the guns yourself is always more rewarding!

The Toy Soldiers of the title are fighting in WWl, a welcome change from all the current games which have literally saturated WWll (you don`t need me to tell you which ones I`m referring to!) It is a bit of a history lesson into the much more primitive fighting methods than were used in WWll. The story itself is displayed simply, with slide shows to recount the major battles. As the name implies however, the soldiers are toys, they aren`t characters and the game is very much looking at war from the perspective of a child.

It has a nostalgic feel, as if trying to represent the days when young boys rushed home from school and acted out war games with their friends, using sticks as guns etc, long before the word Xbox had ever been invented. The vehicles portrayed in the game are typical of the period, with whippet Tanks and Sopwith Camels at your disposal. Once you have entered a tank unit, you can exit it to upgrade or build new units, but only in short time spans of 10 seconds at a time. The tank then self destructs and some innovative counter attacks begin, giving rise to some very intense game play. This is a very rewarding addition as the tanks are both mobile and powerful and can easily turn the tide of a battle.

Despite the additions, which are very welcome, it doesn`t really stray far enough away from the statutory tower defense, and I think this is one area that could have been done so much better. There are, of course, the obligatory big bosses who appear every few levels to try and relieve you of your firepower. At this stage it also lacks in inventiveness, and those used to tower defense games may well find this too easy to be satisfying.

It does, however, redeem itself somewhat in the extended game play that it has available through various game modes. Once the first campaign is completed a, second one unlocks providing new stages and also German units. Your wits will be well tested in the survival mode, where you have to both build and repair while undergoing an overwhelming onslaught of enemy fire. The Elite difficulty is practically a separate mode altogether, as the units will only fire when you have direct control.

All in all this is a perfectly adequate game. It provides hours of fun and has some interesting twists. I was left with the feeling that it was missing something, and can`t help but think that if a few more tweaks had been applied, a good game could easily have become a very good, if not great, game.