Warparty

Nintendo Switch

Reviewed By: Tyler Higgs

Developed By: Warcave

Published By: Crazy Monkey

Category: Real Time Strategy, Action

Release date: March 28, 2019

I’ve never had much of chance to familiarize myself with the Real Time Strategy genre. It’s never been one that’s interested me, but I can respect the fun they bring to many. It’s a genre that isn’t overly popular on the Switch, but there’s a presence. Now Warparty has come to Switch and I think it’ll be an interesting starting point for my foray into the world of strategy games.

Warparty takes place in an ancient fantasy style world where you battle for dominance over the land. There’s a tutorial mode to help explain the games mechanics to you, although it doesn’t do a fantastic job doing so.  The campaign mode where you will probably spend the bulk of your time lets you choose between 3 tribe leaders to play as. The three tribes are the Wildlanders, Necromas, and Vithara. Each one has their own unique abilities, and playstyle. Not only are they unique in playstyle, but they have their own unique backstories as well.

The tribes are fighting over this ancient magic called the Go’n, and each one has their own reason for wanting it. I did my run of the campaign with the necromancer tribe, and its leader Char. He had the ability to summon zombies to help him in battle, and I mean with an ability like that how could I not pick him

The style of the game is what really got me interested in Warparty. There’s zombies, shamans and even dinosaurs that you can use to take down your enemies. It’s pretty rare that you see a game that has such a diverse cast of units. Unfortunately the rest of the gameplay ends up being fairly lackluster.

You have the campaign and your different tribes, where you managed resources and upgrade settlements. It’s really the tried and true formula that’s always used, and it doesn’t differ too much from that. While I did enjoy the different unit types the actual gameplay itself just didn’t entertain me. I felt the experience lacked substance.

There’s some cool stuff to find on the maps like shrines that offer you magic abilities, I could never get invested in the different levels. The level design was boring, and I wish they would have felt more unique. The AI is okay to play against, but playing against them feels all too familiar in style after doing it for a bit. That brings me to my next problem with the game.

I was disheartened to see that Warparty lacks online multiplayer for the console versions. Once you’ve finished the campaign, or are looking to take a break from it, there’s really not much to do. There’s an option to do a skirmish against the AI, and a wave based survival mode, but they weren’t anymore enjoyable once you have played the campaign. It’s unfortunate, because I think Warparty could have benefited a lot for having some type of multiplayer on consoles and I can only hope they decide to add it in later on.

What really brought down Warparty for me were the controls. Controls were really clunky, which I unfortunately had expected they would be since Real Time Strategy games on consoles usually have control problems. What was really disappointing was the fact that there was no attempt at adding touch screen controls for handheld mode. Warparty would have felt so much better to play in handheld mode with a combination of joycon and touch screen controls. I feel like it was a big oversight to not add them as it could have made the Switch version feel much smoother.

Visually Warparty is fine but it’s not going to win any awards. The game as a whole looked basic, though I did really like the look of all of the different units. I wasn’t a fan of how everything looked in handled mode as I found it all looked very small. The environments were bland, and I really wish they would have tried to develop them more then they had. Overall the visuals just lacked the polish to help Warparty stand out.

There’s some voice acting during cutscenes, and from characters in game as well. The voice acting is pretty mediocre for the most part. i thought the narrator of the campaign cutscenes did a great job, but the rest of the voice acting felt pretty rough.

Choosing Warparty as my first big dive into the Real Time Strategy genre felt like a bit of a disappointment. I wanted to feel the excitement of creating strategic plans and find unique ways to overcome my enemies. While Warparty offers a chance to do that it’s deeply marred by its design flaws. I think Warparty would appeal to traditional fans of the genre, but for anyone looking for something more unique I recommend checking elsewhere.

2.5/5

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