Wargroove – Review

A small review for a “small” game

War, war never changes…

Yeah, I know this is not exactly the beginning of this story, but Fallout isn’t the only game that starts from a war!

The story is quite simple: a poor and beloved king is killed by a vampire (or some sort of) named Valder. So now his daughter, Mercia, has to defend the land from the invaders. It is a light-hearted war story, as we can find in many others fantasy games, but it is cute, funny and well told.

During our campaign, other than Mercia, we will meet a lot of interesting characters that will transform a simple story in a…no, nothing more than that, just a simple story!

But, let’s admit it, the most well-known strategy games usually don’t even try to tell a story, Wargroove at least makes an attempt to tell something.

Beautiful queens and beautiful pixels

Let’s talk about graphics now. As you can see from the pictures we are in the reign of the pixel art, so if anybody here is 3D addicted is better to stay away from this game.

Obviously pixel art doesn’t necessary mean bad graphic (even if someone still thinks so) but just a graphic style that reminds the past, with a modern twist.

I have to admit that Wargroove, under this point of view, looks very nice, with his very bright colors, charming characters and super-smooth animations and it’s astounding how just a bunch of pixels can to bring life a so charming world.

Every unit is very well designed and has a lot of little details. For example, when a unit attack another one you can watch a very cool animation that summarize the battle. Overall the character design in Wargroove is really top-notch.

No doubt, Chucklefish is really experienced in the use of pixel art and the overall result is simply charming.

It’s hard to be a warrior queen

The gameplay of Wargroove reminded me very closely another gloriously game from past: Battle for Wesnoth.

We have to play many scenario, of different size, in which we – as well as our opponent – usually begin with a barrack to produce our soldiers, and we have to conquer gradually the whole map until the defeat of our enemies.
Each side takes its turn individually on a square grid-based map. Obviously, during the single stages, we can produce new units with the gold we obtained from our conquered villages. Nothing too complicated, just a mini-economy aspect of the game to manage.

In the best tradition of the strategy games, if you want to succeed you have to learn pro and cons of every single type of unit. So, for example, if the map is very large it could be a smart choice to buy knights that cover a good amount of terrain. Instead, if the stage in full of natural cover (like trees or mountains) it could be wise to put some archers behind those barriers.

Besides, each faction has is own commander. They are special units – with their own super ability called “Groove” – that can really turn the tide of the battle!

But beware that, even if every unit has is own features, this is not ad RPG in any way. It is a pure strategy game, so essentially for the basics units there is no way to gain experience after a battle.

The game is never too difficult or frustrating, but the IA is quite smart and some maps can be a real challenge.

A Farewell to arms

In terms of content the offer is really abundant.

Besides the campaign mode, Wargroove has also a puzzle mode, a multiplayer mode and an editor with complete creative control and the ability to create your own cutscenes!

So really nothing to complain about: a great and rewarding game for sure!

But beware this is not a game for everyone: it’s hard, it needs patience and, above all, it is very slow. You have to consider that there is no manual save and autosaving is possible only between maps. So if you are looking for a game that you can play just for a few minutes, Wargroove is not for you.