Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
By David Hewitt / March 16, 2009
Note that Days of Ruin is a sequel to a long-running series, and will therefore be reviewed as such. If you don't understand what this means it'd be a good idea to read this.
The second DS Wars installment is an even more enjoyable game than the first.
The visuals are perhaps its weakest aspect, and the first big change you'll notice. Menus, characters, maps and units are all depicted in a darker, grittier style; a big departure in presentation
for the series and one which I find less appealing
than the bright, iconic look of previous versions. The soundtrack has also followed suit by acquiring a metal edge to it, and, perhaps worst of all,
the quality of the sprite work and 2D art in general is much rougher than what we are used to.
One could argue that this was meant to reflect the new aesthetic direction, but to everyone who's not naive enough to buy this explanation it will be clear that
Intelligent Systems has begun to cut corners (see also the latest Fire Emblem update...)
The next thing you'll notice is that some of the previous game's gimmicks have been sensibly removed, including the dual-screen and dual-commander battles, the real-time battles, and the shop. This more muted wrapper, and the shorter list of modes, does not meaningfully detract from the game itself, however, which in many other respects has been greatly improved.
Units now gain veterancy by defeating enemy units, a feature which adds a couple of new wrinkles to the game. Sending waves of inexpensive units to flood your opponent's defences now allows his defensive units to safely level up, making them ultimately that much harder to approach. The loss of a unit therefore has an effective cost far greater than the amount you spent to produce it -- so gambits need to be considered more carefully.
Your own levelled up units also become more effective and valuable to you, so keeping a veteran bomber away from anti-air or missile fire becomes a matter of tactical urgency and importance, where before simply building a replacement would have been a viable option.
COs must be assigned to an individual unit, at a cost proportional to the unit's own cost, and their abilities only affect an area immediately surrounding that unit. So some further complexity is added, in that decisions about the mobility and defensive capabilities of the unit carrying your CO must be weighed against the additional cost, as well as the time it'll take to get the CO to where he or she will be most useful.
The overall effectiveness of CO powers is greatly diminished in this version, too. It's no longer possible to gain a decisive edge by simply filling up a meter and unleashing two back-to-back turns of hell, and the game is deeper and strategies more flexible for it. The COs and their abilities are still meaningfully differentiated from each other, but they're not as significant a part of the game as they once were.
The unit roster has also been (slightly) updated. The bike is the most interesting addition, as it allows for a greater variety of tactics in the early "land grab" stage (though of course this is of much greater importance on some maps than others).
The Rig unit can be used to construct temporary airfields and ports, which can resupply and repair air and naval units. This isn't perhaps as significant an addition as it might seem at first, though it does allow a sustainable mid-map presence to be more easily established, without tying up valuable support units. Damaged fighters and bombers can be repaired at a temporary structure in or near the thick of action, for example, rather than having to return to the airfields near your HQ where they were constructed.
In most other ways that matter the game is the same as it's ever been, and possesses all of the previous versions' fine qualities. I can't bear the stylus controls in either DS version, but the traditional controls remain unchanged and perfectly suitable.
The only significant complaint I have with this version is that while you can play the Free Battle maps (formerly the War Room) at will, and the game will remember which of them you have beaten, it no longer saves a high score for them. This is a shame, as playing for score in the War Room is the source of much of the game's long-term appeal, where a human opponent is not available.
Finding a human opponent is, of course, a lot easier this time around, with the addition of online play through Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service. Online matches can be played against someone you've exchanged friend codes with, an opponent close to you in ranking (if one can be found), or a random opponent. Online play works well, and even supports voice chat between players, as well as the ability to exchange maps. A greater degree of control over the rules and settings for the game is available in games between friends, whereas matches between randomly selected opponents are subject to random conditions, too.
In terms of providing a viable competitive game, online play is the single best addition made to the game, and one that the series has been begging for ever since the beginning (and criminally omitted from the first DS game). It's especially welcome in this deeper, better-balanced version of the game.
Perversely enough, this game has not yet been released in Japan, and in fact doesn't even have a release date yet nor even a finalized title there.