Two Fedoras

To the victor go the spoils and in the game of World War Toon, the reward is nothing short of global domination. Take control of individual forces and lead them to victory in the latest turn-based strategy game on the XBox LIVE Indie Games(XBLIG) marketplace from developers Brian “JeBuS” Schaeflein and Alex Von Tolmacsy.

Gameplay

World War Toon is a turn based strategy game likened to classic war board games such as Risk. The similarities, in fact, extend beyond its world domination objectives to even include the use of dice to settle skirmishes between opposing forces. Beyond this fundamental level of similarities lies a a great deal of difference in terms of depth and complexity.

To get the game started, the player must select one of two modes: Quick Play and New Game. The only differences in the two modes occur during the initial setup of the match. As the name implies, Quick Play will fully automate the process, while New Game mode will require that the player participates in a manual round robin territory claim staking process.

Once the game has begun you’ll have a map populated by three different unit types, the balance of which have all the nuance and grace of “Rock, Paper, Scissor.” The infantry beats the missile launcher, the missile launcher beat the tank, and the tank beat the infantry.  The advantage/disadvantage system is expressed by the dice rolling system in the form of additional rolls. For example, a tank will have the sum of three dice rolls when attacking an infantry who will only roll a single die.

While a battle is taking place and the bones aren’t rolling your way, you’ll have the option to bolster your ranks with reinforcements. There are two ways in which reinforcements are used: during combat to provide an additional roll and during your turn to place a unit on a recently claimed territory.  The number of reinforcements received is finite and are awarded based on the number of territories held at the beginning of a players turn.  The game is ultimately decided by the player who manages to amass enough territories and reinforcements to rid the world entirely of opposition.

All that said, World War Toon is a fairly shallow game. The challenge presented in it is almost entirely derived from its learning curve. Once the basic mechanics are understood there isn’t much left of the game explore particularly because of the omission of what seem to be some really obvious gameplay modes.

For starters, there are no difficulty modes present in the game. There are no options whatsoever to fiddle with to yeild a higher difficulty curve. This pretty much eliminates any hopes of replay value for a person who has developed a decent understanding of the game mechanically. On a related note, there are no diplomacy options to forge alliances. This feature may have even helped to rectify the sharp decline in difficulty by allowing a skilled player to take on two or more computers who had joined forces. Inversely, a novice could elect to partner with an AI driven force to reduce difficulty. Here is the real puzzler though, there is no multiplayer option at all, not even a couch versus mode. This has to be the single biggest blow to the replayability of the game.

World War Toon also seems to suffer from limited artificial intelligence. Obviously, I’m not expecting Skynet from an Xbox LIVE indie game, but in this case the computer seems overly risk averse. For instance, in situations where you may have two like troops of differing factions lined up, the computer will almost never bring the fight to you. This creates a situation where  establishing defensive perimeters become almost effortless. For example, a single tank can keep both another tank and an infantry unit at bay with ease in relative perpetuity.

Audio/Visual

The 3D graphics of the game are stylistically appealing. The battlefield takes the form of a globe with unit models scattered all around it on their respective tiles. The individual units themselves are geometrically simplified facsimiles of real world military parallels. All forces in World War Toon share the same unit models with the exception of the color which is used to designate allegiance.

I’m not sure if it was intentionally omitted to emphasize the board game feel or if it simply wasn’t a feasible expansion of the scope of the project, but I would have really liked to have seen a bit of unit animation. It may be somewhat of a petty complaint, but the game likely would have benefited from having units marching across the borders blasting at one another. As it is the world is wholly static with a few jiggling dice being the only exception.

Animation cravings aside, the art is well suited for the game and doesn’t detract from the experience in the least. However, there is a graphics issue that does; although calling it a graphics issue may be inaccurate. World War Toon seems to have a bit of a frame rate and all around performance issue. The issue is most noticeable during world turning sequences where things can sputter along at a noticeably jerky rate creating some eye annoyance. With so little going on movement wise already, this jerky motion is very unsightly and seems to indicate a lack of polish on the back end.

With the graphics largely getting the bultk of the attention, all seems quiet on the audio front. There really isn’t much to say, it has music and some sound effects, but they’re not significant contributors to the game’s enjoyment factor. The game does allow for custom music to be played from your collection, so by all means go commit crimes against humanity to whatever jams you want.

Summary

World War Toon has its fair share of shortcomings, from shallow gameplay to peculiar mode omissions, but that’s not to say it’s a bad game. It is, however, a challenge to outright recommend as a result of these deficiencies. I think if you’re a fan of Risk style gameplay it’s surely worthy of investigation. If, however, you aren’t a fan, you wont find a whole lot here to keep you interested. The game is currently available on the Xbox LIVE Indie Games Marketplace for 240 Microsoft Points.