Between a BBS love story two weeks ago and Mike's choose-your-own-adventure look at the virtual end of the world last week, I feel like the column is once again veering off into "what is a game anyway?" territory (spoiler: I don't know any more, and neither do you), as it is wont to do every so often. This week, let's put things firmly back in the wheelhouse of PC gaming, and talk strategy. Not slow, methodical strategy, though. No plodding, Civ-style games in this roundup. This week your strategy fix comes in a double dose, and it comes fast.
To start us off, let me give you possibly the most stripped-down approach to the Real Time Strategy genre I've seen in years. Pixel Legions hands you control of squads of highly energetic, somewhat unpredictable tiny soldiers as they square off against similarly diminutive enemies in extremely fast-paced warfare.
In some respects, this reminded me of Galcon, a game I first played on my iPhone which later ended up on Steam and - well, pretty much everywhere - but there are several things that set Pixel Legions apart. The ability to move your base, which spawns new squads of soldiers at a more or less constant rate, is critical to success on many of the levels. Also, the maps have a bit more of a puzzle feel to them than the big multi-planet setups of Galcon; here, everything happens in very tight quarters, and you need to execute your strategy immediately and with precision in order to win. The levels play out quickly enough that re-starting them to find a better strategy becomes commonplace, and while the first couple of them are simple tutorial fare, press on and you'll find a challenge waiting for you.
I actually feel like the game gets a bit too quick and chaotic at times - you need to micromanage every squad and your base constantly, and things can take a turn for the worse very fast - but I chalk that up to a general aversion I have to that sort of gameplay in any game. Pixel Legions does a great job of stripping the RTS formula down to just tactics. No resource gathering, no base building, no tech tree. Take your tiny army and make smart decisions to lead it to victory. It's very satisfying to see how much difference a good flanking maneuver makes, or to lure your opponents into an ambush.
Pixel Legions is a Flash game, so head on over there with a supported browser and take command.
Next up, a very different type of strategy game - you may even feel like I'm cheating a bit, putting it in the same genre. I went back and forth on it a bit myself, but while it certainly does require more twitchy reflex ability than Pixel Legions, I think you'll still find that it's brains rather than brawn that get you through Ten Second War.
Describing this is going to be a little bit tricky, since it's something I had to play myself to really understand, but I'll do my best. Each level in Ten Second War takes, at most, ten seconds, because that's all the time you're given to control the units at your disposal. The twist is that you get to repeat those ten seconds for each unit on the field, in sequence, until every unit has its orders and they all execute them simultaneously.
In some ways, it feels like the planning phase to a game like Rainbow Six (the original, young'uns, not this Vegas stuff)... select a guy, tell him where he's going to go, who he's going to shoot, and move on to the next guy. Where Ten Second War gets brilliant is that it lets you keep giving units orders during their ten second phase even if they've been killed, banking on subsequent units to keep them safe. I know, that doesn't make much sense. Let me explain.
You start controlling Unit 1, and take him out around a corner, where three turrets are waiting. He blows up turrets one and two, but turret three manages to hit him at the six second mark. You keep giving him his orders, though, taking him down a hallway to take out two more turrets before his ten seconds are up.
Unit 2 is now under your control. As long as Unit 2 manages to take out the third turret that killed Unit 1 before the six second mark, that event will no longer happen. Unit 1 will head down the hallway and keep carrying out his orders, safe and sound.
Repeat that for as many units as you have control of: each unit has the ability to not only carry out new orders, but also to protect prior units from the enemies that destroyed them, erasing those events from the final result. With 6 different unit types that have differing abilities, around 40 levels, and a level editor, there's a lot to dig into here, and the concept is unique and solid. Don't miss this one - it's a treat.
Ten Second War is a 2MB Windows download, and you can pick it up right here.
That's it for this round - have fun, and see you next week.
"Free And Worth Every Penny" is a column I collaborate on with Mike Bellmore at Colony of Gamers. This piece also appears there. If you're done with this one and want more, feel free to browse the archives.