Toy Soldiers Review

A fun and enjoyable experience fitting for any XBLA collection.

World War I is definitely an underused video game setting in my opinion.  So when Bothell, Washington based Signal Studios announced the Word War 1 themed Toy Soldiers, my interest piqued.

Toy Soldiers takes place during the First World War (1914 – 1918) but there is little in terms of actual story; battles are merely used as a backdrop for events.  You start with the British campaign but after completion you are able to play as the Germans (no other allied or axis forces are available).

Toy Soldiers, in the simplest terms, is a tower defence title with first person elements.  You build towers with several upgrade tiers and have the option to control them if the A.I. isn’t doing a great job.  Like most tower defence games, there are instances where you will need to take control of your towers, tanks, or airplanes to provide aid to your towers.  Taking controls of units does reward the player with a variety of bonuses, the best of which are faster and more accurate firing rates, more money, and the ability to rack up combos.

Despite the toy box aspect of the title, Toy Soldiers is respectful when touching on the subject of World War I.  The game doesn’t take on a comedic tone like the Army Men series; ragdolls and death animations are pretty realistic in tone.  For instance, piloting an airplane allows you to dog fight in the sky, drop bombs or run-and-gun a location, or even kamikaze into units and towers.

At first some of the boss types might seem a bit ridiculous and far from reality, all boss types including the railway gun were indeed weapons used in World War I.  There are also a few enemy waves that are based on prototype units from the era, such as helicopters and even a Tsar Tank.

The level design of Toy Soldiers is also very appealing: the maps definitely feel like war zones straight out of World War I. For instance, some of the German missions take place at night and essentially reduce your visibility to zero.  Flares and muzzle flash occasionally light up the otherwise dark night and allow you to spot incoming enemies.

The environments are almost completely destructible and destroying objects awards cash which serves as an incentive of sorts to destroy things early on in the game.  However, reducing everything to rubble will open up pathways for the enemy to rush your base whilst at the same time destroying any cover they may use.

Toy Soldiers does have a multiplayer mode which can either be accessed through local player or Xbox Live both with up to two players. Gameplay wise the multiplayer mode is similar to the campaign, two players build towers while sending hordes to invade the other players toy box. Infantry units are automatically generated and sent at intervals, premium units such as tanks, cavalry, etc can be sent to accompany the waves. Towers can still be taken over as can other units such as the sniper tower, airplane, etc.

There are also several unlockables in the game.  Unlockables include an elite mode, which is essentially a difficulty level above hard, video filters, a new campaign, ration cards, and a new mode dubbed Survival.  The ration cards are obtained by completing in-game objectives such as obtaining a certain sum of cash or getting a certain amount of kills with a certain weapon. 27 "Gold Bars" are scattered througout the campaigns which you can find and destroy to contribute to your overall total.