Tag Archives: RTS

Q&A With Louis Agoglia

Whilst scouting for new, upcoming indie titles last week, I came across a promising-looking game called Dusk Tactics, Heavily influenced by the Tactics Ogre series, Dusk Tactics is a 2D isometric tactical RPG reliant on player’s skill to customize characters with unique weapons and abilities, as well as employing different job classics to suit different foes throughout the game. Conceived initially back in 2011, the project is wonderfully varied and ambitious in scope to the extent that I wanted to learn about the project. I, therefore, got in touch with the game’s creator, Louis Agoglia to ask him for some details regarding the developmental process and what players can expect from the final game. Here’s what Louis Agoglia had to say about Dusk Tactics:

 

Dusk Tactics 1

What were the influences behind your game?

The main influence behind Dusk Tactics are games like Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, Tactics Ogre: Knights of Lodis, and the Final Fantasy Tactics/Advance series. I’d say the entire genre could be considered an influence as I’ve played hundreds of tactics/strategy (SRPG) games over the years.

 

What has the developmental process been like?

It’s been long! This project started with me doing research, taking notes, and writing down ideas as far back as 2011 with coding beginning in early 2018. One decision I made was to create my own engine, so my development process has been somewhat longer. I felt that since this is my “dream project” I wanted to have full control over the execution. I had a certain vision that benefited from creating a custom engine including how the story was told, which led to the creation of a “cutscene engine”. When I went public with the project toward the end of last year (2019) the reception was beyond anything I could have imagined, and that alone has fostered a positive feedback loop of sorts.

 

How close are we to seeing the finished product?

That’s a tough one, I had a certain schedule in place and then 2020 happened and I think it sort of shook a lot of people up. Right now the engine is pretty much complete, with the ‘game’ itself being in the early stages of development. I am working on a closed alpha demo, the release of which I am hoping to get out sometime this year. As for the finished product, I want to be realistic about it, so I have to say my current goal is for a 2022 release window. A lot of the work that still needs to get done consists of art and sound/music assets, both of which I currently have people working on and both of which will take a good amount of time, but while they’re being created I hope to have the majority of the game finished. Overall percentage-wise I’d say I’m near 60% when discussing the entire project.

 

Dusk Tactics 2

What has been the most exciting aspect of development?

Getting to see some of the ideas I’ve had for a tactics game since 2011 sort of coming to life is probably the best part of the process. I wrote so much in the early years, pages, and pages of notes that covered various ideas and mechanics as well as a background for the story/lore. If I didn’t have such a strong background in gaming, this project might have become more of a book as I’ve always enjoyed writing. All in all, the game will be very rich in lore and story and will have some pretty neat (hopefully balanced) mechanics that both borrow from older games and add a little innovation here and there. Specifically, seeing two characters I created, Alton and Emma, start off as basic ideas and turn into fleshed-out characters was really awesome. Both the 2D portraits and the sprites were done extremely well and I look forward to seeing them in the many scenes I have planned for the story!

 

Have many of the developers you have interacted with across social media offered advice in regards to the development of Dusk Tactics?

In terms of art, @jmitchell1628 and @nixpixgames were extremely helpful, the latter of which I will continue to work with. When I wrote about some technical issues a few months ago, many people were eager to lend a hand and some went even further, such as @retromatn (who is also working on a tactics RPG!) who actually created a sample program to detail his ideas!

Early on, I happened upon a game in development, Lawmage Academy, and beyond being a great game in and of itself, the developer @LawmageA is an overall amazing person. Following them early on helped me learn a lot about how to use social media the right way and also what to expect from various events like releasing a demo or going to your first convention! It helped to have someone just talking about their experiences!

I consider myself very lucky that I witnessed the creation of @IndieWorldOrder which is an amazing group of developers, content creators, artists, etc who have come together to help one another out! Without people like @ancalabro and @labsskull, I doubt I would have as much exposure as I have had, it really helps out when you have people who are truly passionate about game development. I’ve worked on a side project with @bluegoogames in which we created a “twitter follower” horse race. Stuff like this really helps with project burnout and it was a lot of fun! You can see it here, also feel free to join!: 

http://www.nicmar.nu/race/?race=2

 

Dusk Tactics 3

What has been the most challenging aspect of development?

It would probably be the scale of the project. While I’m only in my third year of development, the thought of another two years is pretty overwhelming, but it is my dream project so I’m also trying to enjoy the process for what it is! Bigger challenges would be the overall “how will I balance this?” question which tends to pop up a lot. I know I’m going to spend a lot of time after I am “done” so to speak, balancing game mechanics and various Jobs, skills, items, etc. It’s pretty daunting, haha.

 

How well has the game been received so far?

I’ll feel more confident about this when I have a playable demo out, but so far what I have experienced is way beyond my expectations. As a huge fan of the tactics genre, I felt I kind of had an idea of what people wanted, but I never expected it to be this popular! I honestly hope it holds up when people get their hands on it, and if anything I feel like I have an obligation to make sure it does!

 

Have there been very many ideas considered for the game and have since been scrapped?

Early on I had a bad case of feature creep, where I really had some grand designs for the game that over time would be tested by the reality of the situation. At one point I had plans for around 100 Jobs or Classes and I even had the name of the game being “Hundred Tactics”. This would make for a pretty crazy issue of balancing, let alone design and depth! One of my favorite parts of RPGs, in general, is the Job/Class system so it was very important to me to have it be something at the forefront and while it is, I have since lowered the number of Jobs to a more manageable amount at ~30.

 

What platforms are you looking to bring the game to?

First and foremost the game will be released on PC. Windows, Linux, and Mac releases will be the main focus at the beginning. I would love to see Dusk Tactics on consoles, and I may leave that up to a stretch goal in fundraising. Since the game is coded in Java it will take some work to get it up and running on consoles like the Switch (easily my #1 choice) so it will depend on having the funds necessary to either do it myself (most likely) or farm it out.

 

Do you have any advice for aspiring developers that may be reading this?

For those who have yet to decide whether or not to pursue game development, there’s only one reality: you won’t get anything done without starting! It’s not easy, but if you are really interested in it, then you need to take that first step! Technically you should start small to increase your chances of completing the project. I only had a few projects before this one ranging from very small arcade-style mobile apps to some FOSS (Free Open Source Software) role-playing games I worked on. Working on open source projects early on was a great way to learn how to work on a schedule, work with a team, using project management software, and more. I feel like there’s a lot of information online that should suffice when it comes to preparing yourself to start a project. While it’s important to plan things out as best you can, remember you can’t plan everything. If it’s a medium to large-sized project and you’re a solo dev, then I can say the best thing is to get into a schedule and keep track of things like burnout and feature creep. The former happens to everyone and sometimes requires taking breaks while the latter brings up the need for a well-designed plan for what you want to accomplish!

 

Where on the Internet can people find you? 

The project’s main website:

http://dusktactics.com 

It is a major source of information about Dusk Tactics, however, I tend to update more frequently on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/dusktactics

There is a forum: 

http://dusktactics.com/bb/

It will be used more in the future to conduct closed alpha testing and I would like to post more frequent updates to it.

 

Do you have anything else to add?

One thing I was very wary of at first was social media. I didn’t have much experience with it as I never really got involved with Twitter outside of game development. There’s a lot to learn, but the biggest takeaway is that I wouldn’t be where I am today without it! Promoting your project is something I am still learning about and it’s an area where a lot of developers including myself sometimes feel like we are in over our heads. A fellow game dev @bluegoogames created this video that honestly details a lot of what it takes to get a good following behind your project: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEmuwU0UhU8&t=3s

With that being said I want to thank Scouse Gamer 88 so much for the opportunity and for the great questions!!

 

I would also like to thank Louis for taking the time out to answers the questions I had about Dusk Tactics and wish him the best of luck with the title. A new tactical RPG would be a breath of fresh air for the industry as the genre has remained somewhat dormant over the eighth generation of gaming, and I feel the release of a game Dusk Tactics would be an ideal catalyst to revive the genre and perhaps even take it to new heights of popularity.

Again, you can follow the links left by Louise to track the development of the game and hope you guys enjoy playing it upon release. But in the meantime, I hope you guys had as much reading about Dusk Tactics as I did covering it.

 

Game on,

Scouse Gamer 88

Q&A With Igor Tanzil

Following my trip to London for the EGX Rezzed conference, I was given the opportunity to ask questions about yet another indie game for the blog; the subject of this particular session is a game called Forged of Blood. Set in a morally ambiguous fantasy world reminiscent of Gary Gygax’s Dungeons & Dragons series, Forged of Blood is a tactical RPG, similar to the likes of Tactics Ogre & XCOM, complete with a variety of different weapons and magic to do battle with and a morality system similar to Fable or Mass Effect. I managed to send across some further questions about the game I had to the creative director of Critical Forge Games, Igor Tanzil, and amidst the game’s ongoing Kickstarter campaign, these are the answers he gave;

 

Forged of Blood 1

What were the influences behind your game?

Forged of Blood is really the love child of the different personalities and gaming preferences of the studio’s founders. Mechanically, it’s heavily influenced by the tabletop RPGs we’ve played along with the old-school TRPGS and RPGs that a lot of us grew up playing. Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, X-Com (both old and new) and of course Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, you name it, we’ve played it and loved it – and so we set out to make the game that took the best parts of all the games we’ve loved and merged it with modern graphics we can get with Unreal Engine 4. I’ll let Milo our Game Designer take the reigns on the mechanical side below while I cover the world at large.

For the setting of the game we really wanted to set it in a hard fantasy world that is really grounded in the reality of that world. That means coming up with a world and coming up with the rulesets that would govern that world. We asked ourselves, ok so how would small unit tactics make sense in our fantasy world? How did magic permeate society and perhaps more importantly what is possible and not possible with the magic in our world? My partners are huge Brandon Sanderson fans and I personally loved the old Stargate SG-1 worlds and Roman cultures and so I kind of took all that in when I started with the world-building. What we end up with is Attiras: A world that is heavily inspired by Roman culture and one where there we have an older ruling species giving way to a new species before getting supplanted.

Attiras is something very near and dear to my heart – it is basically the world upon which I’ve really imprinted my own personal thoughts and feelings of morality. Growing up I’ve always felt out of place, being a minority in my own country (Indonesia) and then growing up in two other countries wherein I was just as much an outcast there as I was in my own home. So I really wanted to explore the themes of race and the tensions that come with a ruling minority and how a smaller population might come to power. Of course, at the end of the day Forged of Blood is still a video game, and that means that a lot of these things might be relegated into the depths of our lore books, but my partners and I definitely felt that we needed to have a fully fleshed-out world for us to then create within. The challenge now falls to us to pick and highlight the stories within our world that are fun for a game and make for the compelling story to drive the narrative forward.

 

What has the developmental process been like?

The short answer? A thrill ride.

The more realistic and complicated answer is that it has been – and continues to be – a process that teaches, humbles, and excites us. As a brand new studio, the onus fell on us to remove as much doubt and risk from our future consumers as possible, and to that end, we’ve taken a very pragmatic approach to our development process. To us, that means making sure from the very beginning that we are able to make the things that we set out to make before committing to it, and that led us to initially launch the studio with a small team of six to prototype and world build the game we had in mind. During this time we split the team into two, with the programmers

testing and building upon a toolkit in Unreal Engine 4 and the rest of us testing out the base mechanics on the tabletop before implementing it in-engine to test.

From there we iterated repeatedly until we had something that we felt was fun to play before expanding the team to include the art side of the studio. We’ve since hit a few big milestones in just under a year, from our first fully rendered tactical map to implementing the strategic and tactical layers together, the progress we’ve made here at the studio has just been a wonder to behold.

 

Forged of Blood 2

What has been the most exciting aspect of development?

Oh boy, everyone will probably have a different answer to this question for I personally have two favorites. I think the first thing that really got me excited for Forged of Blood was the worldbuilding. It was and continues to be a creative process unlike any other that I’ve done. Being given the freedom to create an entire world, and then working with the team to bring that world to life and seeing how others interpreted the world and the rules I’ve created has been just an absolute treat for me. However, what I think the most exciting aspect of the development for all of us has been seeing it all come together right before PAX. Our pre-alpha PAX build was the first time we’ve seen it all start to come together, and being able to catch a glimpse of the game both on the Strategic Layer and Tactical Layer was a huge morale boost for everyone.

 

What has been the most challenging aspect of development?

The most challenging aspect of the development process so far is finding the balance between our own dreams and ambitions and the limitations we have as a small studio. When we started the studio we focused our efforts almost entirely on finding the right team and luckily for us we’ve all worked together on a larger project before and it just came down to picking the right person for each role. That said, ours is still a very small team and our budget basically dictated the production time we’d have to work on Forged of Blood, and that in turn dictates just how much we can actually do. It’s tough on all of us when we have to forego a good idea or limit the number of assets we can have, but finding compromise is ultimately the only way forward.

 

Forged of Blood 3

How well has the game been received so far?

This is really interesting to experience as a new indie studio. The hard truth is that for the most part we are ignored. We’re the “nobodies” from a third-world country that just isn’t known for video games, and we’re working on a very deep game with a rather small market segment – and that has seriously affected just how far word of our game has reached.

However, it has been extremely gratifying to experience the reaction of people who actually gave us a minute to hear our spiel and actually checked out the game. The people that stopped by our little booth at PAX East kept coming back, and they brought their friends time and time again. The more we engaged with people who found the idea of a Fantasy Tactical RPG interesting, the more they loved the project and we’ve even gotten some fans who are helping us spread the word out.

I think we’ve really hit the nail on the head in creating a game that appeals to our market – the fans we’ve made in the last few weeks is a testament to that – but we’re still hindered by a lot of the fatigue that comes from other failed Kickstarter projects and our studio’s relative anonymity. However, we knew that going in and we’ve taken the steps mentioned before in removing as much risk from the consumer as we can even though it is a great expense to ourselves.

 

What were the influences behind the combat system?

To quote Milo, our game designer:

Before we began designing the game, we discussed what type of game we wanted to make. We wanted a game based on meaningful choices, dark/hard fantasy, and set in a believable world. This leads to decisions about spell crafting and Magurite to create a more hard fantasy feel in which you draw the energy in from the environment before expelling it back out, combining with the Magurite to provide a power source for the spells. We also drew heavily from games we are all fans of, such as X-Com, Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, and other turn-based tactical and RPG games. Our Standard Action, Move Action, and Quick Action structure is quite similar to something you would see in Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons. We also wanted to provide as much freedom for the players as we could, which lead us to have classless character builds that focus more on how the characters will play rather than what their role will be.

 

What platforms are you looking to bring the game to?

While the PC is our primary platform, we will be looking into releasing it on other platforms once the PC version has been released. We have also had a lot of people asking for Linux and Mac from our fanbase and that is certainly something that is feasible with Unreal Engine 4, but we’ll confirm everything once the game is further along.

 

Do you have any advice for aspiring developers that may be reading this?

The biggest advice we can give to aspiring devs right now is just: make the game you can finish. It’s always great to shoot for the stars – in a way that’s what we’re doing – but it’s even more important that you end production with a game that ships. For us, that means approaching the mechanics and art in a very iterative way that allows us to learn, execute, iterate, and streamline the different production threads in the studio. It also means being able to acquiesce to the very real limitations of time, money, and ability when approaching some of our more grandiose ideas for the game. We are ultimately judged on the work we show, and if the game never ships we have nothing upon which to build on.

 

Where about on the Internet can people find you?

While we have a website and blog, we are also very active in a few gaming communities that I’ll include below. In fact the majority of our fanbase game from these gaming communities – mostly gamers who are really into the sort of game we are developing that they are willing to hear us out and check out the game.

Game Website: http://forgedofblood.com/

Studio Website: http://criticalforge.com/

Kickstarter Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/criticalforge/forged-of-blood

Neogaf Thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=233027883#post233027883

RPGCodex Thread: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/forged-of-blood-turn-based-tactical-rpg-kickstarter-live.111536/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fobthegame

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ForgedOfBlood

 

Do you have anything else to add?

I think we’d like to take this time to just express our gratitude for the amount of love we’ve gotten from our fans so far. We’d also like to take the time to plead our case to the many skeptics out there.

Forged of Blood is an ambitious project for us – for anyone really – but we’ve approached it every step of the way with the sort of pragmatism that we truly believe will result in a game many will enjoy. We’ve taken a huge risk in trying to alleviate the risks to the consumer and we hope that that you will judge us by the work we show. We’ve put everything we have into this game and we will see it through, though we are on Kickstarter for a reason. We need those funds to truly elevate the game to be what we know it can be, but no matter the outcome Forged of Blood will be completed.

Thank you so much for this interview, and please never hesitate to reach out to us!

 

I would also like to take the time to thank Igor for providing such an in-depth insight into the game and to wish him and the team the best of luck with the title, and the Kickstarter campaign. Forged of Blood looks very much on par, if not better than, many of the other RTS games I saw at EGX Rezzed, and I would recommend any readers check out their Kickstarter page.

Worms (Amiga, CD32, Jaguar, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, MS DOS, PlayStation & PC)

Worms

Developer(s) – Team17

Publisher(s) – Ocean Software

Designer – Andy Davidson

ELSPA – 3+

Starting out as an entry for a programming competition called Total Wormage, Worms went on to become not only a hugely popular game but a hugely popular franchise. A by-product of the 90s, a strange time for the industry in its own right, Worms combines some concepts that may sound ridiculous on paper. But makes for something very entertaining on either CD or cartridge format.

Graphics – 6.5/10

The designs of the in-game battlefield, in particular, are quite unique compared to typical video game settings for not only its times but for video games in general. It takes place in settings varying from glaciers and scrap yards. The FMVs that play out before the beginning of each battle were also pretty well done for the time and added quite a bit of entertainment to the game. I will elaborate on this further in the review. The aspect that I think lets the visuals down, however, is how poorly detailed the character sprites stand out among the in-game scenery. I think by that token, the game hasn’t aged particularly well from a visual perspective. After a while, the sound bytes of the character voices could get a little annoying after a while in the first installment.

Gameplay – 6.5/10

I find that this game’s fairly strong level of addiction can be attributed to how many challenges can be involved at times. And for how much strategy and variety in gameplay was surprisingly included in a game like this, which I personally commend it for. At the time, there was something strangely wonderful about determining the best way to take out each of the opposing team’s worms before they took the player’s team out. And it’s a unique gameplay novelty, which I believe still holds up to this very day.

Controls – 9/10

The only gripe I have about this game’s control scheme is the system of having to measure up wind resistance against trajectory in order to make the most accurate shot possible with the bazooka or grenades. In my opinion, that can make the game unnecessarily difficult at times. Given the most awkward of circumstances and unit positions. To my dismay, this system would feature in future Worms titles. However, there are no problems otherwise.

Lifespan – N/A (10/10)

As a game with no fixed lifespan, it only lasts as long as the player’s interest. Like games such as Mario Kart, Worms is a game that can simply be picked up and played without players having to worry about making progress in the conventional sense of having to worry about how fleeting the experience may feel after they’ve finished playing.

Storyline – N/A (10/10)

As with many video games before and after the release of Worms, this game has no properly established storyline. But rather a mere basic premise; worms warring with each other. The best thing about the premise of Worms is the entertaining comedic element portrayed in the many FMVs of the game, which play out before each fight. This would become a staple in the series. Much to my personal approval.

Originality – 7/10

In the ’90s in particular, when most players were primarily used to 2D side-scrolling and first-person shooting, a real-time strategy game about worms at war. Using a wide variety of weapons and gadgets to subdue each other was a breath of fresh air on both a conceptual level and in terms of gameplay. Indeed, these are the kinds of seemingly nonsensical ideas. These have been the very foundations for some of the greatest video game franchises ever conceived.

Happii

In summation, Worms is a very unique and compelling game. Whilst not holding up from a graphical point of view, definitely holds up in terms of both gameplay and originality. In my opinion, it’s a must-have for any fan of the real-time strategy genre.

Score

49/60

8/10 (Very Good)

Kaiju Panic (PC)

Kaiju Panic

Developer(s) – Mechabit Games

PEGI – 7

Developed by Mechabit Games, a small development company based in Liverpool, Kaiju Panic is a tower defense game. Heavily influenced by Japanese culture in terms of conceptual design. And encouraging players to adopt an extremely heavy tactical approach in order to progress. As I said in my Play Manchester Article, this was my favorite indie game to be displayed at the show. And after having played the finished product, it has become my favorite indie game to have been released this year too.

Graphics –9/10

Visually, the game seems to be somewhat of a love letter to the SNES classic, EarthBound, Featuring a wide variety of vibrant and colorful modern-day environments. And containing an even wider variety of monsters to have to fend off. And characters to have to rescue along the way. I was particularly impressed by what I saw throughout. Since not only is it’s core conceptual design extremely creative, but there is certainly scope for the developers to build upon the mythology of the game, even more. Making me extremely excited for the future of what could potentially be a very distinct and very successful franchise.

Gameplay – 10/10

The gameplay is also just as creative, as well as being insanely addictive. Plays must work to protect cities from an attack carried out by sinister monsters called Kaiju. Players do this by gathering civilians, mining for resources, and building gun turrets of different varieties in order to battle different types of Kaiju that have distinct weaknesses. For example, certain Kaiju may be weak against corrosive attacks. Whilst others may be weak against laser-based attacks. The game demands that players try out different methods. Forcing them to adopt different tactics to suit different levels and progress through the game. There are also unlockable perks and upgrades to be obtained. Adding even more replay value to it.

Controls – 9.5/10

Personally, it took me a little bit of time to get used to the game’s control scheme. Since the player has to use the mouse to look around each level and observe what activity occurs. They must also use the keyboard to move the character around. Often at the same time. But once players get used to it, there are no issues to be experienced in Kaiju Panic. And therefore, the game plays out as well as any other PC-based tower defense game or real-time strategy game. I, of course, have to commend the developers for daring to try something different. And making it work very well overall.

Lifespan – 7/10

Taking everything into account, the game can be made to last at least 20-25 hours. Which whilst quite impressive, ultimately left me wanting more. In turn, however, that again made me excited about what kind of directions the developers could take in a potential sequel. In my opinion, there is a great amount of possibility to not only expand on the lore and mythology of the game but to expand on the core concept gameplay. And the number of different gameplay modes too.

Storyline – 7/10

Simplistic in general concept, the story of Kaiju Panic follows a general, with the help of Earth’s citizens, who must fend off a planetary invasion orchestrated by the Kaiju. Although the game’s story can be viewed as straightforward in scope, it is kept interesting by the series of cutscenes that occur between each level, and how events unfold that depict distinct events that happen around the core plot. Some of them also provide the game with a small comedic element, which I found gave it a pretty distinct charm.

Originality – 8/10

Although there have been many games of its kind to have come and gone over many years, I think the developers did a particularly good job of making this one stand out among the vast majority of them. Employing unique conceptual design, along with a distinct style of play, and control scheme, I’ve come across very few indie games so far that incorporate such a great deal of originality, and to me, it has been instrumental in showing exactly what indie developers are capable of if they truly believe that what they have created can work, and extremely well. And in my opinion, this title certainly works extremely well indeed.

Happii

Overall, Kaiju Panic is one of the best indie games I have played. It’s charming, addictive, and creative, and if a franchise will ever be born from this title, it certainly has a great deal of potential for the future. I highly recommend it.

Score

50.5

8/10 (Very Good)

Hogs of War (PC & PlayStation)

Hogs of War

Developer(s) – Infogrames Studios & Sheffield House

Publisher(s) – Infogrames Europe & Sony

PEGI – 12

Set in the First World War Era, and featuring armies of anthropomorphic pigs, Hogs of War was a different take on the genre of games perpetuated by the hit title Worms, which had players fighting across 3D environments as opposed to 2D ones. I spent a lot of time playing this game when I was a kid. And it still holds up to this day as an enjoyable experience.

Graphics – 7/10

The visuals of the game were fairly well handled for the time. The various different environments presented players with a range of different atmospheres. But I think in those environments when the weather is much murkier are when the theme of the game is portrayed better. Such as the last stage, The Isle of Swill. The biggest visible issue with how the graphics are rendered is that there is a great deal of disproportion between the size of both the stages and the characters.

Gameplay – 7/10

Playing out almost identically to worms, the objective is to kill all the pigs on the opposing team before they kill all the player’s pigs. It’s pretty enjoyable, with a fair few weapons to use and strategic techniques to take advantage of. The best thing about it is that unlike in Worms, there is no wind resistance factor to affect the direction in which a bazooka missile might land. Thus aiming is a lot easier. Its biggest downfall, however, is that there isn’t anywhere near as much variety as there is in Worms since the player’s choice of weapons is considerably more limited.

Controls – 9/10

In terms of its control scheme, though it relies on a structure similar to how 3D platformers play out, and it inevitably came with the same issues that many other early 3D platformers on the original PlayStation came with, it isn’t anywhere near as much of a hindrance as it was in the like of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos or Bubsy 3D. It could be a reason why the stages are disproportionate to the character so that less movement was required. In any case, it can be seen as a possible turning point for the quality of the genre on the system. Before the analog stick was added to the PlayStation controller.

Lifespan – 6/10

Though the main campaign mode in Hogs of War will take about 4 to 5 hours to complete, the player will then unlock another, yet harder, campaign mode. Which has them, fighting on the opposite side to before. So in all, the main story will take about 10 to 15 hours to finish completely. Not only that but like in Worms, players can also have exhibition matches. As well as 2-player matches.

Storyline – 7/10

The story of the game revolves around armies of pigs warring upon the island of Saustralasia. Seeking control over its most valuable asset; the isle of Swill. According to the lore of the game whoever controls this island controls the rest of the world. Though the basic premise of the plot is quite straightforward, it does have a small element of comedic value to it. As the late Rik Mayall lent his voice talents to the game. Also, when the player completes both story campaigns, another cutscene takes place. Portraying the events of the game more closely to how WWI itself would have actually been like. This gives the game much more substance than a player may have first thought.

Originality – 8/10

Though Hogs of War may obviously be a modification of an already existing idea, it can also be a lesson learned too many PlayStation developers on how to create a decent 3D platformer or at least a possible starting point. A sequel had been in development. But it is now presumed canceled after Infogrames was absorbed into Atari, SA. Though no formal announcement has since been made. It’s a shame because I believe there could have been ways in which the formula could have been modified for the better.

Happii

Overall, Hogs of War is nowadays a fairly obscure game, which isn’t deservedly so. Since it’s definitely one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences on the original PlayStation in my opinion. It is available on the PlayStation Store, and I would recommend it to any fan of the strategy genre.

Score

44/60

7/10 (Fair)