Swords and Soldiers II Multiplayer Preview: It’s War!

by David Sanchez November 12, 2014 @ 2:52 pm

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The original Swords and Soldiers was a big hit when it launched on the Wii all the way back in 2009. The game subsequently hit a few different platforms, and it was most recently ported to Steam and the Wii U. Ronimo Games is back at it with a sequel, aptly titled Swords and Solders II. I had a chance to play the game’s multiplayer Skirmish mode at this year’s IndieCade last month, and I can honestly say that I had a blast with the charming strategy title.

If you’ve played the previous game — and you really should if lighthearted strategy is something you’d dig — you’ll feel right at home in this follow-up. Though it doesn’t do too much to evolve the formula from a gameplay perspective, it delivers an overall refined package filled with everything folks loved the first time around. You can lead different factions, each with their own special abilities. You control your characters by selecting different actions rather than actually moving the characters themselves on the screen. And there are plenty of goofy moments to experience.

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While I didn’t actually get a chance to play the single player campaign, I was able to play an entire Skirmish match. Mutiplayer in Swords and Soldiers II is great fun, but it requires a bit of finesse, strategy, and planning. If you’ve never delved into this series before, don’t let its quirky look fool you — there’s a challenging, deep game here, and if you go into it unprepared, you’ll be overwhelmed with the various options at your disposal.

I played as the Viking faction and took on the Demon faction. Funnily enough, I attended the indie games festival with my girlfriend, so we were pitted against one another in Swords and Soldiers II, and I felt compelled to destroy her. As the Viking faction, I was able to summon a decent-sized cast of funny-looking units. I started by spawning a few buxom wenches and having them deliver gold from a mine to my base. This way I was able to purchase other types of units.

On my side were strong brutes and powerful behemoths. Swords and Soldiers II changes things up by having resources randomly drop on the screen. It’s up to you to retrieve them, and doing so usually reaps in great rewards such as large quantities of gold or mana. The one drawback, however, is that you have to send your troops marching into unsafe territory. As with any battle, you could lose valuable units, making for a nice risk-versus-reward element.

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Aside from the units themselves, I also had access to special abilities. These mostly involved sheep, and I was able to not only send sheep barreling into my foes, but I could also turn enemy units into sheep. Naturally, this left them vulnerable to my attacks, but alas, the enemy also had some serious damage-dealing attacks. The one that was most devastating was the meteor shower, which sent three massive meteors crashing onto the screen and taking out my units.

In the end, I came out of Skirmish mode a loser. The competitive jerk in me was a tad sore at the loss, but I still had a good time. I suppose that’s the beauty of Swords and Soldiers II — it’s good, wholesome fun regardless of whether you’re getting your butt kicked or delivering a walloping.

Interestingly, the game allows you various methods of control. Wii Remote and Wii U Pro Controller support has been mentioned before, which likely means we’ll be seeing the return of split-screen action in Swords and Soldiers II. Better yet, the game takes advantage of the Wii U GamePad’s screen, so if you’re playing Skirmish, one player can view everything on the controller’s screen while the other uses the TV. It’s a nice touch, and if the GamePad player decides not to see what the other player is doing on the TV, it could make for some unpredictable matches.

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If you dig this series for the single player gameplay, you won’t be getting multiple campaigns this time around. Instead, Swords and Soldiers II will boast one lengthy campaign, which will probably have its fair share of praise and criticism depending on whether you like multiple stories to play through or one dedicated component. Additionally, there won’t be online multiplayer as Ronimo feels that this game is better suited as a local multiplayer experience.

Though a specific release date has yet to be announced, you can expect Swords and Soldiers II to make its Wii U debut sometime this year. No other platforms have been confirmed as this title’s being dubbed a Nintendo exclusive, but if the first game was any indication, it’s only a matter of time before we see this sequel on multiple platforms.

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