ARMY MEN RTS (PC)
"The horror... the horror..."
This is a real time simulation of a tactical war game on a very small scale, using little moulded plastic soldiers - which are alive. If you imagine a combination of the films 'Small Soldiers' and 'Apocalypse Now', then the result would be something very much like this game. Here is one of the cutscenes from the game to show you what I mean...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epE7qkAB0GE
You are in control of the Green army and must defeat the Tan enemy. The story begins with the report that your own man Colonel Blintz, after receiving a very serious head wound has gone crazy, painted himself tan and gone over to the enemy side. He has taken control of the Tan army, and also has completely taken over a house. Your mission is to stop him.
The star of the game is Sarge, who leads the forces on almost every mission. He begins with a small company of soldiers camped outside the fence, and must fight through the enemy defences to gain access to the garden and set up a base of operation within Tan territory. What follows is a long series of battles against the enemy, advancing across the garden, gaining access to the house, then all throughout the house until the final assault on Blintz's base in the attic. It's quite an adventure!
The missions mainly involve building a base, or several bases if you prefer, from plastic (and possibly other previously captured items such as a blender, drink can and pencils) then destroying the enemy forces, or else some other important target. Or there may be other types of missions as well. The base consists of several different buildings: You can have a headquarters, resource depot, fences, defences and barracks for manufacturing troops and vehicles. So you literally build your army from a big pool of plastic, and also the vehicles and a couple of other things will also require an electric charge to function. However you only have a limited supply of these two resources of plastic and electricity, but more can usually be collected from the environment. Discarded children's toys, batteries and other things litter the combat area, and some of them will be suitable for harvesting plastic from, or may contain batteries that can be drained of their power. Yet the enemy will also be trying to capture these resources, so you may have to fight for control of them.
When a troop, vehicle or building is destroyed it will leave behind a smaller lump of plastic. These can also be collected and recycled to build more units. Sarge however keeps his form if killed, and can simply be repaired and reactivated instead of remoulded - but this doesn't happen until the mission has been completed. The same is true of several other characters available for some of the missions, and together with Sarge they form Bravo Company, an elite force of various expert soldiers, including a sniper and mortar bomber, and there is also a part-time member who makes an amusing entrance later. They will even work alone on some of the missions, bravely fighting through the enemy defences without an army to help them. They are a bunch of characters who make you care about them, and they provide some nice entertainment throughout the game.
There is a nice variety of equipment available, which gets more advanced as the game progresses. In the beginning you just have the ability to build basic all-purpose grunts, explosive-throwing grenadiers and minesweepers, to find and deactivate enemy mines. As the game progresses (and gets more difficult) more powerful troops requiring more plastic will become available, as well as specialist units. For example snipers have a long range and great power, but they can only attack troops, or mortar men can only attack buildings, but are very effective and can attack from quite a distance if they have another troop sighting the target for them. You can lay minefields, build specialist anti-aircraft guns, tanks, choppers, medics for healing, bring in a huge magnifying glass to melt the enemy with sunlight, etc. But the enemy also has all the equipment, and is already established at the beginning of the game.
Overall this is a wonderful game: It's a lot of fun, has a good entertaining story, looks great, is nicely playable, and is as difficult or easy as you want with a variety of difficulty settings and cheat codes available. The characters and the missions are varied and entertaining. For example at one point you have to save a peaceful LEGO village from the Tan, who want their plastic, and escort the villagers safely out of town along a Scalextric track road. Or throughout the game you will also be attacked by vicious ants, and there is a little story which unfolds about them. And in addition to the main story game there are additional battles to be fought, as well as yet more that can be played multiplayer, either by yourself or in teams against other players and computer controlled armies if you want. The single player missions and battles also have secondary objectives to complete, such as finishing within a time limit, and though they are not required, medals are awarded for completing them in part or in full, which adds an extra challenge to the game.
This is like being a kid again playing with toys, but this time the toys are alive, like your imagination has come to life, and it's a very real, very serious business. But we'll still have some laughs along the way...
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