Also available on PlayStation 2 and Windows Real time strategy seems like kind of a natural fit for the Army Men series, but it took until the end of 3DO's life to make that a reality. 3DO didn't even release the Gamecube version two and a half years after the PS2 and PC releases; Global Star handled that port after acquiring the Army Men IP in the wake of 3DO's collapse. RTS games on console had long been attempted with several seeing releases on Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and Saturn, but Army Men RTS was one of the first that really felt "right." Starcraft 64 was solid, but it didn't feel quite fluid enough with the controls to be on par with its PC counterpart; Army Men RTS, on the other hand, is the best console RTS in my opinion until the release of Halo Wars three and a half years later. The game's story follows Sergeant Hawk and his Bravo Company commandos as they push across Tan lines to take out Colonel Blintz, a Green officer who defected to the Tan after being shot in the head. The game's story makes multiple allusions to the film Apocalypse Now which itself is based on Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella, Heart of Darkness, even to point of Blintz's final line of dialogue in the game being "The horror, the horror," a direct quote from Heart of Darkness antagonist, Kurtz. I utterly loath Heart of Darkness thanks to the insanely deep analysis of it I had to do when I took AP English IV, but I can't deny its literary value, so referencing a film based on the book definitely pleases the academic in me. The game features a 15 mission campaign that tells the story in addition to a set of "Great Battles" which are missions designed for building large bases and longer engagements as well as "Special Operations" which are missions with some very specific objectives. All in all, it's got a good bit of content with 23 missions over those three game modes. If you're playing on PC, there's also a multiplayer option, although since it relied on GameSpy, you have to jump through some hoops to get that to work. As you're building up your forces and fighting your way through the missions, you'll naturally have to keep an eye on resource management, a staple of any RTS game. While games like Age of Empires hit you with numerous resources to manage, Army Men RTS takes a page out of Starcraft's book; your only resources here are plastic and electricity both of which can be harvested from toys strewn about the world. Army Men RTS actually looks pretty decent for a mid budget game, and unlike most of the series, it actually hit pretty good marks on each part of my checklist. The story is, while basic, well done to provide a context for the game's campaign. The visuals, as I just mentioned, look good. My only complaint there is the explosions; they're sort of a soft explosion like in the Toy Story 2 game on N64 if anyone played that instead of the more visceral explosions we saw in Army Men II and Army Men: Toys in Space. The sound design is good with some decent even if not stunning music and the solid voice acting that we've come to expect with the Sarge's Heroes universe games. Jim Cummings continues his performance of literally every single character in the game except for Vikki, and it's his performance, I think, that really elevates the game's sound design; the beneficial effect that just having a good voice actor can have for a game really can't be understated, and Jim Cumming's performance gives the game a light-hearted and humorous feel that fits the "toy soldiers" motif perfectly. The biggest hurdle that RTS games on consoles always face is with control, and perhaps surprisingly give the mediocrity for which the Army Men series is known, 3DO and Global Star really nailed the controls here. It would take until Halo Wars three and a half years and a whole console generation later and developed with a significantly larger budget for a console RTS game to surpass Army Men RTS in controls. Deselecting units can be a little awkward, but selecting and directing your units feels completely natural, and that's the most important element of RTS control. Rather than having to select a specific building, you just hold the R button and can use up and down on the D pad to cycle through building menus to make the units or structures you want to build. Barbed wire fences also automatically appear connecting guard towers and fence posts as long as they're positioned properly. A lot of the things that were either cumbersome or omitted from past console RTS games have been creatively fixed here. RTS may not do much to shake up the typical RTS formula, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; the phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" has endured for so long for a reason. Army Men RTS, while sadly 3DO's last Army Men game, is also one of their best Army Men games. I, personally, still prefer the tactics games on PC and the third person shooters on Nintendo 64, but as far as quality goes, RTS definitely deserves a place right beside Army Men II and Sarge's Heroes 2. The game's PC version has been updated and made easily playable on modern machines thanks to GOG, and considering that the PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console of all time, I imagine a lot of people still have one of those, making that version an option. I'm naturally partial to the Gamecube version given that that's the version I played growing up and is on a Nintendo platform, but I've tried all three versions, and there's not a bad choice to be had. Whether you go PC, PS2, or Gamecube (the real gamer's choice), Army Men RTS is a game that is worth checking out whether you're a fan of the series or not. My Rating - B |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
June 2024
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