8-Bit Armies

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Title:  8-Bit Armies
Developer:  Petroglyph
Publisher:  SOEDESCO 
Website:  https://soedesco.com/games/8-bit-armies/ 
Genre:  Strategy, Simulation
Platform:  Xbox One
Audience:  Old and new fans of Real-time strategy games.
Release Date:  21/09/2018
Price:  £26.79 – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this game.

What the Developers Say

Welcome back, commander! Strap on your army boots and get ready for an epic battle. Gather resources, build up your army base and military units, then lay siege with an array of devastating aircraft, vehicles, infantry, and superweapons!

Features

• Complete 40 single-player missions and 12 co-op missions
• Compete in online multiplayer with up to five other players
• Obliterate your enemies in a variety of colorful, destructible maps
• Jump right into battle with an easy controller schem
• Enjoy eeasy to play military units and structures

Introduction

As soon as I started to play 8-Bit Armies, the thought that it was a mash-up between Command & Conquer and Minecraft came to mind.  This game has been made by some of the team who developed the Command & Conquer series.

The team at Petroglyph have done a good job of creating an accessible RTS game that brings back nostalgic feelings, as well as appealing to a new audience.  Read on for my Rapid Review of 8-Bit Armies.

Looks and Sounds

8-Bit Armies features a colourful, blocky voxel art style. The characters, buildings and landscapes look appealing. I liked the visual style of the game, and although it does appear quite cartoon-like, you can see that a lot of effort has gone into the design of the game. The characters, vehicles and maps have been animated well.  I particulary enjoyed the fact that some of the environment that are destructible.  This added an extra element of fun.

The soundtrack of this game is excellent and fits the genre well.  It’s not surprising to learn that it is by Command & Conquer’s composer, Frank Klepacki.

Gameplay and Replayability

8-Bit Armies is a game that is easy to learn, and it will appeal to players who have no Real-Time Strategy game experience.  As with most RTS games, the aim of the aim is relatively simple, build a base, barracks to train soldiers, refinery to collect material (which can then be used to upgrade buildings) power stations, and a garage for manufacturing vehicles.  Once you’ve done this, you need to command your 8-Bit Army, through the fog of war, with the aim of discovering, and destroying the enemy base.

The transition to consoles for RTS games has historically been quite difficult.  However, 8-Bit Armies on the Xbox One has been made with very usable controls.  The building and commanding controls are mapped to the LB and RB shoulder buttons and you can scroll through the menus with the LT and RT buttons. 

Your army is assigned to the X, Y and B buttons.  Pressing these buttons selects all of that specific unit and focusses the camera on them.  This is perfect in the middle of an epic battle!

Making your way through the campaign mode give you access to more units and buildings, like garages to build tanks, and other, more powerful units.

There are 25 offline campaign missions which play out over ten different maps.  8-Bit Armies also features two-player co-op missions, AI Skirmish mode, as well as player against player mode.  The difficulty levels range from the easy “beginner” to the very difficult “Insane”.  These varied difficulty modes bring replayability to the game.

Conclusion

8-Bit Armies is a perfect introduction to RTS games, however, it will appeal to seasoned RTS players, who will have a challenge on the games’ highest difficulty settings.  The 8-Bit voxel art style will appeal to younger players, as will the easy to use controls.  Seasoned RTS players will also find something to enjoy in this game.

Rapid Reviews UK Rating

You can purchase 8-Bit Armies at the Microsoft Store on the following link, https://www.microsoft.com/p/8-bit-armies/btqx4hz6g5vk