Reviews for W & B : Deadly Strategies

[SAGGAMES]

*few*

The first thing I thought when I saw this game was "oh shit, someone thought of this idea before me"My next thought when I saw the reviews was'hmm,maby its not the best?and my final thought when I played the game was"hmm, its just another mastabatory scripting/animating "game"" this game was NOT designed for the players enjoyment.It was designed for the enjoyment of the people who made it,purely a blatant example of what far too many games become. For ont thing, it seemed that the designers took a lunchbreak that spanned the entire time of production,as most of the things that should be apparent that they needed fixing,were not.An example of this lack of editing was where,as everyone has said before,there is no direct control over your own troops throughout the battles.This in itself would not of been a MASSIVE problem had their been a VERY powerful(and easy to use and learn)controling AI system. Unfortunatly there was not.instead we had those tiny bars,which,after fiddiling with them for an hour,made a tiny impact on how the units behaved.My units then decided to attack the base one by one, each attacking a different target,and thus getting slaughtered and my 10000 or so dollars used to create them was lost.Another issue was,and I am using a very powerful machine,lag.now,as someone who has had to fight lag tooth and nail in several(as yet unreleased)games,I can give you a few tips.I am guessing,that when the screen was NOT over units,they remained the same,not as,what I would of done,turned into blue squares, and then,once the screen came back on them,turn back into their sprity forms.This technique can save a HUGE amount of processing power,and can stop lag in its tracks.Another inovation that could of been untilised in the real war against lag,was the introduction of a tile system.have the entire map consist of squares tipped on their sides,and have only one unit able to move on the same tile at a time.Now,when someone says"tile-based"everyone instantly starts gagging, but listen to this:some of the latest games(fallout 3, empire earth 3, dawn of war, a few others)make use of a tile based map system,and its done so subtly that you can hardly tell that they are tile based.I realise that much of the lag comes from having to move movieclips and such around.that could also be helped with a tile based system.And yes,I do know that many of the lagging problems are solved when you download it and open it as a .exe file, but who the fuck is going to do that?Now,to keep this short I will say I agree with all the issues that have been raised with AI,with this one exception.you could of at least had a "all attack now"button,that would of made things turn from one tactic to two, steamroll and atrition,rather than just atrition. Now,finaly,the plot.the plot just wanks on and on and on...in story mode I just couldn't face it anymore.I just had to close it down.it would of been acceptable if I had actully given*expletive warning*a flying fuck about whatever the fuck I was supposed to fuck up/fix up.Also,HUD was a BPIA(big pain in the ass),menus were about the wankyest I have seen(except of course, windows vista)and finaly,there was no unit stacking.I really do hate it when you have to constantly go back to your barracks and click on the unit you want to create... again and a-fucking-gain. Its almost as if you took the user control from the units, and put it into creating them. It merly made it so, instead of micro managing units, it was micro managing unit creation. My final word on this game is: needed more time in production. Nah, im just kidding, what I would of given to see the creators face when they read that! it needs some more unit-interface controls, a tighter AI system, and perhaps voice acting for the mission brefings, to make it more intriging, rather than reading text that I neither cared for, nor wanted to care for. oh, and MUCH faster gameplay, I don't want to spend hours clicking, waiting 7.6 seconds, clicking, waiting 7.6 seconds, clicking, waiting 7.6 seconds, clicking, waiting 7.6 seconds,....

[potatoesex]

well

ill give you an 8 because at the last level it gets to hard to manage every thing u got upgrade this and spend hallf a k on some thing that will blow up 9 seconds later the upgrades unit and money producing time is way to high theres been times when ive been geting the shit blown out of me and im waiting to get enough money to build a unit also the whole ai thing is a pain in the ass what usally hpens is i make a giant army and half of the army is just sitting there doing nothing and the other half gets destroyed.i like the comand and conquer concept but it needs a little bit of work but good job over all

[Psudomorph]

All flash, no substance

Alright lets get the big stuff out of the way first:
==fundamental flaws==
1. Name vs game:
I find it hard to understand how there can be any strategy in a game where all fighting is delegated to the AI, and you can only choose priorities. Things like formations, flanking maneuvers, ambushes, targeting priorities, etc. become impossible. I have no problem with games that do away with individual unit management, there is *some* strategy to that, but there is no escaping the fact that removing micromanagement removes player freedom, which invariably removes strategy. You can give the player the choice to automate certain micromanagement tasks, but you can't just eliminate them without reducing strategy and turning the game into a matter of pure patience. The name "deadly strategies" just feels dishonest when the "strategies" amount to "do this / don't do this / sort-of do this".

2. Priorities:
I would be interested to know how much time and effort went into the gameplay, as opposed to the introduction movie, voiced tutorials, rotating 3d buttons, blobby-fadey-scanney-green-thing, and just the main menu in general, because there seems to be a massive gap in the quality of the two areas.
I mean the game pulls me in with images of massive fleet engagements, warships, dragons, and ninja-supersoldiers cutting fc*king tanks in half with fc*king katannas!

...time passes...

And then here I am doing my homework in a different window while two AIs with all the intelligence of doom 1 enemies try to beat each other senseless with a level of "strategy" that makes professional wrestling look like a chess match.
It's just insulting.

3. It bears repeating:
Where is the strategy? In mission 3 when I face weapons with a large blast radius, why can't I give my units fancy orders like "don't bunch together" or even "you guys go that way and you guys go the other way."?

You know what screw the numbering system, all these flaws are the same thing! My entire experience here has been like watching a high-budget advertisement for an ultimately terrible product. I'm reading your author comments and despite myself I'm actually getting *angry* because it feels like I'm listening to a used car salesman. It says "not only" can you "build your base and defense towers" but ALSO "train units to attack the enemy base".
Think about that. You say it as if the *most basic elements of a war game* are extra-special features that set your game apart! A few lines later you mention strategies. YOU ADVERTISE THAT THE GAME HAS **THREE WHOLE STRATEGIES** THAT IS YOUR MAIN SELLING POINT! YOU ENSHRINED IT IN THE *NAME*, AND THERE ARE ONLY THREE OF THEM!

I'm sorry to yell. It just drives me crazy to see the wasted potential.

Are you making money off of this? I've looked at your site (My god you have a site and guide and storyline and forums! It's an ocean of content, but only a bucket of gameplay to put it in) and you don't seem to be making money, but in all honesty I have never seen a game with so much salesmanship and so little substance that *didn't* turn out to be just a promotional tool for some sort of money-making enterprise.

There are numerous minor issues that could be fixed in the game, I had a list of them, but it's not even worth mentioning them. It would be band-aids over a severed limb.

If you are innocent of the accusations I've made, and honestly never realized any of the above, then I apologize for my rudeness, my harsh language, and for being the bearer of bad news. It just feels like I'm being scammed or something and it puts me on the defensive. Try not to take it personally. Keep at it; concentrate your obviously immense skills on making the game really enjoyable to play, instead of just good looking.
Please. It's clear you have the resources. Use them. Don't stop until it's as fun to play the game as it was to watch the introduction.

[guildassasan]

OMFG, THIS SUCKS!!!!

dude, don't think that just cuz u got half stars at least that that's not terrible coming from me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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alright, first off, *sigh*, this was a great concept overall, now don't get me wrong! especially since I have forever been the biggest nerd/strtegy game fan out there, (in my own little world) so i'm not, "under the influence," right now, as im typing this review. like i said, this was a great concept, but the thing that makes me so annoyed is that man, U PUT 2 MUCH INTO THIS STORYLINE!!!! i mean COME ON!!!!
what i meant by that is the cutscene & breifing scene lengths!! if i wanted a final fantasy game, i would've gone out, rented one, and eventually broken the disk to pieces out of frustration (no offense to those of u who like that series, it's just different people have different opinions, and i have mine, and u have urs). i dont want to wait through those things in order to play, i just want to get down to brass tacks and start pwning with my awesome flying mecha-bots that were in the opening movie!!!!!!!
also, the whole A.I. command system was way off. i mean what's so wrong with a, "left click on unit desired, right click on enemy, that unit attacks specified enemy," kind of setup, like in most R.T.S.s today?!?!? and when u give the adjustments it takes an hour (which is the next part) for them to like recive the transmission ,then another to just go out and do it, leving u wide open for those few vital seconds.
as i stated, this part's about the framerate and game options (a lack thereof). first off, hwy not have the options in the main menu, huh? and also, i think the graphics, sound, and gmeplay variables ought to be in the pause/optins menu, which, like i said, should be both in the game and on the menu.
also, in most RTSs, u can create more than 1 unit at once, and while the units are being created, u can still access building optins. oh, and that reminds me, make all the upgrades available for purchase based on how much of a certain resource one has. this way, the things u upgrade & how are controlled by u, not done entirely in a list of upgrades set out by u, keeping ur average strategy-fan happy because the diversity of ur army and strategy is allowed to be more of just that, DIVERSE!!!!!!!!
also, just know that im not trying to be a total asshole, and yo prove it, a complement or 2 (or 3, if i can find a third one, that is!) from yours truly: well like i said the concept is awesome, that's the first thing that comes to mind............second...............
................... i liked the diverse types of units themselves, u know, like the fact u can make just about everything immaginable if u get the skizzlzzzzzzzzzz to do so............third..................
........ the enemy was a not retarded, not smart, semi-easy kind of easy on the first level, which doesn't pull out all the stops and kill gamers in 2 seconds, but also the steady, even incline of enemy difficuly throughout the levels was awesome, because it, like i said, won't surprise and frustrate gamers, rather, get them totally hooked, so they keep comin' back for moar.
im pretty much out of room, so ill stop it now....im sure this must be painful for u guys to hear, but just keep in mind i did try to balance the rage with the instinct of helping people, and help, not so much as hurt, with the way i was criticizing u here...so sorry if i was a bit 2 mean...just my nature!
im sure u could do better than some of the best game-makers out there, but u just gotta take our advice, and IMPROVE, IMPROVR, IMPROVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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(this is a good start, nonetheless!)

[MIHI]

buggy

Nice game, but when i conquered all divisions of one enemy, game just loop itself on "undefined's turn" that didn't do anything and I couldn't kill other guys (I had more than 50k cash agrrr)