➤ The battle of the planets 🎮

Realize a reinterpretation of turn-based strategy: this was the intention of King Art Games when the Kickstarter campaign was born to finance the development of Battle Worlds: Kronos. The operation ended successfully, raising over $ 260.000 compared to an initial goal of 120.000, and the game landed on Steam a few days ago, in truth at a price not exactly accessible (29,99 euros).

Inspired by classics like Advance Wars and Panzer General, this production certainly does not skimp on the numbers, offering us two distinct single player campaigns (the second is unlocked only after completing the first) for a total of thirteen missions, a challenge mode always in single player, an editor to create our maps and finally an online multiplayer able to work both "live" and in asynchronous mode, designed for users who really want to take all the time necessary to make their move and then pass the ball to the opponent. Some cutscenes (dubbed in Spanish) serve as an introduction and have the task of connecting the in-game action with the developments of the plot, unfortunately not very original, which sees us engaged in a war for the control of habitable planets around the galaxy . In the narrated sequences we recognized what the spirit of the game is, in a sort of metaphor about the battles and the warriors who fight it. The developers simply wondered how an "old school" strategy game, one of those who just can't forgive, would be received today. And how did we receive it?

Battle Worlds: Kronos is an "old school" strategy, substantial but decidedly badly balanced

Bang your face

Battle Worlds: Kronos tries to carry out the practical "tutorial" accompanying us by the hand in the first moves, showing us how to manage the available units and warning us to pay close attention to their specific characteristics, because they can make the difference between victory and defeat. A few minutes later the thing becomes evident, yet we are still on the first mission.

The enemy troops are very numerous and do not go for the subtle, on the contrary they load our vehicles as obsessed until they tear them to pieces. The only way to win is to try to get to the physical comparison always in numerical superiority and using resources in an intelligent way. Tanks can only attack from a "square" adjacent to the target's and have fairly strong armor, so they must move forward. Behind them we can place the jeeps, which are equipped with rocket launchers that work remotely or, even better, the vehicles equipped with batteries of missiles that go even further. The point, in short, is to create a "column" of units that can concentrate their fire on the enemy and that, preferably, cause a certain amount of damage. It seems simple on paper, but in reality it is not at all and the hypothetical thirty hours of the campaign (which will be further fleshed out thanks to the upcoming release of a free DLC with other missions) can become many more, where the need to repeat is evident. an internship again and again until you get to grips with it. We don't know who used this expression, but it's really true: playing Battle Worlds: Kronos is like playing a game of chess. With Kasparov, however.

What is there and what is missing

After having taken quite a bit of sganascioni, despite the presence of quick saves and quick loads that can help us establish strategic points to resume a mission before things go downhill, some doubts arise about the work done by King Art Games. Confronting such a difficult strategy can in fact represent a very enjoyable challenge for the fanatics of the genre, but it inevitably cuts out all the others, and in an abrupt way.

There is a single level of challenge available and the feeling is that more than curing the artificial intelligence of the enemies, they preferred to pump their number out of proportion, simply ordering them to attack anyone who approaches, with the usual focus on the pieces they already have. lost some energy. It is not a problem to accept defeat, where it is possible to start over and understand how to move, which groups of enemies to attack first and which ones to avoid (but often it is not possible to do so, you must necessarily destroy any hostile unit). The point is that all of this is rendered in a too slow and cumbersome way, with the games lasting even for hours, and neither the interface nor the options help in this regard. Yes, there is the traditional button that accelerates the enemy's operations, but the controls for moving and attacking receive inputs with an unbearable delay, forcing us to wait every time the maneuver is completed; without being able to undo it in case of error, since there is no "undo" button. Graphics and sound are perfectly anonymous, both in terms of overall design and animations, but at the very least this keeps the game running at full speed even on low-end configurations.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Processore: Intel Core i3 350M
Video card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows 8

Minimum requirements

Processor: 2 GHz dual core
Video card: equipped with 256 MB of RAM and with Pixel Shader 2.0
Memory: 2 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8

Comment

Digital Delivery: Steam Prezzo: 29,99€ Resources4Gaming.com

6.5

Readers (2)

4.5

Your vote

If you're missing some kind of take on the strategy genre, Battle Worlds: Kronos might be for you. The title of King Art Games is deliberately "old school", it offers us a large number of missions, a powerful editor for maps and also an interesting multiplayer mode, guaranteeing dozens of hours of gameplay. The problem lies in the balance of difficulty, which instead of increasing progressively puts us immediately in front of very complicated situations, in which our units are never enough, where instead the enemy troops abound and attack with their heads down, without too much reasoning. The interface and the technical sector in general do not help, and so the experience ends up being a bit too slow and cumbersome, holding back even the most fervent enthusiasm.