Plot: What’s it about?
As someone who loved the original Toy Soldiers game, I couldn’t wait to check out the sequel, Toy Soldiers: Cold War. Signal Studios has given us a sequel that not only lives up to the original, but surpasses it in all aspects. This time around, you’re tasked to lead the United States against endless waves of Communist forces. You will have to face hordes of infantry, light armor, heavy armor, air support, and even massive constructs of pure destruction. You’re able to fight back with turrets of all kinds, from machine guns to anti-tank to mortars, plus all stops in between. You can also choose to man a turret yourself once the conflict begins, or take control of a powerful battery operated tank or plane at times. You build and maintain your defenses, but if you happen to rattle off an impressive kill chain, you’re gifted with a random barrage item. This could be bullets rained down from above, mortar strikes, nuclear strikes, or best of all, The Commando. This iconic soldier is armed to the teeth and once he appears on the battlefield, the tide turns quickly in your favor.
Toy Soldiers: Cold War offers multiple modes to explore, from a story based campaign to a survival mission to mini-games, with variants within some modes. I was pleased to discover co-op is available in campaign and survival, as this game is fun alone, but even more fun with a friend. Each mode contains some kind of challenge or plateau to reach, which gives you ample reasons to go back and try to improve your efforts. The main campaign provides 11 missions to conquer, each quite robust and with medals, hidden items, and challenges inside each one, you’ll really want to revisit the campaign. It takes a while to learn which turrets work best in which situations and when an upgrade is called for, but it never feels overly complicated. You can pick up just enough on the fly to hook you in, then you’re reeled in by the depth and strategic elements. The survival mode plays much like an endless campaign mission, while the mini-games are more free form and offbeat. Even so, you will still pick up some pointers from the mini-games that you’ll take into the main campaign.
In short, Toy Soldiers: Cold War is a terrific game that provides a rather unique experience. As with the original, the emphasis is on tower defense style elements, but you’re much more active than the genre usually allows. You can jump into turrets and mow down enemies, control powerful vehicles, and make use of your barrage abilities in very kinetic ways. This isn’t the kind of tower defense you’ll set up and just watch, at least not for a while. Once you’ve mastered the subtle details, you can be more passive, but its too fun to cause chaos yourself to do that often. The game retains the basics of what made the original so much fun, but expands on the sense of humor, depth, and social aspects. The on-line co-op is a blast with friends, the replay value is immense, and getting the commando’s mullet for your avatar is just priceless. The trend seems to be to give gamers less these days, but Signal Studios has loaded this release from top to bottom. In the case of the 2011 Summer of Arcade, perhaps the best was saved for last. Toy Soldiers: Cold War earns our highest recommendation.
Video: How does it look?
The visuals look crisp and detailed, with a colorful, kinetic presence. You might not mistake this for a big budget retail title, but Cold War still looks impressive. The animation is excellent and really a pleasure to watch, as the attention to detail is remarkable and the game’s sense of humor is always evident. The amount of enthusiasm these soldiers have is laudable and the animation really brings their actions to life well. I did detect some slowdown when the screen became flooded with troops, but this was brief and never impacted the experience much. The Toy Box looks better than ever.
Audio: How does it sound?
The level of detail seen in the visuals is also present in the sound design, which is quite memorable. From the commando’s insane ramblings, to the awesome 80s style music, Cold War sounds great. The screams of the enemies as they charge toward your defenses, the air raid sirens, the visceral churning of the machine guns, it is all here. Just like an 80s action experience should be, it is boisterous with a slice of camp. The audio really enhances the game play, it isn’t just sound effects and music, it is meshed into the atmosphere with all the other elements.
Supplements: What are the extras?
N/A
