Blood Battalion Review
Blood Battalion is the latest game in the Blood Brothers series by Mobage Inc. and it places you in the driver's seat of a pawn army ready for combat. Twisting and meandering through a simple story that includes some magical and undead brain washing, you'll seat and glare at an automated war unfold before you. In Blood Battalion your pawns get to reign in over the doomed tides, and they'll gain experience in each level. Every completed battle is awarded Gold and chests which can be used to reinforce your army in the battle against evil.
Relinquishing Controls in Blood Battalion
The Blood Battlement story begins with rather less interactive battle scenes, supposedly meant to help you get a grasp of the game's controls. Battlefields are rectangular sections of maps broken into squares where your army will advance. The square sections are designed in a manner to help you plan and execute an attack with each unit's move.
The strategy in Battle Battalion lies in your ability to trigger special abilities and your management of formations and units outside the battle. Combat is an automated and straightforward offense. Each battle begins with both armies facing each other on opposite ends of the map, tapping "GO" gets both arms advancing a few lines towards each other. Once the armies get very close to each other, the prawns reshuffle themselves automatically to see where they fit, more or less according to their types.
Blood Battalion attackers and launchers move to the forefront while sharpshooters and defenders play around the back rows. However the surprising thing is that healers also jump into the frontline alongside attackers in combat yet they are provided to stay back with defenders to heal units.
The Old 'In And Out'
The scenes in BBat are made of 3 battles each, and units can not heal or resurrect at such a time. Each prawn has an ability to perform a set of skills, but these can only be triggered once or twice over a certain period of time. Your best bet would be to reserve these skills up until needed. Once a skill is used up, the pawn resorts to a standard attack mode. Also depending on your chosen formation before the battle, you may be at an advantage or disadvantage against your opponent. This is a seemingly drawnback in Blood Battalion.
Managing your Recruits
Once you complete a scene in BBat, your units would have gained experience thus raising their status. In addition, you'll also be awarded random loot in the form of coins, Gold and chests. Meat and potatoes of Blood Battalion are probably the most interesting facet of the game.
Verdict
BBat is truly an army management game, and unit hoarding. Whilst the number of new recruitments may seem endless and often rewarding, combat is 90% automated and lacks depth. Blood Battalion would have been an excellent game if it could only be manually controlled. Other than that, it is worth trying out.