“Toy Soldiers: War Chest” is the third game in the “Toy Soldiers” series, where miniature historical armies are set against each other, “tower defense” style. In a tower defense game, waves of enemies come at you, and you defeat them by building stationary towers that attack the soldiers as they run by. Tower defense games are a war of attrition, where you must outlast the invading forces with some portion of your defense still standing.
The visual hook to “Toy Soldiers” has always been that you’re playing with, well, toys. More specifically, the toys featured in the game were mostly representative of the “100 TOY SOLDIERS” ads that used to run in comic books in decades gone by. While the franchise began with World War I-era armies, historical accuracy has been stretched to allow other combatants in on the concept. In “War Chest,” the logical conclusion has been reached where entire genres of toys must now do battle. The WWI German army now stands against plastic forces representing science fiction, medieval fantasy, and even a colorful “Rainbow Brite” homage.
Not only that, but the “Hall of Fame” add-on brings in the real hook: actual brand name classic toys from “G.I. Joe” and “Masters of the Universe,” as well as video games’ own “Assassin’s Creed.” In the case of the classics, the virtual toys look just like the 1980s originals, which nostalgic fans will love. Selecting from eight widely disparate armies lets you enjoy the mash-up of cuddly teddy bears, Cobra HISS tanks, and WWI biplanes.
“War Chest” replicates that toy box feel of an unorganized pile of kiddie favorites, but the game itself struggles. Each army only has a handful of units, so you see the same toys over and over again. The big ticket attackers – like a powerful pegasus or a barrage of air strikes – rarely hit play. If you’re doing well, you earn the right to play as your faction leader for ground level combat, but they are slow, can’t jump, and fizzle out quickly.
Your forces can be upgraded, but these improvements are obscured behind a balancing act of randomized item drops and confusing experience meters. Even though you earn these upgrades while playing, you can also buy them with actual money to unlock them a little faster. Given how easily your supplies can build up, it really isn’t much of an advantage to buy your way through it.
Nevertheless, the hilarious, memory-tugging visuals of chunky He-Man charging into battle against the plastic bunkers of G.I. Joe could be just enough to warrant a recommendation, if “War Chest” did not have the technological equivalent of an older brother stealing your toys and breaking them in half. “War Chest,” particularly on PlayStation 4, crashes and loses your progress, and it frequently forgets if you own the “Hall of Fame” content or not. Additionally, while the game supports local co-operative multiplayer, the second player can’t use the “Hall of Fame” characters or apply upgrades to the armies that he or she is allowed to access.
Perhaps some of these issues can be addressed in a future update and raise “War Chest” out of the yard sale bin. The current version, however, commits too many tech errors and has bloated itself with unecessary microtransactions.
This review is based upon product supplied by the publisher. “Toy Soldiers War Chest: Hall of Fame Edition” is available for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Image courtesy Ubisoft.
