Blood Battalion Review
Blood Battalion is the latest game in Mobage Inc.’s Blood Brothers series and puts you in the driver’s seat of a combat-ready army of pawns. Twisting and meandering through a simple story that includes undead and magical brainwashing, you’ll sit back and watch automated warfare unfold before you. In Blood Battalion, your pawns will reign over the doomed tides and gain experience with each level. Each completed battle receives gold and chests that can be used to strengthen your army in the battle against evil.
Give up controls in the blood battalion
Blood Battalion’s story begins with rather less interactive battle scenes, supposedly meant to help you understand the game’s controls. Battlefields are rectangular sections of maps divided into squares where your army will advance. The square sections are designed to help you plan and execute an attack with the movement of each unit.
Strategy in Battle Battalion lies in your ability to activate special abilities and your management of formations and units outside of battle. Combat is an automated and direct offense. Each battle starts with both armies facing each other on opposite ends of the map, by tapping “GO” both armies advance a few lines towards each other. Once the armies get too close, the prawns automatically rearrange themselves to see where they fit, more or less based on their type.
Blood Battalion attackers and throwers move to the front while snipers and defenders play in the back ranks. What is surprising though is that healers also jump to the front along with attackers in combat, but are supposed to stay behind with defenders to heal units.
The old ‘in and out’
Scenes in BBat are made up of 3 battles each, and units cannot be healed or resurrected at that time. Each shrimp has the ability to perform a set of abilities, but these can only be activated once or twice during a certain period of time. Your best bet would be to reserve these abilities until you need them. Once an ability is depleted, the pawn falls back into a standard attack mode. Also, depending on the formation you have chosen before the battle, you may have an advantage or a disadvantage against your opponent. This is an apparent drawback in Blood Battalion.
Managing your recruits
Once you complete a scene in BBat, your units will have gained experience, which will raise their status. In addition, you will also receive random loot in the form of coins, gold, and chests. Blood Battalion’s meat and potatoes are probably the most interesting facet of the game.
Verdict
BBat is really a game of army management and unit hoarding. While the number of new recruits can seem endless and often rewarding, the combat is 90% automated and lacks depth. Blood Battalion would have been an excellent game if it could only be controlled manually. Other than that, it’s worth a try.