Advance Wars: Dark Conflict

By Oli Welsh Published 18 January, 2008

War of the poses.

Among Advance Wars' accomplishments - which are many, and notable - one of the most distinctive is that it made military strategy cute. Exuberant. Sort of... happy-go-lucky. Even when battling the creepy, gas-masked menace of the Black Hole armies in Advance Wars 2 and the first DS instalment, Dual Strike, you felt that you were annihilating each other in an atmosphere of playful sportsmanship and bug-eyed manga enthusiasm. The girls were sassy, the boys were silly, the villains comical, and you just wanted to hug those adorable little stubby-barrelled tanks. Aww, my own little death machine, to wub forever and ever.

Well, those days are over. The first thing that will strike you about Dark Conflict is that Advance Wars has grown from clean-cut childhood into an angsty and melodramatic adolescence. Scrapping all the characters and storylines of past games, Dark Conflict is set in a doom-laden post-apocalyptic future. A meteor strike has killed 90 percent of the human race, crumbled civilisations, and coated the world in ash. Armies and bandits pick their way through the rubble, squabbling over food and trying to survive.

A perverse father-and-daughter villain pairing drug their underlings, and everyone under 20 is at risk from being infected by parasitic flowers. Our hero, military cadet Ed, is a feather-haired, foppish teenage refugee from a '90s Square game, and spends a good deal of his time mooning around after a mystery girl with amnesia and a spy database for a brain. Meanwhile, heroic army commander O'Brian takes time to discuss moral philosophy and the politics of survival with corrupt town mayors in some lengthy and excruciatingly leaden dialogue scenes. It's all so very Final Fantasy, and it all takes itself so very seriously.

'Advance Wars: Dark Conflict' Screenshot 1

War is brown, solider. Brown and grey. Never forget it.

Even the deliciously crisp artwork that is the series' trademark has been fudged; the colours have been drained, the COs are drawn in more detail and with less character, the soldiers are portrayed more realistically, the clean lines have been thickened and smudged with faux depth-of-field effects. The steel-plated front end is just functionally dull, and the music - admittedly, always a bit strident - has taken a definite turn towards shouty, pop-metal crunch.

Of course, dispiriting as all this is, it has little to do with Advance Wars' meat and potatoes - its exquisite balance and simple-yet-deep design for turn-based strategy. And the good news is that, although Dark Conflict is trying a bit too hard in its presentation, in gameplay terms it tries a lot less hard to reinvent the wheel than the rather overcooked Dual Strike did.

Twin-screen battles are gone, in favour of a useful information readout on the top screen. Dual Strike's convoluted system for CO powers - with its overpowered tag-team moves, levelling, and attribute modifiers - has been stripped out. In its place is a toned-down line-up of CO powers that, we're told, will have a much less pronounced effect on battles, and are so far down the running order that they aren't even introduced in the course of the half a day we spent playing the Story mode. Dark Conflict concentrates instead on a subtle, back-to-basics rebalancing and fine-tuning of Advance Wars' classic tactics.

'Advance Wars: Dark Conflict' Screenshot 2

...you might want to consider taking off that stupid tie.

Units now level up individually in the course of a single battle, gaining a level each time they defeat an enemy unit: from zero, through levels I and II, to Ace. These provide minor performance boosts without significantly changing the range and function of the unit. It's a nice touch, but a minor tweak that sensibly retreats from any threat to the game's impeccable balance.

More exciting perhaps are a handful of the new units in Dark Conflict. Motorbikes are fast-moving infantry divisions that make speedy base-captures possible without needing to load troops on and off APCs or helicopters - a very welcome new freedom. Anti-tank batteries are extremely powerful indirect combat units, without the close-range blind spots of standard artillery and rockets, and with a savage counter-attack. They should prove an antidote to the inevitable descent into tank-rush of so many maps. The mobile workshop can construct temporary airports and ports for re-supply and defensive cover, while the flare gun can illuminate whole areas of the map under fog of war.

Alongside a less remarkable handful of new sea and air units, these new designs preserve balance and greatly improve flexibility without resorting to simply upping cost and power. They're the best introductions to the series since the original GBA game, and typical of a game that is a lot less showy but a lot more smart in its application of new features than Dual Strike was.

Dual Strike's two new modes - the terrible Combat, and brilliant Survival - have both been ditched. The famously challenging War Room maps have been rebranded as Trial Maps and opened up as optional diversions in the Story campaign (though also accessible outside of it, as indeed all the main Story maps are). All this streamlining has made room for the single mode that must be top of every Advance Wars fan's wish-list: online multiplayer.

'Advance Wars: Dark Conflict' Screenshot 3

Dual Strike's angled camera is gone; this is the post-apocalypse in pure, pixellated 2D.

We haven't had a chance to test this yet, though the feature list - including voice chat, and the ability to share user-created maps online with friends and strangers - is impressive. Local multiplayer with multiple carts is a given, of course, though download play does not seem to be possible (you can always play pass-the-DS multiplayer on a single machine though, sweetly enough).

It's hard not to have mixed feelings about Dark Conflict. Wi-Fi multiplayer aside, it's somewhat unexciting as a package, and if you feel Advance Wars ennui setting in then Dark Conflict will do little to reawaken your enthusiasm. On the other hand, purists will be delighted that it has unbroken all the stuff that didn't need fixing in the first place, and tinkered with this near-perfect strategy template with both restraint and imagination. In pure tactical terms it's shaping up to be the best game since the first, and the better of the two DS versions by some distance, and we're sure that will be borne out by more extended and deep play come the game's release next week. It's just a shame that, in finding its way again, Advance Wars has lost so much of its soul, and its style.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (50) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • Genji #1 4 years ago

    What was wrong with Dual Strike? I loved the dual-screen battles.

  • tobsen #2 4 years ago

    Looks a bit generic, which is a shame.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #3 4 years ago

    I like this - can't wait to play it.

    More games companies should play around with their established formulas in this way.
    Another Dual Strike type game would have been a 50/50 purchase for me, whereas this looks different and interesting, whilst keeping a lot of the structure that I love, making it a solid purchase.

  • Eighthours #4 4 years ago

    This tonal change sucks.

  • AcidSnake #5 4 years ago

    No love for Dual Strike?
    It was great!

  • Nikanoru #6 4 years ago

    it's shaping up to be the best game since the first

    I think you mean the seventh. ;)

  • haveasafeday #7 4 years ago

    I am the only person that thinks it doesn't look that much different?

  • Lexx87 #8 4 years ago

    I like the new style...

  • Wobble #9 4 years ago

    m0t0rb1kes!!1

  • dirigiblebill #10 4 years ago

    I wouldn't say the new CO art lacks character.

  • squarepusher #11 4 years ago

    christ anythings better than jake that little wannabe gangster fucktard.

    t-shirt and tie combinnaaashun is wanky indeed!

  • peasoup #12 4 years ago

    Yeah you know the Shizzle squarepusher....were gonna smash blackhole for real bro!

    Makes Me cringe!!!

  • squarepusher #13 4 years ago

    Word.

  • ZeroAX #14 4 years ago

    hope they remove those fucking new giga ultra nuclear tanks they introduced in advance wars 2 and DS. actually for me i only liked the first one. the other 2 were not balanced and i didn't like the pastel graghics and the stupid co that was the main char of DS

  • thedaveeyres #15 4 years ago

    What have they done?

    *weeps*

  • BadBoyBonner #16 4 years ago

    DS wars is probably the game I have spent the most time on in single player (clocking in at just short of 500 hours according to the counter).

    I'll probably end up loving this - but at the moment it looks more like an impersonation of an Advance Wars game rather than one from the series itself.

    Can't understand why they have dropped the angled camera - makes it look even more dated.

  • ED209 #17 4 years ago

    FYI: In a trailer for the original DS game it showed ships on bobbing seas which never happened in the released version.

    And also they used the same sprites as AW2 but stretched/scaled them with the zooming in thing and made them all messed up. You can't tilt pixels! So Dual Strike actually had worse graphics than AW2.

  • Ford_Assassin #18 4 years ago

    I love Advance Wars

  • chischis #19 4 years ago

    I see the same flaw in all modern BBC dramas. Starting from the tail-end of the 90s, everything had to be shades of gray. "Post-modern". This means characters that are terribly unlikeable because they have so many skeletons in their bloody closet...

  • kissthestick #20 4 years ago

    overrated series

  • ED209 #21 4 years ago

    Yeah lennyhenry.tv was shit.

  • RedPanda #22 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • moggsy #23 4 years ago

    overrated series

    Christ, why do all the great games get this insult thrown at them. If it's not your cup of tea then fair enough but it is a fantastic turn based strategy game that is in no way 'overrated'.

    Getting a bit sick of 'overrated' insult being bandied about at every opportunity...

  • FabricatedLunatic #24 4 years ago

    Dual Strike's overpowered tag CO powers ruined the game for me, so I'm pleased they've been ditched in Dark Conflict.

  • hahayou #25 4 years ago

    I don't think the Dual Strike criticism is justified. Most of the questionable stuff was optional anyway. Even if you ignore half the modes there's more gameplay there than in any other DS game I've played. And it's excellent.

  • Pulsar_t #26 4 years ago

    I don't know about overrated, but it's very basic indeed. Some people question the DS' ability to do a proper RTS (Age of Empires DS was a TB joke), but let's remember we had RTS on 386's with 2 megs of RAM so it's more of a publisher reluctance issue really.
    Edited by 2 at 18/01/08 @ 13:50

  • Lukree #27 4 years ago

    I actually liked the levelling system in AW:DS.

    Aaaaand there goes the order! AW:DS was the reason I bought the DS in the first place.

  • erp #28 4 years ago

    Levelling-up units - and therefore being able to have two identical units that are not equal to each other - is the worst idea ever. It breaks the one thing that made Advance Wars the only turn-based strategy game I could play.

    But hey, the new girls are hotties.

    (Ooops, sorry Nell!)
    Edited by 1 at 18/01/08 @ 13:46

  • udat #29 4 years ago

    Alas poor Nell! I will miss you. :(

  • Weezer #30 4 years ago

    This was never about the cartoon graphics and cut-scenes or the music. I can ignore the former and always turn off the latter.

    It's about the gameplay and it sounds like they've undone all the harm they did with the uderwhelming Dual Strike. Bring it on.

  • lemonfist #31 4 years ago

    This will rock my socks off. I hope.

  • Toothball #32 4 years ago

    Where did all the colours go?

  • Muddtallica #33 4 years ago

    Hmmm, interesting spread of opinions here. My two cents; I feel the new artistic direction is a colossal error, as it strips out one of the main things that gave the game its unique personality. I do realise that for a lot of people, the plots and characters were nothing more than window dressing or means to an end, but they were designed and written with a lot of energy and imagination, so there was something to follow for people did want a bit of context. Quite frankly, I got really rather attached to them over the course of three games, to the extent that I would happily watch an Advance Wars cartoon if they ever wanted to make one; I don't mind admitting that I got excited about conflicted bad guys Hawke and Lash's defection, laughed at the jokes about Jugger's robot personality, and missed characters like Andy, Flak and Kanbei when they weren't there in DS. Heck, I even warmed up to controversial "sk8ter boi" Jake after a while, when I realised they were being self-deprecating about it; I'm thinking here of the main villain's line "Your inane hipster slang is an affront to my ears", which made me chuckle.

    More to the point, though, the light-hearted tone and colourful artstyle was more than just a good choice; it was the RIGHT choice for the series. As Pulsar_t says, the gameplay of Advance Wars is pretty basic for an strategy game, but I don't mean that as a criticism; part of what i love about the game is that it's a strategy game that puts fun and accessibility first, dialling back stat and resource management in favour of simple, moreish, almost arcadey gameplay. As such, the bright, clean, anime aesthetic of the game, with its peppy music and cutesy visuals, was the ideal fit; this new look, with its sombre, po-faced self-seriousness, just looks out of place and inappropriate to me, like setting Raiders of the Lost Ark to the American Beauty score...

    I'll still buy it, certainly, because as the preview points out, the brilliant core gameplay seems to have remained undiminished, perhaps even enhanced (whilst I personally enjoyed the OTT additions made by Dual Strike, I do see that they went a little too far, and can appreciate that the series shouldn't go any further in that direction), but style-wise, Dark Conflict looks to me like a misguided anomaly in a series that was once so sure of itself...

    And yes, I will miss Nell. :(

  • legendmir #34 4 years ago

    am i one of the only people who thinks it looks cool? :'(

  • Killerbee #35 4 years ago

    I can't say I particularly like the change of style - yes the COs, story and dialogue in Dual Strike was very cheesy indeed, but it worked. It was entertaining, and made the game very accessible. About the only thing I thought really upset the balance of play in Dual Strike was the Tag move. I quite like the dual front missions and selecting your COs according to the abilities that would help you most on the map you were presented with.

    Then again, the new units (bikes, flares) sound like good ideas and fundamentally I can't really imagine Advance Wars ever being a bad game, so it will be a must-buy for me.

  • Feanor #36 4 years ago

    I wonder if the lead developer is going thru a divorce just like George Lucas when he made Temple of Doom.

  • Pulsar_t #37 4 years ago

    I wonder if the lead developer is going thru a divorce just like George Lucas when he made Temple of Doom.

    Good question. Western designers/artists allow their personal issues to influence their creative output. But seeing that IS is based in Tokyo I can't tell if the Japanese are in the same league.

  • Brianstorm #38 4 years ago

    underated series....

  • Der_tolle_Emil #39 4 years ago

    Everything I thought made the first DS title not as good as AW2 seem to be gone - mainly the two CO battles (endless back and forth because the tag powers were simply too strong imho and always turned the battle around again until the other player was able to use them) and that nasty pseudo 3d view - the shit scaling of the sprites ruined a lot of the art style. Speaking of which, I never thought it would be necessary to move away from the cartoony look however I don't have the slightest problem with the new artistic direction. I can imagine that in the long run the older look added more to the game but with so much solid gameplay in there it's really just a nice to have feature.

  • BadBoyBonner #40 4 years ago

    The graphics and colour palette seem more like the PC Engine original to me - in fact the entire game screen does - which is what probably makes it feel so old to me having been the proud owner of the original on the PC Engine.

    Although the Advance war series is yet to come close (flanking modifiers, hexagonal movement, defensive modifiers etc) to Nec's finest hour - you simply can't beat having it in the palm of your hand with stylus control.


    EDIT - here's a link to You Tube so you can watch the original (no jokes needed regarding my age for owning the original! lol)

    http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=fFDx6Hw2ZjU
    Edited by 1 at 19/01/08 @ 01:24

  • coderkind #41 4 years ago

    Already ordered; probably my favourite game series of all time.

    Biggest question mark is how online multiplayer games are managed. Hopefully you'll be able to play against others and return to unfinished games at later stages, as some maps can take hours.

    Not sure what I think about the revised style; it'll mean getting to know new CO's and not automatically knowing that Kanebi's excellent all-round, etc.

    Only review I've seen so far has been online in Nintendo Power and they gave it 85%. I hope reviewers have enough time to properly explore this game before the release date and give detailed impressions as the series deserves it.

  • ChrisOTR #42 4 years ago

    I loved Dual Strike, and I really don't like this new style. Count me out! Good article though, ta.

  • pikemon #43 4 years ago

    i seem to agree with the majority:

    +1 gameplay purity
    -1 artistic style

    definitely getting this though, i want to kick ass online!

    ps. i agree that tag powered double turns were overpowered last time around.

  • tardo #44 4 years ago

    Not sure what to make of this yet, so will wait until I've played it, but am definitely getting it. Loved the DS one, and looking forward to some more Advance Wars fun. Shame about no Survival Mode though- that was good fun!

  • lucky_jim #45 4 years ago

    This has actually made me really look forward to this game. I liked Dual Strike, but I found the dual-screen battles and CO stuff put me off- I would have preferred an approach that focused more on the fundamentals of the turn-based combat.

    Good preview though Oli- gave me enough info to make my own mind up, despite your obvious misgivings about the direction (something that doesn't bother me). Cheers!

  • mansizerooster #46 4 years ago

    First person to find the typo wins a special prize!

  • NewYork #47 4 years ago

    I think it looks good.

    Style-wise, I mean.

  • Gintama #48 4 years ago

    I love the new look. It was about time for the series to grow up a bit.
    I liked the funky characters and the great humor of the past games, but the stories just sucked.

  • Matsuo #49 4 years ago

    I cant wait for this game! I for one, whole heartily welcome the new artistic style. I'm not talking about whether it suits AW yes or no. It's because a 4th game with the same crew from AW would have been overkill and given the fans a very déjà vu feeling.

    The new style gives opportunities for a new COs to learn, new storyline/world to get accustomed with. It definitely feels fresh to me, which makes me pumped. I also liked the character designs. Makes me think of Fire Emblem btw, which is of course by the same developer.

    As for game play, I'm glad they returned to basics with this new entry. The Dual Strikes, tags and duel screen battles were fun to play with, but were kinda unnecessary. The Dual Strikes were really too strong and imbalanced the game. The new units sounds exciting, especially the Biker and Anti-Tank. Should make for lots of strategical play.

    Some people say AW is a simple strategy game, which I dont agree. It has relatively simple rules and mechanics, but its game play is very deep. Chess has simple rules, does that mean it's a simple strategy game? Nope.

    January 25... Bring it on!

  • Bremenacht #50 4 years ago

    Yet more motorbikes in games..

    I hope the new units fit in and are worth their while. I'd really like to see an alternative to AW on the DS.