Monday, October 15, 2012

All is Fair in Love and Happy Wars... Except Matchmaking


    
     Happy Wars is a third-person-esque, action based, tower defense type game where you and an army of up to 15 other players each choose one of three character classes, start at one tower and battle your way through colorfully cartoony stages to the enemies tower in hopes that you destroy their base before they destroy yours. *gasps for air*
 
THE GOODS
     The game is FREE!!! By far the most ambitious and most in-depth free Xbox live arcade game to hit the marketplace, but for some reason Xbox has not been cramming it down our throats via dashboard advertisements. Happy Wars works like your common Facebook game in that its free to play, but for a fast track to the premium content you will need to drop some real world fake dollars via Microsoft points. All that said, the game so far is balanced enough where penny pinchers like me can still be competitive with those who are spending money in the game, but they look a helluvah lot cooler than me. Along with the game being free, I also must divulge that the game is surprisingly fun and addictive. Each game lasts up to 10 minutes making it the perfect game to play when your time is limited, and when your just looking for a hack and slasher that requires very little personal investment to storylines or active brain cells. Gameplay is awesomely chaotic; the controls are intuitive as well as responsive. I'd love to give this game a near perfect review but alas I cannot...
 
THE BADS
     The online matchmaking is STUPID. By far one of the most flawed online multiplayer experiences I have ever had. Since its release my ratio of lobby to in game time is at least 3:1. The most frustrating part is that when I do finally get into a match the connection gets dropped. YES my NAT is open, and NO Wal-Mart is not my service provider. I have gone online with many games with many people without issues and never had this level of terrible connection issues. While once again stuck in a lobby my friends and I started investigating forum pages for the game only to find that this is a widely known issue and that the good people at Toylogic Inc. and Microsoft Studios are working towards a solution. But as I write this review the matchmaking is an abomination, and unfortunately forces my hand to give this game a far lower rating than it deserves...
 
CONCLUSION
3/10 Happy Stars
     I would LOVE to give this game a 6 or maybe even a 7+ but because the game was primarily developed to be an online multiplayer game and yet did such an awful job with the online matchmaking components the game is a 3 but can gain major points with good updates. Although the gameplay and controls and fun factor and concept are fantastic, the game just loses its luster in the single player modes. The game was meant to be played with real life people in a multiplayer capacity.
 
 
Honestly the game is free so stop reading and download it already before Xbox changes its mind!



No comments:

Post a Comment