Wargroove 2, a follow up to 2019’s popular battler Wargroove, is a turn-based strategy game with a lot more to offer than a first glance might suggest. This cartoony battle game delivers many large and feature-rich maps in the course of several distinct campaigns, each featuring different levels of difficulty.
Despite the strategic depth of the various battles, however, the game’s story itself is pretty simple. A faction of spunky little mouse fighters called the Faahri have landed in a forested foreign land looking for some hidden magic weapons. One hapless rodent named Lytra gets her paws on one of those weapons: a musical harp that bestows heightened battle abilities and one that becomes a key for opening music-toned locks on underground vaults.
Of course, the plant-like natives of this lush, green land aren’t so happy about the invaders, so the battles ensue.
As with the original Wargroove, players are given command of small armies of disposable units that they take into turn-based skirmishes. Those armies also have at least one commanding officer who comes with his or her own “Groove” ability.
Commanders charge up their groove with every action of their units, and eventually they can unleash a special unique attack. Lytra’s, for instance, can produce a musical whirlwind that scatters enemies into deep ravines or nearby waters.
Units on both sides of the battle sport similar builds but have vulnerabilities versus other types. Swordmen, for example, are weaker versus spearmen and archers have an advantage over flying units, etc. The missions and battlefields contain special strategic elements, too.
Sometimes a mission requires players to hold out against onrushing forces while a vault is being opened. Or perhaps you’ll need to advance against an overpowered enemy fort. And in some cases, the field itself may become an enemy as it crumbles away beneath your soldiers’ feet. Elsewhere, still other levels allow armies to capture buildings and to use the resulting income to spawn new soldier units, while others require gathering resources in the heat of battle.
Players looking for an extra challenge can also play the all-new Conquest mode. This mode hides away its objectives while players choose a commander with specially focused abilities. Then they must take a small force into battle against a series of unknown armies in skirmishes where all unit deaths are permanent.
Wargroove 2 can be played in multiplayer modes that include online play and local co-op for up to four players.
The strategic battles in Wargroove 2 are fun and engaging. And the game allows players to adjust the difficulty level if they’re less seasoned in their battle skills. The pixelated characters are colorful and, ultimately, they’re generally cheery and/or wanting to help others.
That said, there are some characters in the mix here that are self-serving and deceitful. One individual lies repeatedly and even drugs a commanding officer, for instance. (Other central characters struggle against the needlessly destructive side of the protagonists’ own force and its quest for power.) There are also occasional uses of the word “d–n” in the dialogue.
This is primarily a strategic battling game where a large number of combatants die. (However, characters disappear in a swirl of mist with no blood or mess; and even characters that appeared to die, sometimes show up again later.)
There’s mention of ancient temples being desecrated. And there’s also a sense of some undefined spirituality in the magic ability mix.
There are hints of baddies doing bad things and magical forces that should best be left alone here. But all in all, Wargroove 2 is all about the fun of colorful, turn-based strategy—a game that parents and kids might just be able to enjoy together.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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