Shieldwall Review (fwiedchiken)
To put it very simply for y'all:
- The game has a lot of potential, but the campaign is designed very poorly. The AI is BAD and maps oftentimes turn into running simulators chasing these AI around as they run around capping your flags while you're trying to fight and play the game as it was intended.
- The mechanics are good, but not fluid. The inability to hire more than 24 troops + yourself is a huge L for game design, and there was definitely room for a multi-unit command system too.
- A special, HUGE L, and the number one reason I wouldn't buy this game rn, is the campaign. It's just bad, man. Like I said, most maps just devolve into running simulators. Also with the way normal difficulty is designed maps are oftentimes very trivial, luck-based and dumb. The first 4 levels are fine, not great but passable, but the 3 levels after that are abysmal and I quit the campaign soon after. There's no excuse for the poor manner in which they've designed the campaign. The developer got lazy and did a simple capture the flag system, put no thought into how the AI would behave around that, designed maps that were conducive to allowing the AI to just run around the map annoyingly, etc.
In short: We're here to fight with our troops, not chase AI around the map with your shitty capture the flag system. Improve the campaign, flesh out the combat and unit command mechanics, and you have an amazing game here. Huge blunder on the dev's part here to release it in such a state and keeping to it even after half a year of it being out is crazy to me given how bad it is atm due to these fatal flaws.