izigame.me

I don't often do a grade system but the components of this game are so wildly varying in quality that I think it is needed. If you just want the TLDR, this game is a spiritual successor to Advance Wars and is in many ways both better and worse than that series. If you liked Advance Wars or look at the mechanics in isolation and think that you would enjoy it then you probably will, otherwise stay clear of this one. With that out of the way I'll grade the components of the game and then give my thoughts on why.
Mechanics: 9/10 - Generally speaking the mechanics of the game are extremely solid. It nails the same "pseudo-puzzle" feel that all games of this genre strive for. The only reason that it is not a 10/10 is that the UI is just clunky enough (on PC) to drag it down slightly. For instance it takes a minimum of three clicks to attack an enemy unit (select unit, draw movement path, click unit, select attack) when they could have just dropped the last menu select step. In addition buildings will offer to resupply units even if they are already full. It could also really use a hotkey to cycle through active units. Simple things like this may seem like very small gripes (and to be fair, they don't ruin the game) but you are going to be doing them hundreds of times per mission which means they really need to be streamlined as much as possible.
Map Design: 10/10 - The levels themselves are great but the implementation of the star system for maps (1 star for completion and 2 stars earned through optional objectives) really goes a long way toward adding depth and modularity to a genre which has often struggled with how to manage difficulty. As a side note, the custom difficulty settings are another welcome addition that adds replayability.
Graphics: - I'm not actually going to include a score here because the graphics are genuinely quite good, but also not to my taste at all. It's very cutesy even by genre standards and that does nothing for me. It's also patently obvious even to me that it's very high quality pixel art and animation. You can see the graphics and make up your own mind easily by just watching the trailers. If you like what you see then you'll get a lot of it.
Innovation 6/10 - Wargrove 2 brings a few new cards. Chief among them are the crit system which gives you a big offensive bonus if you fulfill the specific circumstances for that unit and dramatically more interesting commander powers than Advance Wars. That being said, it still mostly feels the same and in some cases has even lost ground. I would have loved to see faction specific units (even one for each faction would have been great) or COs that are fundamentally different than each other outside of their powers which are only used occasionally.
Music: 5/10 - The music is perfectly fine and there is nothing wrong with it. It is inoffensive, safe, background music that would be totally fine if the game was named Warbuddies. It is however named Wargroove and with a name like that you would expect it to be front and center which it really isn't. Compare that to a game like Metal: Hellsinger where the music is heavily in your face from the moment the game starts... *shrug* Once again, there is nothing wrong with the music, it's just strange to me that it is in the title when it does almost nothing to justify it.
Story: 1/10 - This genre is not known for its incredible storytelling but it falls short even of that benchmark. I can't figure out what the point of the story in this game is quite frankly. To me it isn't funny, endearing, dramatic, serious, thoughtful, or romantic and lacks any tension at all. All of that would be fine if you could truly skip it, but even with the "Skip Intro" setting turned on you still have to mash through a bunch of text for each mission. Even the original Advance Wars had some okay story beats at times but this game fell flat for me right off the bat and never recovered.
To end on a positive note, I really do like this game quite a but and it is a nice love letter to Advance Wars. It's not perfect but it's solid and anyone familiar with the genre will enjoy it. I hope that going forward they really lean into ideas like the crit system and the star system which were both pretty big successes in my book and the campaign map designer gets two thumbs up from me. I'm glad that people who clearly love the genre are still carrying the torch.