I will have to add here that I would have preferred my dump trucks to not wander into the battlefield gathering plastic when the measuring cups are depleted. You can also melt down your useless buildings (say a resource depot near depleted resources) for more plastic. As a furious micro-manager, I was thrilled with the efficiency of the system. You can recover the little blobs of plastic left by dead soldiers and destroyed building. When animated plastic dies, it stays plastic, it just doesn't animate anymore. The designers remembered that these weren't people to be reduced to a red smear on the battlefield. The common way to gather resources is siphoning plastic and electricity from discarded toys, flying discs, batteries and watches, even poor Killer's food bowl.

The resource management is refreshingly unique. Unit and vehicle sound is realistic enough for plastic war buffs, and the music, while not standing out, makes for good background as you plan your attack. The heroes' personalities come out with their comments (the minesweeper, Hoover, is a nervous wimp while the guy named 'Thick' is about as smart as you'd expect). Like other RTS games, the generic units and the heroes have a variety of things to say as you're commanding them. I especially liked the barbed wire posts made of little pencils. The details in creating the world, from your headquarters being a buried soda can to the resource depot strongly resembling a blender are very well thought out. The dichotomy of acknowledging the seriousness of war while running your squads underneath a skateboard, hiding them behind rotting apple and gathering resources from a dog's bowl makes for amusing play. The thrill of running across a water gun or a dog's chew toy or measuring cups in the kitchen, and realizing you can gather resources from it, is testament that the art is doing what it's supposed to. Heavily detailed flying disks, watches, toothpaste tubes, potato chips, furniture and a massive scary spider all add to the feeling that you are crouched on the ground, trying to lead your army men into battle in unfamiliar territory. The detail in the messy house is a refreshing change from RTS games that give us trees, rocks and hills to maneuver around. The art design guys had a blast with this game, that's for sure. The Tans were bad - even Tans that were formerly Greens. When we staged elaborate battles on our lawns, in our childhood bedrooms, and even on our bathroom counters, we needed no more reason than that. There's not much more plot than that but not much more is needed, honestly. Methinks the designers were a little into Heart of Darkness and the picture of the tan soldier sitting on a throne with a lollipop as a scepter is priceless. Your overall goal is to eliminate a former green solider that has gone mad and procured a bucket of paint and gone tan. The game is based on a simple premise: your green army men fight the tan army men. But even though it's simpler than current RTS games, there is little fun lost because of it. When my base would be attacked with my guys standing just out of view, I sorely missed the 'patrol' command, and when they would charge into battle where they were horribly outnumbered, I could have used a good old 'stand ground' command that would keep them safe. Your units also have a limited movement command, with move and attack being the only actions most of your units can handle. The game goes back to a simpler time in the world of real-time strategy, as your green platoon has only two resources to gather: plastic and electricity. However, if you compare Army Men RTS with other RTS games, hardcore strategy gamers might find it a bit lacking. If you compare this Army Men game with previous Army Men attempts, it's very clear which one comes out on top. With engrossing art (and a movable camera that allows you to get close up to some more bizarre obstacles - like a rotting apple outside or a rubber ducky in the bathroom) and a solid RTS, Army Men is sure to amuse and engross you. They made a fun game throwing together the engrossing nature of an RTS and the backyard, kitchen table army men games one would play as a child. Appeal to nostalgia all you want, but if the game itself isn't fun, then you might as well have not wasted our time and yours.īut undaunted by past games, 3DO plowed on and created Army Men RTS, and luckily for both of us, they got it right this time. Sadly, while these games may have struck a twangy chord of nostalgia, they seemed to fail at actually being fun. Previous 3DO Army Men games have tried to capture that feeling by giving us a bucket of army guys to fight wars with. This can, however, be a well-concealed trap.

Army men rts game