Warparty Review

I’ve always been a sucker for RTS style games and even the worst titles have a hold on me that I cannot always describe. When the chance to review Warparty came across my desk, I was excited about the prospect. While there is definietly more issues with Warparty than I would have liked, ultimately I enjoyed what was provided. Understand my enjoyment as a crazed-RTS fan might not meet your standards. As a friend of mine stated after playing, “This is a hard pass for me.” Let’s dive in.

Players have the opportunity to control one of three factions when playing Warparty. Although the human race is definitely the least interesting of the two, the necromancer and his hordes of ‘zombies’ and the dinosaur cult (as I like to call them) are both fun to play with and wildly different in terms of how you deploy and use your troops. Of course, no RTS game is complete without some resource management, and here players will be required to make sure a steady stream of crystal and food is entering the clan.

As you level up and advance ‘ages,’ you will unlock better buildings and better units. It’s standard fair in terms of RTS development, but that is what fans of the genre enjoy. It is a run-of-the-mill RTS experience, so don’t expect anything crazy, and don’t expect anything really deep. It really reminds me of the Warcraft lineup of titles, simple yet surprisingly fun. This game does not have the depth of a Rise of Nations or Age of Empires, however.

Bringing a computer game over to console is always a difficult task, and that proves to be the case here once again. This isn’t a problem just for Warparty, but for almost all RTS console titles. Even Halo Wars, which comes with big money backing it and a name that everyone recognizes, fell to the same control issues. It’s not easy to control separate armies on the field, or move things around. And when you realize the AI is not hampered by these issues, it feels like you begin at a disadvantage.

The map variety is unfortunately lacking, and the maps you do have are fairly small in terms of what you would like to see from an RTS. The small maps results in games being based more on “who can rise up and pump out units the fastest” as opposed to actual real strategy. It’s a rush game, which will be perfect for those that enjoyed being ‘rushers’ in Age of Empires.

There are a fair number of modes for you to enjoy, which extends the life of the game a bit. Whether you are attempting to play skirmishes or defeat waves of enemies in horde mode, there is likely something for everyone in this package. The elements for a great experience are all there, but those minor issues become big problems once you’ve played 10-15 hours. A lackluster story mode doesn’t help either, but could have been mitigated by beefier secondary modes.

Warparty is not a terrible game, but also not one many are going to invest in right at launch. For the hardcore RTS fan, if you are looking for something on the go and on your Nintendo Switch, this could be your experience. If you are a longtime PC player of RTS style games, come in with the knowledge that RTS games rarely ever translate nicely to console. If you set your expectations, there is fun to be had here.

We score Warparty 6.5/10!