Codename: S.T.E.A.M. 3DS Review

Codename: S.T.E.A.M. is a Third-Person Turn-Based Strategy game for 3DS, which was developed by Intelligent Systems, and published by Nintendo.

It was created by a same developers who was well known for their beloved franchises such as Advance Wars, Paper Mario, and of course Fire Emblem. This game is more like a steampunk fantasy genres taking place in fictional civil war era, while most of the characters in the game are heavily based on between the non-fictional and novels which brings the most interesting concepts to this game's presentation.
As I had previously enjoyed some turn-based strategy games like Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn on Wii and Valkyria Chronicles on PS3 from the past, I hope that I might able to like this game which I luckily bought it from Ebay for dirt cheap of £3.50 in brand new condition.
The answer is that the game is fairly does a job done that didn't get what it deserved despite it received an above the average reception is the reason why it hasn't sold well at the release.
I really liked the presentation for its story, characters, and the art-style graphics which is pretty neat for 3DS standards, but there are few problems that the game may going to frustrate players for its level design choices and difficult tactics seems to take sometime to get used with it doesn't necessary mean the game is unplayable because I've managed to properly beating the whole game in two weeks.
Is this game any good? I will explain all the positives and negatives part of this game during the review.

So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

The game set in Steampunk Fantasy theme of London on the opening day of the Steamgate Bridge where the whole city been invaded by unknown Aliens species.
The game focused on an American private soldier named Henry Fleming had managed to escape from the attack and meet up with his old friend John Henry as they were been rescued by an airship called the Lady Liberty captained by the President of U.S named Abraham Lincoln who wiling these two men to become the team members known as the S.T.E.A.M. (Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace) as their mission is to save the world by stopping the continuous Alien Invasions.

The story in the game is quite an interesting concept which mixes between the genre of Sci-Fi and Steampunk in fictional Civil War. The plot in the game is seems to be quite as straightforward to follow which I think most of the players will able to enjoy the simple storyline that involves the war against the Aliens like most of the older Sci-Fi films back then. 
Most of the characters in the game you may familiar to recognise from novels such as Henry Fleming from The Red Badge of Courage, African-American folk hero John Henry, Dorothy Gale and her friends from The Wizard of Oz, Tiger Lily from Peter Pan, Tom Sawyer, Professor Randolph Carter from H.P Lovecraft's fiction, Californian Warrior Queen Califia, Fox the dashing thief, and Queequeg from Moby-Dick, while others are non-fictional such as British Queen Victoria and U.S President Abraham Lincoln which I think it sounds pretty cool to have different kinds of characters in video game titles like this.
The most surprising guest characters were featured in the game such as Marth, Ike, Robin and Lucina from Fire Emblem series which you can able to add them by scanning their corresponding amiibo figures.
The game's presentation is heavily influenced by mid-50's comic book era similar to creator artist such as Jack Kirby and Bruce Timm which fits nicely to story sequences and game's graphics as it filled with colourful art style of character's design and cel-shaded environments which makes the game look more appealing on 3DS standards.

Overall, it has enjoyable storylines, recogniable characters, and colourful presentation.



Gameplay   

The game features with 16 chapters with 3 or 2 missions each in single-player campaign. You will have character selection to choose any of 4 units to join in the battle, while you have the options to choose your selectable sub-weapons and steam boiler. You take control of your team in Third-Person Perspective of Turn-Based gameplay as you aiming to beating the stage by heading to the goal or other mission objective.

It has grey coloured transparent-grid on the floor which tells you where your character can move up to until it ran out the stream that shown on bottom of the top-screen. Speaking of steam, you'll use these as the ammunation of both primary and secondary weapons which allows you to shoot down these aliens during the battlefield. You can also take cover by hiding behind the objects which prevent being caught firing by enemy's nearby and you can also change units of your team by pressing d-pad up & down button or on the touch screen.
Once you had finished with your turns, you had to wait until your enemies had finished their turns which I heard most of the players doesn't like a very long enemies turns that takes forever to wait our turns to be ready, but you can always fast-forwarding the whole thing which I'm very glad that they added the features in later patch updates.
The combat gameplay has selection of sub-weapons to choose from unit options such as medi-carbine, stream rifle, crossbow, mine launcher, bananapult, and other useful sub-weapons which can be unlocked by collecting all of coins at the battlefield. Each of the units has different main weapons such as Henry's rifle, John's grenade launcher, Tom's punching gun, Lion's jumping attack, Califia's rocket launcher, Queequeg's penguin bomb, and Lily's medi-gun, while each of them has their own special attack such as Henry's eagle bomb, John's hammer, Scarecrow's trick and treat, Fox's instant counter-attack, and Tin Man's full steam replenish which I think these weapons had worked absolutely fine for its shooting collision and hit detection making it more effective on player's damaging attack on enemies, but the issue that I don't like about in the game was that both attacking and movement requires the use of steam, a meter that depletes whenever a character moves around or uses their weapon, so everytime you move the characters around the stage is likely depleting your steam ammunation meaning that you won't able to shoot these aliens in right range which I finding it quite annoying when playing the mission and I also not liking the part where it lacks the actual map screen during the battle instead they putting a stupid big ass camera controls on touch screen that made the tactics gameplay style very difficult to play in comparison with SEGA's Valkyria Chronicles is much easier for relying on limited real time movement, better range of attacking in target mode, and of course the full map screen on command mode which is the main reason why SEGA got it right for their style of tactics gameplay as opposed to Nintendo's Codename: S.T.E.A.M. is too much focused on more complex style of battle gameplay.
You can always save your checkpoints are located with yellow-green object save points which give you a two options to select such as restoring your health or recovering all units back in action are quite in handy which saves you from starting the mission over again during the battle.
There are collectables golden cogs in the battlefield that unlocks your new upgradable boiler which really improves your steam meter meaning that it adds more enough steam to move around your character unit.

I got to say that the 3DS's controls is quite responsive to play because you won't need a touch screen for its camera controls instead you have a easier three ways options to use a camera controls such as 4-faced button on 3DS system, 3DS's circle-pad pro for old model, and new model 3DS's pointing stick which works a lot better for its aiming controls making it much easier to point and aim at the enemy's nearby, so I'm very glad that they fully understand how the third-person genres actually worked on handheld gaming using a best alternatives 3DS's control schemes.             
Despite with playable controls and decent selection of weapons, the whole mission in the game is actually quite fun to play with all the objectives and goals that keeps you more motivated and most of the enemy A.Is is ridiculously tough and clever with their tactics that always giving a higher damage attack and cheap stun attack which really adds the overall challenge of single-player action.
The best part of the game is where you take control of Abe's steam machine fighting with bigger bosses is absolutely epic because I really liked playing the mecha style action with his dodging mechanics and heavy weapons had worked very well during the battles.
You can also add your favourite Fire Emblem characters in the game using the amiibo scan device which allowing them to join forces.
You can also enjoy with your friends through the local and online matches in versus mode which is sounds pretty cool if you're into with kind of game modes. 

Overall, it has responsive controls, decent selection of weapons, and fun mission.



Graphics

The graphics in the game is looking impressive for its 3DS standards. The whole art style has comic book look of the game for its character's animation and level environments. The character's animation is really amazing for its their personality with the use of their facial expression and body language that really adds the significant character development in the game. The level environments is fully cel-shaded with colourful details, smooth textures on surfaces, and has great looking scenery on each mission which fits nicely well on level design, but I do find the size of the level design is rather small which makes it looked bit shrunk out in comparison with other tactics turn-based games like Fire Emblem and XCOM which has slightly larger map making it much easier to explore, but so far it's actually acceptable for the 3DS titles.

Overall, it has decent looking character's animation and acceptable level environments.



Music and Sounds

I really liked the original soundtrack of the game which mixes with orchestrated and heavy metal genres really fits perfectly for the battle gameplay. These original music on battle gameplay is so much like the straight-up from Transformers: Devastation which I really enjoying listening all kinds of metal genres while getting ready to pump up for action and I also had fun listening to orchestrated sing-a-long theme song with goofy patriotic lyrics.
The game does have a great use of sound effects for the atmospheric effects, gun shooting, and some background noise.
Most of the characters in the game was voiced by some actors and actress you may heard of such as Adam Baldwin, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Fred Tatasciore, Kari Wahlgren, Jeremy Shada, TJ Storm, James Urbaniak, Paul Eiding, Grey DeLisle, Kimberly Brooks,  Andrew Kishino, and Amber Hood providing their roles in the game.

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, great sound effects, and decent voice casting.



Special Features

This game has Amiibo functionally, unlockable abe's mini game, and has more library details of characters, world, creatures, music and cutscenes.

Overall, its a nice addition to this game.



Advantages

Comic book style presentation

Fun single player mission

Responsive controls

Decent graphics

Fantastic music

Playable amiibo characters



Disadvantages


Complex tactics for lacking actual map screen

Both attacking and movement requires the use of steam



Final Verdict


Presentation 8/10 - enjoyable storylines, recogniable characters, and colourful presentation.

Gameplay 7/10 - responsive controls, decent selection of weapons, and fun mission.

Graphics 7.5/10 - decent looking character's animation and acceptable level environments.

Music and Sounds 8/10 - fantastic soundtrack, great sound effects, and decent voice casting.

Special Features 7/10 - Amiibo functionally, unlockable abe's mini game, and has more library details of characters, world, creatures, music and cutscenes.



Overall 7/10 - I would give it 6 at the release where they didn't include the features such as fast-forwarding enemy's turns and supportive amiibo characters, but as retroperspective I decided to give it 7 because it's definitely an overlooked gem title for 3DS libraries that could have deserve a second chance despite it mixed overall from critics and sold poorly at the release.
Its a shame that it never really got it made to the Wii U console should have made the sales much more better performance, but I hope they will able to bring it to Switch version if they had a chance to do it in future release.

So far, I really liked the game and I had fun playing it for over 3 hours a day of this fun-action tactics shooter. If you're into with this type of genres then this is for you to play worth getting it for dirt cheap from £3.50 to £12.


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Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars 3DS Review

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is a Tactical Turn-Based title for 3DS, which was developed and published by Ubisoft. It is part of the 3DS's launch title in March 2011 along with their other Tom Clancy's game such as Splinter Cell 3D was also released in a same month.

To tell you the truth is that I wasn't a huge fan of the Tom Clancy's titles back then as I first enjoyed the original Rainbow Six on N64 which is surprisingly a decent shooter at the time and then until I couldn't get used with the later titles such as Rainbow Six 3, Ghost Recon 2, and Splinter Cell on my brother's Xbox originals which had prevent me from playing several of later Tom Clancy's games.
There is one of the Tom Clancy's title that had got my attention was Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars on 3DS, a Tactical Turn-Based title which is quite different from the rest of the Ghost Recon games which is more focused on shooter based genre, but this game is sorta like taking in different direction as it plays very similar to other well-known Tactical Turn-Based video games such as Fire Emblem and Advance Wars which I finding the idea of the game is surprisingly well done for its lengthy campaign mode, more skirmish missions, and has great local multiplayer battle which makes the game worth playing if you're into with this sort of turn-based genre.
It's a shame that this game couldn't get attention what it deserved due to 3DS had a rough list of titles at the launch release (except some games like Super Street Fighter IV, Ridge Racer 3D, Nintendogs + Cats and Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask are positively received 3DS games), and some fans are bit disappointed that the game is not a shooter like every other Ghost Recon games has is the main reason why nobody had payed so much attention to this forgotten gem, so I think it's better off to give this game a second chance because there's a lot of positive things that I'm going to discuss why is it so good on the 3DS standards.

So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

The story takes place on war in Russia. Due to gas station attack in Kazakhstan, The Russian Ultra Nationalist Yuri Treskayev had called Russia to invade Kazakhstan as he blames President Karkarzev's failure to protect Russia interests. The US has sent Ghosts team into Kazakhstan to battle against the Russian army as their main goal is to prevent Treskayev from taking his power in Russia.

Theres not a whole lot of story in the game as the story involves the war battle between US and Russia, but it seems that the whole plot in the game is not as straightforward to know the story well making very easy to forget. Despite the lackluster storyline, it does have a interesting Ghost team characters which I think its a positive part of the game in comparison with other Ghost Recon titles.
You have human artillery named Commando Duke, long range specialist Haze, heavy gunner Richter, medical professional Saffron, stealthy recon Banshee, and weapon engineer Mint which these are the Ghost teams is kinda does look like from the cartoon shows back in 80's such as G.I Joe for example which makes the character concept look more appealing than these generic foot solders from previous Ghost Recon games.
I also liked the whole presentation in the game which has different kinds of level's settings including outside desert areas, cave system of enemy bases, house building, launcher facility room, and all others seems to have really good scenery in each chapters. The FMV cutscenes seems to be look impressive on 3DS standards regarding with cart limitations could really handle well with the 30 secs sequences.
The in-game presentation on top of the 3DS screen is looking really spectacular which shows a large map of levels as you can able to highlight your own squads or enemies which contains their stats on the bottom of the 3DS screen showing their primary or secondary weapons you use, the health, hit points such as damage and range attacks, the movements, and finishing special attacks. While not highlighting the squads you will have full maps on the bottom of the 3DS screen showing where your team or enemies been located in the levels which is useful for your strategy plan. I also liked the looks of the grids in the game filled with nice transparency square shaped and bold looking arrows which is just like in a Fire Emblem or Advanced Wars games that has similar gameplay design makes the whole presentation pretty good for the 3DS title.


Overall, it has slight better characters, good use of scenery, impressive FMV sequences and spectacular in-game design except the storyplot.



Gameplay

The single player campaign has 7 Chapters with 5 or 6 missions each in over 35 hours of length. You are taking control of Ghost team in turn-based tactics to wipe out the enemies as your main goal is to complete all the main objectives been added in the list while trying not to lose one of your six Ghost members.
You will able to move squads by highlighting them in the blue coloured grids which allowing your character to move around the battlefield on the selectable blue squares, while the green coloured squares on blue grids had giving you option to attack on enemies depending on character's damage range attack which can be showed on bottom of the 3DS screen to help you figuring out if your squad can able to attack the enemy in better range. For example: it came with three different colours of damage range attack such as yellow represents long range, orange represents mid range, and red represents short range. 

Each of your squad members has different classes such as Commando Duke is equipped with an assault rifle and a hi-tech shoulder mounted missile launcher which is effective for mid-range attacks. Haze has two long range weapon such as heavy and light sniper rifle works effectively on long range attacks. Richter has powerful chaingun works best for using heavy damage attacks and return fire. Saffron has her ability to heal the team using the medkits and providing power points with boost kits, but she also has pistol as a defense weapon. Banshee uses her stealthy cloak devices system to prevent enemies from attacking her unless she being caught by enemy nearby and she is also equipped with silenced carbines and deadly combat knife. Mint has his ability to deploy his turret and drone which is worked well for its counter attack, but he also has options to repair or retrieve his turret and drones.
Some of the squad members such as Haze, Banshee, and Richter are also equipped with different types of grenades which works effectively on enemies drones and vehicles. The squad members can also perform finishing attacks if its reaches on 100% showing on character stats as it allows them to instantly kill the enemy lot faster. You can also grab yourself an items in the levels such as health pack to increase your health, the ammo pack can add your ammunition, and blue box which increases your percentages of special attacks which is come in useful during the missions.
The Ghost team can also collect their command points by capturing the flag of enemy bases, so you will receive each points after taking turns as you can spend these points to use three commands options such as power charge for powerful character's stats, reactivating members, and using airstrike to blow off all the enemies in bigger range.
The game does have great objectives which keeps you very satisfied with overall missions. The objectives such as defeating officers, deactivating bombs, free all hostages, defend your bases, and many more fun goals that made the game really great to play. After completing missions, the squads will be awarded with star points which allows you to upgrade their levels adding new weapons and armors, increasing their health capacity and more damage attack points which really helps improves their strengths and performances for later missions.
The part that drawbacks the game was not having an option to re-recruiting your squad member because its important to bring all your squad members back in action, but no your squad member will purposely die in mission which led to failing the mission which I don't like because killing one member of six squad team can ruin the whole mission if you're trying the best to keep all the squad member alive as possible which is quite frustrating in most of the missions been repeated with all same failed objectives list, so be very careful with your team members while playing the mission.
You can always save mission on option menu in case you don't want to start the whole mission again at the beginning which seems really help for me to continue on last checkpoint that I've recently saved on.
So far, I've managed to enjoy the game quite well filled with great strategy gameplay, decent tactics, cool objectives, and has over 35 hours of lengthy campaign which makes the game quite non-stop fun single-player experience.
You can also enjoy the game with skirmish modes that has training, battle and challenge modes with different goals that you can able to test out your task to beat the battle and it has multiplayer matches where you can able to enjoy playing with your friends on single 3DS system through versus mode including deathmatches, capturing bases, gaining points to win and other objectives which is a positive part of the game.     
                                                 

Overall, it has great strategy gameplay, decent tactics, cool objectives, 35 hours of lengthy campaign and has skirmish and multiplayer modes.



Graphics

Despite this game had shifted away from third-person shooter to turn-based tactics genres, the overall quality of the graphics on 3DS system is looking quite decent for its overall design as it looks very good with displaying stereoscopic 3D effects that made the levels look more detailed for its top-down building environments, textured grounds and surfaces, and has well animated sprites for the in-game characters and drones. Its very impressive to look at the game that really stands out well for the 3DS standards as showing how good the game looks on the handheld system.
I'm very glad that the game ran smoothly well on the 3DS system which shows no sign of slow-downs and jaggy details which most of the environments are looking super clear as crystal.

Overall it has detailed environments, polished textures, well animated sprites, and has ran smoothly on 3DS standards.



Music and Sounds

The game sure does have some decent soundtrack on both presentation and in-game battle which really fits the personality of the game with very Tom Clancy's theme song and has intense tactical music during the mission.
I also liked the use of sound effects on every weapons, drones and has background noises of levels in the game which sure does sounds pretty good with the 3DS stereo speaker or headphones.
The game does not have voice cast in the game due to cart size limitation, except it does have a grunt voice sample where solders were getting hit or being killed in the warzone which is absolutely fine in the game that doesn't need a full voice over.

Overall it has decent soundtrack and great use of sounds.



Special Features

The game lets you unlock all your skirmish missions and multiplayer battles if you're able to beat all of the missions from the single player campaign and you can also increase your overall ranking of player's class if you're able to beat all of these three difficulty options will award you with more ranking points from sergeant to lieutenant class ranking which really improves your player experiences in the game.

Overall it has unlockable missions and battles, and ranking options.



Advantages

Fair presentation

35 hours of lengthy campaign

Great strategy gameplay

Has cool skirmish mission and multiplayer battles

Good looking graphics

Decent soundtrack



Disadvantages

Lackluster story

Repetitive deaths on failed objectives

Has no option to re-recruiting your squad member during the mission



Final Verdict


Presentation 7/10 - slight better characters, good use of scenery, impressive FMV sequences and spectacular in-game design except the storyplot.

Gameplay 8/10 - great strategy gameplay, decent tactics, cool objectives, 35 hours of lengthy campaign and has skirmish and multiplayer modes.

Graphics 8/10 - detailed environments, polished textures, well animated sprites, and has ran smoothly on 3DS standards.

Music and Sounds 7.5/10 - decent soundtrack and great use of sounds.

Special Features 7.5/10 - unlockable missions and battles, and ranking options.



Overall 8/10 - Despite my lost interest on all Tom Clancy's series from the past, this game is actually pretty decent that I never got disappointed to play as this game filled with very long campaign mission which really adds my single player experience for its great turn-based gameplay, fun tactics, and has numerous of objectives that keeps me very satisfied to play over 3 hours a day. I also liked the skirmish and multiplayer modes which is also pretty good that the game has to offer as I can able to enjoy the battle with my friends on the single 3DS system.

For retro perspective, Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is a underrated 3DS title of all Tom Clancy's series that the game is kinda harder to appreciate fans who aren't happy with the decision that had been shifted away from third-person shooter genres like the previous Ghost Recon games has, so just remember the 3DS is not always has to be designed for shooters because it might be very difficult to implement the game unless if the developers are being confident enough to fit well on the system.
This game is highly designed for people who are into with turn-based genres like those who previously enjoys playing titles like Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, and XCOM are the main reason why it made Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars quite enjoyable to play.

That being said, give this game a credit what it deserve because it's a great addition to 3DS's game library that is worth picking up and play.



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