Swords & Soldiers

Swords & Soldiers isn’t especially long, containing three campaigns with 10 missions apiece, but you can go into Skirmish mode for practice sessions and unlock some interesting mini-games. There’s even an interesting two-player mode in which one player uses the GamePad and another play uses the TV and a Wii Remote, which is fantastic. The Viking campaign shouldn’t give you much trouble, but the difficulty spikes with the Aztecs and Chinese in a gentle way. Swords & Soldiers HD is surprisingly fun, and I’m glad I played it.

Swords & Soldiers is a unique and fun take on the RTS genre that still holds up very well today. A sequel to it was recently announced by Ronimo Games as a Wii U exclusive, and Two Tribes has provided an updated version of the original at a budget price of £2.69 as a perfect opportunity for new players to try out the franchise. It is relatively accessible for a strategy game, too, making it even easier to jump into the game.

Five years on, Swords & Soldiers is still an excellent title. It's quite simple compared to most RTS games, but it has just enough depth to make it a highly entertaining experience, especially when it gets ported correctly as it has been in this case. It's a bit of a shame the few extra features it gained in past versions are gone, but at this price we really can't complain too much. Let's hope the sequel is just as good.