Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command (Nintendo DS)

Warhammer 40,000 Squad Commander is a military game for the Nintendo DS. You fight against other armies by moving your troops and fighting, working through the various missions in the game.

The game is turn based and I found the game play easy to pick up and start playing the game. In essence the point of the game is to move your armies a certain number of positions, then make fighting decisions about what to do with those armies, and ...
...whole process is controlled by action points, which you can either use to move or fight.

Graphics wise, I wasn't impressed with the game. The second screen of the Nintendo DS should have been a positive feature for this game, but it is in my view wasted with a different to comprehend map feature. There are times where it isn't possible to really see what's going on in the game, which is frustrating and seems to just be lazy programming.
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Warhammer 40,000 Squad Commander is a military game for the Nintendo DS. You fight against other armies by moving your troops and fighting, working through the various missions in the game.

The game is turn based and I found the game play easy to pick up and start playing the game. In essence the point of the game is to move your armies a certain number of positions, then make fighting decisions about what to do with those armies, and then you let the computer respond with its move. This whole process is controlled by action points, which you can either use to move or fight.

Graphics wise, I wasn't impressed with the game. The second screen of the Nintendo DS should have been a positive feature for this game, but it is in my view wasted with a different to comprehend map feature. There are times where it isn't possible to really see what's going on in the game, which is frustrating and seems to just be lazy programming.

Although the game might be relatively easy to pick up, controlling the game isn't always as easy. The game uses the stylus and touch pad to control the armies and movement, but it's easy to select the wrong item and end up making a move that you didn't intend to make. It doesn't really get any better after playing the game for a few hours, it's just all a bit clunky.

Really the game to me just seemed a little pointless and repetitive. With no additional effects to add to the game, it felt very dry and really felt like a port from another console. Little effort had gone into the controls and what is a very good concept just became monotonous very quickly to me.

The sound in the game is very limited, and is really limited to just a few sound effects. There is no interesting background music, sound between levels and other effects that might enhance the game, just the occasional sound of gunfire and similar minor sounds. All very disappointing, and this certainly takes away from the atmosphere of the game.

You can link up the game to play with others, which does to a degree lengthen its game-play, but I only tried this once with one other player. You should however be able to play with a total of eight players or build up your own ranking system with the Nintendo DS ranked matches. The frustrations of the game's controls do still though kick in, and there are just better games to play in two player mode.

The game is currently available new on Amazon for 13.39 pounds, but can be found much cheaper second-hand on eBay for example. The game is rated 12+ so isn't suitable for younger children.

Overall, the game is interesting for a while, but I just felt that there wasn't enough to the game to maintain my long-term interest. If you can pick the game up quite cheaply and are a fan of this genre of games, then I'd advise getting this, but otherwise it's probably not worth getting in my opinion.

(review also on dooyoo under same name) 

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