S.W.I.N.E. Review | This little piggy went to war
I'm a retro-gaming enthusiast, I love playing games from the past, especially if I've never heard of them.
There are a lot of experiences worth discovering and game preservation is a topic I really care about. The work of some independent developers and producers to remaster/fix abandoned titles helps a lot and it is a purpose I fully support.
While I can't say I enjoyed playing S.W.I.N.E, I'm still glad it has been remastered and made available on modern platforms.
Aesthetics
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A moment of respite before returning to battle
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The graphics used have aged well, the remastering work has given a good polishing to the title, which is pleasing to my eye, of course, the cartoony graphic style with bright and vibrant colors helps.
Not much to say about the particle details, when they have to represent explosions, bullets and more they do their job.
The animations used are not the most developed, but they don't have to be, since you only command mechanical vehicles, it makes sense that they don't have the smoothest movements, while those dedicated to the characters in the cutscenes are average for the time.
The dubbing is ok, the voices speak adequately and I have not heard any distortions, the actors use a French accent for the rabbits and a German one for the pigs.
The lack of a soundtrack during fights gives the experience a bad hit, the music can only be heard in the menus; during the combat phases there will be only the sounds of the battle.
Sounds that are just ok, this is bad, if you don't have a soundtrack for most of the game, you need to have a great sound design to substitute the lack of music, there are games that manage to replace the absence of music with an excellent use of combat noises, this title is simply not part of it.
I was so bored that I started listening to my own personal playlist, without it, it is likely that I would have quit the game sooner.
In short, pleasant visuals, weak audio.
Game Mechanics
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Always keep supplies in mind
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The title is a real time tactics game, the deal of this genre is based on an increased emphasis on positioning and maneuvering units, while ignoring the aspect of base building and resource gathering typical of real time strategy games.
To implement this, S.W.I.N.E. allows us to command: tanks useful for maintaining the front line, artillery pieces for long-range fire and support vehicles specialized in the transport of supplies or incapacitated vehicles.
In fact, in most cases, when a unit runs out of life it does not die immediately, but becomes incapacitated, losing the ability to move and shoot, these units can be repaired to return to battle or be permanently destroyed with just a couple more hits.
All this is done in a competent way, it allows good flexibility of action.
The objectives that will be given to us are average for such a title: destroy the enemies, capture/defend one or more areas of strategic importance, reach the objective on the other side of the map and bring supplies to allies in need.
Nothing groundbreaking, but nothing wrong either.
The same cannot be said for the levels, their quality is inconsistent, some offer an excellent challenge, balanced and fluid, while in others it seems that the only winning strategy is to go at a turtle's pace so as not to be overwhelmed by the enemy forces. These inconsistencies led me to save a lot during the most extreme missions, it is so easy to lose everything in a few minutes that I had to do a lot of save scumming.
In addition, the game is automatically saved at the start and at the end of the mission.
All this could suggest a high difficulty, but I would define it more as a tedious slowness, enemies sometimes have an army 5 times the size of yours and this forces you to take everything slow, otherwise you are simply overwhelmed by the high number of opponents or getting your forces grinded out by the constant and costly fighting. It is also true that you can choose a lower difficulty before starting a campaign, but certainly at normal difficulty the slowness with which you have to take everything gets on your nerves.
A peculiar aspect of the S.W.I.N.E. concerns a greater emphasis on the maintenance of your forces, the possibility of recruiting new units in the heat of battle and special abilities, real time tactics games often don't have systems dedicated to the maintaining of the forces like fuel and ammunition, but this game does. Make sure you have enough fuel to move and bullets to fire. In addition, almost every unit has a unique ability, some are obvious, such as mechanics who can move supply carts and handicapped vehicles, artillery that must put itself in siege mode before firing, others are particular, such as the ability of tanks to entrench themselves and take less damage. Try to preserve the units as much as possible, as they level up with experience and will come with you as the campaign continues.
The only currency in the game are strategic points (SP), with them you can recruit new vehicles and use certain skills for certain units, such as calling an air strike. Strategic points can be accumulated from mission to mission, so if you finish a mission with extra points they will not be lost, but added to the supply, each mission won grants 1000 SP. Most of the expenses are reserved for the purchase of new vehicles, but you can also buy extras, up to three, for each vehicle. These extras have several uses: some simply increase fuel or ammunition supplies; others increase armor or speed or sight, and others may provide the ability to detect mines or fire faster.
The system is very interesting, it allows a good dose of customization while maintaining a right balance with the progression.
Artificial intelligence leaves something to be desired though, it is very common for it to only attack you after itself being attacked, I also happened to take out numerous enemies simply by using the scout with a much bigger sight view and artillery, while the enemies stood still and passive. It doesn't always happen, but enough to become noteworthy.
Completing the rabbit campaign and half the pig campaign, I played for 16 hours before giving up on the title.
In summary, there are great mechanics and exciting ideas too, but all of this is undermined by the fluctuating quality of the levels and the uninspiring artificial intelligence.
Narrative
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The cutscenes provide few comic scenes and no narrative piece |
There is a war between pigs and rabbits, there are two campaigns that will be played: one dedicated to the rabbits and one to the pigs.
Both are initially given a wall of text to set the general setting and circumstances you will find yourself in.
The game has a comedic style, and therefore must not to be taken seriously, but it's not funny, there are no witty or extravagant jokes, the most you get is some puns (like an oil company called Raboil) and even these are sporadic.
The main story doesn't evolve either, as I mentioned, I have completed the rabbit campaign and have reached halfway through the pig campaign, the story of the rabbits continues without major revelations or twists, we simply witness their struggles until the final victory.
As much as I've played, the pig story unfolds without any major revelations and it wasn't enough to keep me going until the end, if there is any big event ahead I don't know, the story offered didn't entertain me enough.
All pre-mission texts are used only to contextualize the given objectives.
There are no side stories to follow.
There are no characters to interact with.
In conclusion, there is not a good story to follow and the comedy proposed did not amuse me.
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