Wargroove

Wargroove is one of the best games I've played on the Switch and the perfect tactical game to get deep into while waiting for Fire Emblem Three Houses.

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"Wargroove 2" is a turn-based strategy game with single-player, co-op, and multiplayer modes for up to 4 players, online or locally. Command powerful leaders, new units, and try out the roguelike mode - Conquest. Customize your battlefields, level up units, and enjoy improved editors for maps, campaigns, and cutscenes. Return to the frontline for an all-new Wargroove adventure!

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Reviews

84%

Audience ScoreBased on 2,291 reviews

story149 positive mentions

grinding47 negative mentions

Wargroove is a charming and visually appealing turn-based strategy game that successfully captures the essence of Advance Wars.
The game features a variety of units and commanders, each with unique abilities, adding depth to the tactical gameplay.
The campaign offers a good length of content, with engaging missions and the ability to create and share custom maps and campaigns.

The AI can be predictable and often makes poor decisions, leading to a lack of challenge in some missions.
All factions have identical units, which diminishes the uniqueness and strategic variety that could have been present.
The story and dialogue can feel childish and lack depth, making it less engaging for players looking for a more serious narrative.

story
772 mentions
19 % positive mentions
72 % neutral mentions
9 % negative mentions
The story in Wargroove has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it to be simplistic and aimed at a younger audience, often describing it as generic and filled with clichés. While some appreciate the light-hearted tone and charming presentation, others criticize the lack of depth in character development and plot, leading to a feeling of repetitiveness in missions. Overall, the narrative serves primarily as a backdrop for the gameplay, with many players expressing a preference for the strategic elements over the story itself.
- “The story is cute and breezy; nothing special.”
- “The story keeps you interested with in-game cinematics and dialogues while combat.”
- “The campaign reveals the game mechanics and units in a seamless fashion throughout your first few missions, which gets progressively more and more difficult as you go along.”
- “The story is extraordinarily corny and kiddy.”
- “The story is boring.”
- “The story is very childish and lackluster.”
gameplay
504 mentions
32 % positive mentions
63 % neutral mentions
5 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Wargroove is heavily inspired by the Advance Wars series, featuring turn-based strategy mechanics that are both accessible and challenging. While many players appreciate the charming visuals and the introduction of unique mechanics like critical hits and commander abilities, some criticize the lack of depth and variety among factions, leading to repetitive gameplay. Overall, the game offers a solid tactical experience, though opinions vary on its innovation and balance compared to its predecessors.
- “Wargroove is by far the best alternative to Advance Wars, with its own unique gameplay.”
- “The gameplay is fun, challenging, and easy to pick up.”
- “Wargroove is a fantastic grid-based combat tactics game that offers immense customization options, engaging gameplay, and stylish presentation.”
- “At the moment of this review, I've met and deduced most mechanics and I'm not impressed.”
- “This should be a good game based on its presentation and wealth of content (story, arcade, puzzles, multiplayer, unlockables, are fantastic things to have) but Wargroove sucks because its actual gameplay is bad.”
- “The gameplay loop seems fine at first, but the more time you sink in, the more obvious that the balance of the units seems off, or rather the roles of the units aren't specific enough resulting in less tactical play being possible, resulting in a very shallow gameplay loop.”
graphics
259 mentions
46 % positive mentions
51 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received widespread praise for their charming pixel art style, vibrant colors, and fluid animations, often compared favorably to classic titles like Advance Wars. Many reviewers highlight the visuals as a standout feature, contributing to an engaging and whimsical atmosphere, despite some criticism regarding the lack of unique mechanics across factions. Overall, the art style is described as adorable and well-executed, enhancing the game's appeal while maintaining a nostalgic feel.
- “The visuals are really adorable and fitting, and overall the pixel art is sublime.”
- “The graphics and animations are wonderful; the gameplay is solid.”
- “The art style is gorgeous to me.”
- “The art style is atrocious.”
- “The graphics are okay, the sound okay.”
- “It feels like most of the budget and effort was put towards the visuals, which are the only redeeming factor in this incredibly dull, uninteresting and massively disappointing game.”
music
181 mentions
62 % positive mentions
33 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many praising its quality and catchiness, while others find it repetitive and less memorable over time. Some players highlight the unique themes for different commanders, enhancing the overall experience, but a few express disappointment in the lack of dynamic features. Overall, the soundtrack is generally regarded as enjoyable and fitting, contributing positively to the game's atmosphere.
- “The music is phenomenal.”
- “The soundtrack is an absolute joy, with each commander and faction having their own unique music as well as many lovely soundtracks spread around the world, all of which can be discovered and assessed through the in-game jukebox and each one fits their theme quite well.”
- “The art style and music are superbly crafted, simple, and nostalgic.”
- “Music is fitting, but way too repetitive to be enjoyable, and some tracks are just plain grating.”
- “For a game called 'Wargroove', the music kinda sucks.”
- “The soundtrack is shockingly flat and lacks any dynamic features.”
grinding
47 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The reviews highlight that the game suffers from excessive grinding, with many players finding the gameplay tedious and repetitive. Missions often take a long time to complete, only to result in frustrating losses, and the slow pace of battles, combined with unengaging level design, contributes to a sense of monotony. While some players appreciate the grinding aspect for leveling up, the overall sentiment leans towards a desire for more streamlined and engaging gameplay.
- “The game is really grindy and repetitive, and some missions are super unfun.”
- “It's not a measure of how fun the game is; it's a measure of how tedious it is.”
- “The battles are excessively tedious.”
humor
36 mentions
97 % positive mentions
3 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as charming and lighthearted, with funny dialogues and entertaining characters that enhance the overall experience. While many players appreciate the comedic elements and find the writing hilarious, some critiques point to moments where the humor feels forced or out of place, detracting from the game's more serious themes. Overall, the game successfully blends humor with engaging gameplay, making it enjoyable for a wide audience.
- “The writing is hilarious, the gameplay is solid, and the cast is wonderful.”
- “Great turn-based strategy game, with funny dialogues and great mechanics and balanced units; took me around 50 hours to finish, but clearly a blast!”
- “The campaign is delightful, quite funny while having serious moments that aren't too out of place and is for the most part challenging in the right way, requiring an understanding of unit composition and commander abilities.”
replayability
36 mentions
36 % positive mentions
56 % neutral mentions
8 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is generally praised, with many players highlighting the value of its custom level editor and multiplayer options, which significantly enhance the experience. While the campaign offers a solid length and challenges for achieving higher ranks, some users feel that the lack of diverse unit mechanics can make gameplay feel repetitive. Overall, the combination of user-generated content and various modes contributes to a strong replay value, making it a worthwhile investment for players.
- “Despite being simple, there are quite a lot of complex mechanics to this game you must learn, which improves the replayability.”
- “The single-player campaign and replayability due to the custom creator mode make the game well worth it.”
- “This game also supports custom campaign creation and sharing, complete with cutscenes and dialogue, which makes this game infinitely replayable.”
- “Here lies a massive problem that I think destroys any real replay value of this game.”
- “Community maps are meh at best and there doesn't feel to be a ton of replayability.”
- “They all have the same type of units (except for commanders that are unique) that take away from the replayability and tactical challenge.”
character development
18 mentions
33 % positive mentions
39 % neutral mentions
28 % negative mentions
Character development in the game has received mixed reviews, with some praising the unique and charming character designs and art style, while others criticize them as bland and lacking depth. Although the game features beautiful pixel art and a lighthearted tone, many players feel that the character development is weak and does not offer significant depth or personality. Overall, while the aesthetic appeal is noted, the substance of character development leaves much to be desired.
- “The character designs are amazing; I wished there were more, though I guess that isn't a problem as just a few months ago, a DLC was released providing three playable characters under a new faction.”
- “Some of the most beautiful art and character design I've seen in a game, with fun turn-based action that is, albeit, a little lengthy.”
- “There's also a lot of really cool original ideas that I thought were refreshing from a story writing and character development perspective.”
- “Advance Wars but with poor pacing and character design.”
- “While the art assets of the units and environments are great on a technical level, I'm not a fan of the character designs and in my eyes they lack any form of personality.”
- “The pixel style is generic as hell, and the character design is just plain boring.”
emotional
8 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of Wargroove is mixed; while some players appreciate the game's immersive community and engaging stories that foster a sense of intelligence and connection, others criticize the lack of emotional depth in the main character and the exploitative practices of the developers. Overall, the game offers a wholesome experience but may not evoke strong emotional attachments for all players.
- “It elevates the immersion by pulling the player into the game world and connecting emotionally without the need for a 4K 144Hz display or VR experience.”
- “The light strategy elements made me feel smart and the stories were enough to keep me engaged.”
- “A wholesome strategy game that might test you.”
atmosphere
6 mentions
50 % positive mentions
17 % neutral mentions
33 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game receives mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the cheerful tone, fitting soundtracks, and engaging art style, while others find the character designs less appealing. Overall, the game is noted for its ability to create an immersive environment that complements its tactical gameplay.
- “Cheerful atmosphere and extremely well made.”
- “Soundtracks are probably my favorite part as each commander has its own soundtrack and most of them feel very fitting to the commander's atmosphere.”
- “It features an amazing soundtrack, a good atmosphere, and a pretty art style, and the story so far seems to be pretty interesting (I am only about halfway through, right now).”
- “This point is very subjective, but I'm not a big fan of the atmosphere of the game and the character designs.”
- “Is good, it fulfills its mission to create an atmosphere for the game.”
stability
6 mentions
33 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
67 % negative mentions
The game's stability has been a significant concern, with many users experiencing bugs and issues that hinder gameplay, leading some to return the game despite its appealing features. While it reportedly runs well on Linux with Proton, the lack of timely patches and persistent bugs have left players frustrated, suggesting that it may be worth waiting for improvements before fully engaging with the game.
- “And lastly, this game runs great on Linux with Proton.”
- “Yes, it runs great and has such great features including online features, which is pretty awesome in my humble opinion.”
- “Two weeks after the buggy release and still no patch...”
- “Maybe when it's less buggy I'll be able to play it, as it looks lovely and fun, and it must have been in a playable state at some point as the reviews are all glowing, but for right now I had to return it as I can't in good conscience spend money on something I can't actually use.”
- “The complete lack of difference between factions, the many UI annoyances (like the lack of tooltips, or a way to cycle through idle units), the repetitive mission design in the campaign and how buggy/hollow the multiplayer is (desyncs, plus a lack of lobby browsers or more options for quick matches like async matches and fog of war).”
optimization
5 mentions
60 % positive mentions
-20 % neutral mentions
60 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is praised for smooth performance outside of fog of war, enhancing the multiplayer experience. However, some content is locked behind a performance-based grind, and limitations on building units restrict strategic options. Despite these issues, players appreciate the game's aesthetics and complex mechanics.
- “Everything outside of fog of war runs smoothly, and I enjoy playing through the game. I can't wait to game with my friends in multiplayer if they grab the game.”
- “I was really excited for this title: beautiful aesthetics, good performance, complex mechanics, and good style overall.”
- “Gives ranks/stars based on performance that equates to next to.”
- “Some playable content is locked behind a grind for stars based on your performance in single-player modes.”
- “Although the units' cost-performance ratio is reasonable, the limit on buildings to spawn units means there's no option to build a bunch of low-tier units to swarm your opponent.”
- “The ranking system gives stars based on performance that feels almost arbitrary.”
monetization
3 mentions
67 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
33 % negative mentions
The game features a player-friendly monetization model with crossplay, free DLC, and no microtransactions, which is generally well-received. However, some users express a desire for a currency system that could enhance content accessibility without requiring real money, suggesting that the current approach may limit creative exploration.
- “The game has crossplay, free DLC, and no microtransactions.”
- “A currency system is always nice, and having in-game purchase items without spending real money gives you something to add new content easily.”