by Andrew Bares

Created on: June 16, 2008   Last Updated: March 22, 2012

4.5/5 Stars (because of the brilliant use of strategically placed landscapes that greatly impact the gameplay.)

A pure logic war game. "Warbands Rise of Baron Muntu" pushes your logic and critical thinking skills to the edge. The game is structured similar to the Warcraft series, where you command troops to move in position, and then to attack enemy troops. The whole game is controlled with a mouse, and a few keyboard keys. You create soldiers, tanks, boats, helicopters, and more, and then use them to attack your enemy.

Although the game is fairly basic with the attack commands, it does get more sophisticated when it features in the fact that mountains give you an advantage and other landscapes hurt your defenses. Also, your enemies won't always do what you think. They often go for your weaker soldiers and catch you off guard.

The graphics are all 2D, but are quite fantastic with explosions. The characters have a cartoon style embedded in them. But when you're caught up in the battle, you won't even care about these somewhat cheesy graphics. Every tree is crystal-clear although, and all of the characters look very sharp. Basically, the graphics get their job done, but aren't up to the PlayStation-style graphics yet.

Sound effects are decent in this game with the explosions being the greatest effects. It also has some nice background music that complements the game very subtlely. Often, you won't even notice these sounds since they are perfectly blended into the reality of the game, thus they won't even perk your attention.

When first looking at this game, you would expect this to be a basic click-and-attack game, with not much else to it. Once you play more, you discover what the game truly is about, and you realize that you're going to have to think about your every move. The game puts in perfectly placed items that push your thinking to the max. Every item and every move in this game is going to have a consequence. The enemies will attempt to flank you if you move too far away from your base. They will retreat if they know they can't win against your tank. They will move onto a mountain to get better attacking power. Therefore, this game becomes more than just clicking and shooting. It truly is tough if you carelessly move your troops around the battle field.

The storyline of this game is somewhat intriguing. The way it's told isn't the best, using just lines of text that you are forced to read. But the story that's being told could interest some, and as you move along in the game, the storyline gives you even more incentive to come back and try again.

This game got 4.5 out of 5 stars because of the logic and strategy of how this game was engineered. It beats your expectations and pushes the limits of the logic style of gun warfare. Basically, if you have the money, then you should try and get this game. If you don't have the money, then try and get some money!

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