CastleStorm II

Genre: Tower Defense / Arcade / Turn-Based Strategy

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

CastleStorm II, like its predecessor, is a game that combines elements of Tower Defense with Arcade-style gameplay. However, this time around these elements are joined by an overarching Turn-Based Strategy campaign that’s even more ambitious. This game was released in 2020 on multiple platforms, including the Nintendo Switch.

CastleStorm II looks good on the Nintendo Switch, but it’s nowhere near as polished as its predecessor. Where the first game had lovely 60FPS framerates on the Nintendo Switch, its sequel seems to be much lower, and the quality of the visuals doesn’t seem to have jumped in any other area that explains this, with the low resolution making some of the tiny characters difficult to make out in the commotion of battle (sorry, I don’t have specific stats for you at this time). What’s possibly worse, this game seems pretty poorly-optimized for Nintendo Switch, with tiny text that’s hard to see in docked mode, and even harder in portable mode. The game still retains much of the nice cartoony style of the first game, but this time around things seem far more slipshod and disorganized.

This seems equally true of the gameplay, unfortunately. While the first game seemed to perfectly balance complex strategy elements with straightforward arcadey elements, this time around the balance tips far, far more in favor of the game’s strategy elements, much to the game’s detriment. Players are now tasked with managing not only individual battles, but the resources, land management, and exploration of a 4X-style Turn-Based Strategy game, and these elements do not mesh well at all with the more action-focused and straightforward gameplay the series is known for. In fact, it can be downright confusing at times, and having to parse page after page of tiny text explaining all of this game’s systems doesn’t help.

Look, I enjoy a deep and complex strategy game as much as anyone, but these elements clash terribly with the direct and user-friendly experience the first game presented players with, and I’d rather either play a Turn-Based Strategy that’s strictly built on savvy decision making than this hashed-together attempt at fusing something along those lines with something simple and user-friendly that constantly has you shifting back and forth between slow and thoughtful gameplay and chaotic and action-focused.

It’s not just the change in gameplay style that harms this game, either. The controls are much worse this time around, inexplicably making players select everything using an on-screen cursor that doesn’t seem to accurately reproduce the movements of your control stick. Inexplicably, despite that this game seems intended for a more direct input method, the game doesn’t support the Nintendo Switch’s touchscreen or motion controls either, despite the first game giving players the option to use either.

CastleStorm II is a huge disappointment for me, a game that throws away the strengths of its predecessor in favor of an ambitious but ultimately foolhardy attempt to drag the series in the direction of Turn-Based Strategy games. While it still has some of the good qualities of the first game, the fact that the first game is a faster, more cohesive, more well-rounded experience, and the fact that it is also available on the Nintendo Switch means that players are far better off just sticking with that first game rather than playing its grotesquely mutated sequel.

tl;dr – CastleStorm II builds on the combination of side-scrolling Tower Defense and Arcade-style gameplay of its predecessor while adding a greater Turn-Based Strategy element. Unfortunately, this pull toward Turn-Based Strategy ruins much of the elegant simplicity of the first game, and the game is overall more rough, more poorly optimized for Nintendo Switch, and just overall a worse game than its predecessor. Just stick with the first CastleStorm.

Grade: C

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Disappointing

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