Real-time strategy has had a checkered history on consoles, leading most developers to either focus exclusively on console interfaces or retrofit a console version after severe tweaking. 8-Bit Armies, an indie game in the vein of Command & Conquer and StarCraft, is a valiant attempt to recapture the magic. It prides itself as a retro-style strategy game, and it is certainly that, even to the point of feeling a little too familiar. Aside from some smart tweaks and revisions, it doesn?t offer much new to the genre.
Those familiar with the classic strategy archetype set by StarCraft will have some idea of what 8-Bit Armies has to offer. You begin with a Headquarters, supplement with a resource-gathering operation, and then begin to build up your Barracks, Machine Shop, and other related wartime buildings to create your armies and lay waste to the enemy. Simplified Framework
Within that framework, though, 8-Bit Armies has slimmed down some of the complexity that may have made the other strategy games it apes too daunting or unmanageable. There is only one resource to gather rather than two, and buildings themselves fulfill unit prerequisites without individual research goals needed. The result is a zippier version of a very familiar formula, in which a respectable army can get up and running within a few minutes, rather than a half-hour or so before the real hostilities begin.
Other than those minor adjustments, however, 8-Bit Armies suffers from having been there and done...