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Swords & Soldiers 2: Shawarmageddon is the follow up to the 2010 PC hit by Romino Games and is a very competent 2D RTS/tower-defence game. In Swords & soldiers 2 you take your horde of vikings across a vast map pillaging from every foe you encounter. As you take your ever growing army of whimsical vikings from battle to battle, you learn the games mechanics and gain the knowledge and strategy you will need in the later game and online. The game does a very good job of teaching you the ropes by giving you a handful of early missions forcing different play styles and strategies without you really being too conscious of it.

You start with a couple of different units and steadily expand your collection as you progress, from the little axe throwing guys to the rotund singing viking maiden. Each character type has their own whacky personality and distinctive skill set. With your heart set on collecting loot and destroying your enemies you will need to manage your resources carefully, spawning the best unit for the current situation while trying to anticipate what you will need further into the siege. You require an ever replenishing supply of mana to spawn your units but with every unit or ability you summon the cost will deplete your store quicker than it replenishes. If you run out of mana you could be in real trouble

Originally released on the Wii U, Swords & Soldiers II has now been released into the world again to find an audience and you can tell straight away from the art-style that it comes from the creators of the brilliant Awesomenauts. The art-style is colorful and extremely well drawn with a huge amount of comic charm and detail. The game relies hugely on cheap puns and slapstick humor but it works. The more cringey puns you hear or stupidly named characters you see just makes you enjoy the game more. Swords & Soldiers II wants you to have fun and leads by example by not taking itself seriously whilst also delivering tight, exciting gameplay.

As you raid and pillage the world every battle will get harder and push your strategy in a new direction, preparing you for the online multiplayer and custom matches where you can pick from three factions: Vikings, Demons and Persians. Online multiplayer provides dozens more hours of enjoyment and playtime meaning you will get plenty of game for your money.

What I will say however is that the difficulty doesn’t keep increasing once you are a good portion into the game so towards the end it does become more rinse and repeat missions, not a total loss but it can become a bit tedious in later game during extended play sessions. the game does well though considering there is clear limits to what you can make feel unique in this game genre.

Swords & Soldiers II is a unique and thoroughly enjoyable game which really shouldn’t be missed. It’s tight gameplay and all round quirky presentation means anyone could enjoy this game.

Do you agree with our review? Let us know in the comments and as always for all things gaming stay tuned to ABG. If you liked this then why not check out our review for Battle Princess Madelyn on the Xbox One.

Swords & Soliders II was reviewed on the Switch by a developer sent code.

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Darren Colley

Gamer, dad and supporter of @SpecialEffect Charity. Dark Souls fan and gooner!