Swords & Soldiers II is without a doubt one of the more interesting games in the eShop. The first game in the franchise was a success so the sequel had to release at some point. Today it finally did. Swords & Soldiers is back and it’s better than ever!

What is it?

Swords & Soldiers II is a real time strategy game where you need to create your own units during combat. On the opposite side of the field, you’ll find the army of your enemy. The goal is to defeat his base before he could destroy yours first. You can’t control the movement of your troops but you can help them out in several ways.

The most crucial way of helping out is by magic. You can activate powerful magic attacks to defeat enemies or to heal your troops. There’re a lot of different magic moves in the game but they’ll cost you mana points. Gathering gold to create troops and gathering mana to give you some magic, is the second main goal during combat.

Each unit in your army has a certain way of playing. You have your regular ground troops but you’ll have some more mythical ones such as demons as well. Each character has its strengths and weaknesses. Finding out how they work is incredibly fun.

What’s new?

Since this is the sequel, you get some new units to discover. The Vikings make a return but are accompanied by Demons and Persians. Each of these come with a different set of magic, troops and strategies. The main story will take you trough fifteen main missions (bonus missions are unlocked along the way) and give you and introduction to the units. The main story is fun, thanks to the great narrative and voice acting but isn’t that long. Completing the main story isn’t something that will take weeks to achieve. Consider this mode as the perfect introduction to the local co-op and Skirmish mode.

This Skirmish mode is by far the best thing that could happen for Swords & Soldiers II. In here you’re able to battle in open combat. Open combat allows you to select any type of unit and magic attack you want. This means you can combine Vikings with Persians and Demons. It’s very interesting to see how these three types work together. Finding new strategies to take down the enemy is great in Skirmish. Also note that if you play against the AI computer, you’re up for a challenge. The AI is very strong and won’t give away your victory for free.

Local co-op

We would also like to point out how great this local co-op mode is. One player controls the Wii U GamePad while the other can use a more traditional controller and the television screen. This means that you can’t take a look at the other screen, if you play fair of course. Battling in open combat against your friend is very entertaining and is probably one of the best co-op modes seen on the Wii U.
It doesn’t matter what kind of control you pick. Both GamePad and controllers work like a charm. We liked the GamePad a little more since it’s very easy to control your troops using the touch interface.

Sword & Soldiers II looks like a straightforward and easy to learn strategy game but don’t be mistaken, it has a lot more depth than you might think. You need to create your units with a lot in mind, gold and mana supplies are most crucial in this. It’s the perfect game to play with friends but stays fun on your own as well. It looks and sound greats and simply offers a lot of fun. This is without a doubt one of the best games found in the eShop.

8/10

Tested on Nintendo Wii U