Battle Worlds: Kronos Review

Originally released for PC in 2013, Battle Worlds: Kronos has now found it’s way onto both the PS4 and Xbox One. Inspired by the Panzer General games of yesteryear, Battle Worlds is one of the few hardcore strategy games available on the new generation of consoles. It has some big boots to fill in a genre with passionate and dedicated fans.

I’ve spent several hours with Battle Worlds: Kronos so far. I’ve not made a lot of progress and my patience is starting to run fairly thin. While I’ve never played Panzer General, I have spent a lot of time with Civilization. Take away all the city building stuff in CIV and Battle Worlds: Kronos is very similar, combat is based on where units are placed in a hexagonal map. Placing units next to each other grants attack boosts, encouraging and rewarding those who plan their attacks. The units range from heavy artillery, to light and nimble exploration units; I just wish there was more emphasis on how much damage each different unit can take. It feels like the heavier units are flimsy, taking as many hits as the smaller infantry units.

Converting a PC strategy game to a controller is never easy. There aren’t many strategy games that have truly pulled it off. Battle Worlds: Kronos controls well, but often I found myself getting quite annoyed as players must individually move every unit. There’s no option to highlight and move a group of units, so moving them individually soon becomes a massive chore. That’s why progression takes so long. If you go in the wrong direction with your units, you’ll find yourself spending even longer travelling to the next objective - which brings me to my next point.

There is a major lack of direction on missions. The first tutorial mission isn’t too bad, as it attempts to hold your hand. But the following missions are incredibly tedious , you’re kind of just thrown into a map and told to get on with it. This wouldn’t be such an issue if the game wasn’t so damn hard. If you make the slightest mistake, the game punishes you. This can be quite annoying when everything takes so long to do.

True fans of the strategy genre will likely enjoy Battle Worlds: Kronos. There’s a massive challenge to be had, with lots of different scenarios to play. If you’re stuck for access to a decent PC and need a strategy fix, this game is probably for you. But that’s the issue, there are so many other games that do it better out there. Even the old Command & Conquer games are far more alluring than Battle Worlds, mostly because the balancing is so much better.

The UI is not easy to look at and feels very archaic. It looks exactly like the PC version and hasn’t been optimised for the PS4 at all. It’s a shame as the developers had a great chance to create something intuitive here, as there’s is a major lack of strategy titles like Battle Worlds: Kronos for the console market.

I find the lack of multiplayer a really odd decision. Every good strategy game of note has some form of multiplayer attached. I’ve spent so many hours playing against my friends in Civilization 5, it’s where the game really shines. The really big strategy fans out there might find themselves quickly bored of the single player offered, then likely disappointed at the lack of multiplayer.

I know I’m not particularly brilliant at strategy games, but I’m usually patient enough that I find myself managing the difficulty curve pretty well. I don’t feel there is a gradual increase in difficulty here, it basically just expects a great degree of skill straight away. For fans of the genre, it is likely an attractive trait, but those who are more casual like myself will struggle to find themselves wanting to endure the frustration.

Battle Worlds: Kronos is likely to scratch the itch of those very hardcore strategy fans, but for the more casual player it will likely be too much of a challenge. The difficulty level would be easier to deal with if moving every single unit around wasn’t so damn tedious, but as it stands I found myself struggling with the enthusiasm to continue. Especially when the game punishes you for small mistakes.