Coming off the back of another puzzle game that left a sour taste in my mouth, I wasn’t too sure about reviewing the next game handed to me by Completexbox, but Flying Soldiers was a pleasant little surprise to say the least, and it’s got a decent amount of character to boot! Flying Soldiers is developed by the very talented studio WildSphere, who also recently released the horror game OXIDEroom104. WildSphere are eager to showcase there talents, and it certainly shines through with Flying Soldiers.

Premise

Upon starting this game, you assume command of a small little army of “Flying Soldiers” and your goal is to help them cross the battlefield and reach safety together. You’ll have to mange there movements by order’s, when and where to move,  thus helping them to dodge obstacles. You will also be in charge of drop and jumps, as they make their way to safety under your command.

In Flying Soldiers, you’ll do this over the course of 3 campaigns, comprising of 15 levels each and every campaign introduces a new solider type with different pros and cons that add another layer of strategy when trying to traverse the battlefield!

Gameplay

With Flying Soldiers, you have to command your troops to safety, achievable by placing different tools available to you. You are allowed to use things such as trampolines, springboards, fans, speed pads and barriers in an attempt to get your troops to safety. Certain tools are locked out of certain missions, so you’ll need your thinking cap on to be able to pull off each mission!

Some of your soldiers aren’t affected by wind (as some levels contain a giant fan that messes with the birds flight pattern) and other soldiers are a lot faster than others, so it all comes down to timing when you’re met with a blockade that needs a switch pressed to allow squad mates to pass through safely.

Flying Soldiers also has medals you need  to obtain whilst avoiding the various dangers throughout the levels, and some prove much harder to reach than others.

The springboard tool is useful for shooting a troop across a large gap, whereas the trampoline will help you get over the tall obstacles in the field, or help you obtain those out of reach medals in some cases. Other tools, such as the “lock gate” allow you to hold back troops whilst another might be able to push forward and remove a blockade, depending on their skills.

Each of the tools featured in Flying Soldiers proves useful for certain types of movements, avoiding spike traps, blockades and even rings of fire. There’s a lot of “trial and error” with each mission and you’ll be lucky (or maybe just very smart) if you manage to complete a level on the first attempt, which I only managed once or twice during my time with the game.

In the game you will have a main objective for each mission which is always to save a certain amount of troops. You might have a mission that grants you two troops but you only need to save one, making the other expendable, or a mission where you’re granted 5 troops, but you need to help the whole squad get to safety to proceed to the next mission.

The different types of squad mate (birds) also play a role in the objectives and mission, as you’ll come to learn some maybe slower but can break down walls for other squad mates. Other squad mates can be very basic and slow and aren’t so useful, or you’ll find an extra fast squad mate who can reach greater heights than their counterparts. Again, a lot of your chances of succeeding in levels will come down to trial and error.

The grid-style battlefield makes this game rather accessible and easy to learn. In Flying Soldiers you are easily able to place objects and see what happens, offering plenty of time to try, and swap things out, replacing things if needed so that you can get the perfect combination.

Verdict

Overall Flying Soldiers is a charming and fun little platform puzzle. Also now would be a good time to mention the fairly easy achievements list that comes along with the purchase of Flying Soldiers, which is currently sitting at £7.99 on the Xbox Store.

The game could definitely use some more levels with a harder difficulty, and a more diverse range of troops to add another level of challenge if the player so chooses but as is, the game is fun by its own merit.

If you’re a fan of puzzle games, I’d recommend trying out Flying Soldiers. It’s not the best of its genre, but it’s by far not the worst, and the asking price is quite a fair one in my opinion for the amount of game you’re getting here. For the achievement hunters, there’s also a statistics page which will definitely come in handy when you’re scrolling down that achievement list.

As for accessibility within Flying Soldiers, more could and perhaps should have been done, you only have the most basic volume options and inverting camera options, which in this day in age, is a little disappointing.

One last thing of note, you’ll also find introduction tapes for each campaign under the “extras” tab on the menu, with a “normal ending” and a “special ending.” (Which I’d assume you’d unlock for saving all troops and collecting all of the medals throughout the campaign).

If you like puzzles, give Flying Soldiers a try!

Overall
  • 60%
    CX Score - 60%
60%

Summary

Pros

  • Enjoyable puzzles
  • Charming characters
  • Easy achievements
  • Diverse tools

 

Cons

  • Lack of accessibility
  • Lack of difficulty options/extra levels.

 

By Jordan Moore

@BERSERKER_THiiS

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