Happy Wars

The latest game I've started playing is not one I can admit to being entirely proud of. Happy Wars is Microsoft's first foray in the ever more popular free-to-play genre. Though gamers are required to have a gold subscription to play, other than that playing it costs nothing and not unlike similar games on mobile platforms or on PC, it is sustained by Micro Transactions. Essentially, the player can buy weapons, armour and vanity items for their assortment of characters.

A Medieval theme with a variety of locations

The main aim of the game is akin to a Battlefield: join a side, pick a class, fight your way across the map capturing points along the way to eventually destroy the enemy's principal spawn tower. The classes categories consist of warriors - your basic infantry, clerics - who have a strong attack but act as support building and healing, and mages - soldiers with longer range who employ magical abilities.

All are varied enough though I feel the game could have benefited from a fourth option. Each class has a select number of abilites, a number which increases as you progress through each level. In order to progress to learn more, you are advised to kill, capture enemy towers, help allies and build defenses.  This does encourage a certain degree of team work and some abilities can only be used with the support of allies. Clerics, despite having attack abilities, really are just a means of support and perhaps one of the more underused classes as a result - warriors and mages are far more common. Working as a large team does make the game compelling though and as a result, despite some poor reviews from others and my own reluctance to even give it a go, I have found it compelling - even if the action can be a little repetitive.

In some instances, the screen can get a little over crowded and the player may lose his/her character in the mass on troops on screen. These instances are rare and tend to occur mainly at the start and end of a game, thanks to large map design.

Happy Wars adopts a cartoonish style with unrealistic characters resembling puppets or dolls more than people and the whole thing is coated in a bright pallet of colour to match the 'happy' theme. Whilst some may find it annoying and off-putting, it should not discourage as at the end of the day, the game is still a good 30 mins of fun distraction that you don't have to invest in should you not want to.

Though I am in no way topping leader boards, I haven't felt compelled to purchase anything from the game's store. Items can be required without having to pay, using the in game currency to access random weapons via a spinning wheel. Though it's unlikely you'll find a game-changing item, most are better than the starting weaponry. Items can also be modified and upgraded should you wish to do so.

All in all, for the time I've spent on it, Happy Wars is nothing more than a fun distraction for those looking for some free and fairly solid multiplayer on the Xbox 360.