Acorn Assault Rodent Revolution Review (Xbox One)

INTRODUCTION

Acorn Assault Rodent Revolution is an interesting title that combines adventure and strategy in an epic story of revolution and bravery. The game has an easy-to-follow structure and is divided into two different modes: Campaign and Multiplayer. Players must be able to make quick decisions when planning the best plan to fight opponents. In order to do so, you may place allies on the grid in a certain way that soldiers and barrels are well distributed, creating the perfect balance between defending your troops and attacking enemies. Acorn Assault Rodent Revolution is designed in the format of a board grid structure, which makes sense, as the strategic of the story taking rodents to move side by side in the revolution. The game is recommended for players who enjoy a simple epic title with a very easy, but also enjoyable slow-paced scene.

Acorn Assault Rodent Revolution was developed by High Tale Studios and is available on Xbox One for $9.99

STORY

The story of the game is told in the format of a Campaign Mode, which is introduced in a sequence of five chapters. Once you start playing, you will dive into the narrative of Charles DeMontesquirrel, a brave hero among a group of poor rodents in the forest. Under the rule of a greedy and cruel king, DeMontesquirrel starts a rebellion against the monarchy. The squirrels of the forest decide to join forces and confront the local taxman, who had just announced an unfair increase on acorns collection. Infuriated with the news, DeMontesquirrel brings his rodent troops together and declares rebellion against the taxman and the king.

Each chapter of the story is divided into five more stages that will add another level of difficulty to the game. As you move forward and defeat the first boss, a new piece of the story is revealed. It is also important to mention that defeated bosses may then become part of the Multiplayer Mode. Their presence in the Multiplayer grid brings other techniques and features found in the Campaign Mode.
Even though it is not super hard to advance in the story, you can clearly notice the increase on difficulty found on each turn. On each stage, you will continue battling the same boss up until the end of the chapter. You must complete all stages in order to advance to the next chapter. It is important to keep in mind that characters are unique and have their own abilities. They are always ready to use these abilities against your characters, so the best way to defeat them is by choosing a good strategy that will hit their weak point.

GAMEPLAY

CAMPAIGN

In this mode, rules are not hard to follow and can be simply learned from the initial tutorial during the first minutes of the game. The game provides clear instructions on how to correctly place each character and items in the grid. On each turn, players will receive a mix of cards containing soldiers and barrels. You will have a total of ninety seconds to place your content on the grid before until it is time to move on and attack. A health bar will indicate the amount of damage taken on both you and your opponent. Once the first player’s bar hits zero, the match is over.

Acorn Assault Rodent Revolution has a very neat way to use acorns in benefit to each player. In the game, nuts are represented as currency, which adds value to the whole concept of the story. Right before attacking, you will be able to use the acorns collected along the way to “buy” enhancements such as extra strength, defense or health. This can make a huge difference between winning or losing, as each player will take the advantage to perform better on turns.

Besides that, depending on how characters are positioned on the grid, they can be combined in one stronger rodent that will inflict more damage on opponents. The same concept applies to barrels, which can be merged together and increase the defense of your team. Don’t forget that the enemy can also take advantage of those features, so it is a good idea to plan each turn carefully.

If you are looking for another good opportunity to collect nuts and power up your moves, the game has two alternatives that can be very useful. First, pay attention to your surroundings and make sure to by placing at least one barrel or squirrel on the grid that shows acorns available. Second, take advantage to always merge items together (squirrels or barrels), as you can also get extra nuts to use before attacking your opponent.

This is the basic purpose of the story. The simple and easy strategy of the game is not hard to learn, but can also become a little repetitive, as it does not bring a lot of variety on power-ups, characters and combinations.

The hardest aspect of the game is trying to come up with the best plan that balances offense and defense. Depending on how the player decides to position units in the beginning of turns, they can end with an effective attack against your opponent. On the other hand, a defensive plan would require investing efforts on adding barrels and sandbags in front of your team.

MULTIPLAYER

Multiplayer is a co-op version of Acorn Assault Rodent Revolution and is a very basic mode of the game. When playing locally with a friend, you will be completing the exact same sequence of attacks and defense offered in the campaign mode.

Charles DeMontesquirrel is your initial character in the version, but the major difference here is that new characters can be unlocked as you complete chapters from the campaign mode. This can be a fun alternative to playing outside of Campaign if you have someone else available to battle against. However, considering that you need to complete chapters to get more characters, this can make the multiplayer mode very limited and little challenging. Also, there are no incentives or extra content given for playing this version of the title, which makes the Campaign Mode more engaging.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO 

The title is filled with short scenes that show the dialogues between DeMontesquirrel and each chapter’s main enemy. The narration of the story is a little longer in the beginning and shows a very basic moving level in each animation. Because of that, it gives the player a sensation of watching a dynamic board game.
 
In regards to the audio, Acorn Assault Rodent Revolution brings a very simple, but also catchy music and sound selection. With melodies resembling the French Revolution theme, it can sparkle the feeling of being part of a rebellion.

Everything in terms of graphics and audio is presented in a very simple scale, which is not comparable to high definition strategy games out there. Considering that the game is not very complex and dense, there is not much to disagree that the multimedia components match the purpose of the story for the most part of the game.

CONCLUSION

My initial reaction to Acorn Assault Rodent Revolution story concept was on playing an enjoyable game with a creative story. The tutorial provides a good introduction of the strategy elements players will see throughout their entire experience. On the other hand, the fact that you can clearly picture what to expect in the next chapter makes the game very repetitive and takes away the possibility of surprising the player. Because of that, I can see most avid strategy fans becoming slightly bored after completing a few stages of the Campaign Mode.

It is very nice to see that Acorn Assault Rodent Revolution offers a different option for players who want to try something outside of the main CampaignVersion. However, the Multiplayer Mode can be disappointing, as it doesn’t bring any extra component to motivate the player, other than utilizing the bosses that were unlocked from the main story. For that reason, if you are playing this version of the game, you will not see anything too different from a straightforward friend challenge.
On the positive side, I felt very attracted to the simplicity of the game, which is embedded in a curious epic story. The overall characteristics of the game are also very basic, but they deliver most of what is expected.