Toy Tactics Review (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, & PC)

The best real-time strategy games are often quite tough for newbies to grasp. Although the gameplay is usually simple to pick up, the mechanics can take a while to master. Thankfully, Kraken Empire has burst through the gaming scene with a new addition to the genre that aims to provide a soft landing for every gamer. Anyone can play Toy Tactics, and best of all, you may never have to become proficient enough to beat veterans. 

You can simply draw comic formations to your heart’s desire, experimenting with different ideas at your own pace. Only when you feel the need to amp up the difficulty can you challenge yourself to trickier formations, preferably against human online players. But first, let’s take a look at what you can expect from the game in our deep-dive Toy Tactics review below.

Toy Tactics is structured in campaign stories, each one tasking you with overcoming the invading forces of a hostile species. The enemies you’ll fight can range anywhere from spooky necromancers to skeletal dinosaurs and stealthy samurai. But as a whole, they all make up the Draugr invasion that is taking over the world. 

For variety, you’ll command different units on global battlefields. Specifically, you’ll control the Imperium, Pendragon, and Kyoukai armies, representative of the Rome, Rome, England, and Japan armies. Battles will take place across Europe as you strive to push back the Draugr invasion. However, in a neat twist, you can not only command historical armies but also fictional ones, including the enemies you’ll be taking on. 

So, that means that you can also choose to command the skeletal dinosaurs and stealthy samurai if you so wish. Best of all, though, is that the armies aren’t realistic soldiers. Rather, characters are miniature toys that behave just as wobbly and humorous as you can imagine. It’s the signature stylized design of Toy Tactics that cements just how much it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Onward, you’ll enjoy belly laughs from the comic combat that the miniature toys often relay, with even moments when they mindlessly tumble over cliffs to their deaths. Yup. The game is physics-based. So, it’ll be up to you to tap into your strategic expertise and lead them to battle through safe routes, which brings us to the gameplay.

Battle of Toys

Toy Tactics is all about battles, strategizing the quickest and most efficient ways to take down enemies. However, the battles themselves do have varying objectives. You’ll navigate the campaigns split into different main objectives that range anywhere from capturing points of interest to wiping out all enemy forces. The battles will demand different strategies, too, like a stealth-focused approach or spells-oriented strategies. 

Moving the armies is much like any other real-time strategy game. You can select your entire army and move them to a certain position. Or you can select individual units and place them in advantageous positions. For example, you can select the archers only and position them behind the rest of the army. Besides drag-and-drop, though, Toy Tactics introduces an unconventional way of battling enemies: a mechanic that’s shocking how it’s never been explored, at least as far as I know. 

Battlefield Canvas

You can draw formations manually, using the mouse to direct your army units where you want them to go. It can be as simple as a line or two, which your army will duly oblige to. Or it can be as complex as pincer and wedge formations. Though I say complex, the mechanic itself is actually pretty easy to grasp. Plus, all it takes is thinking through your next move, say, you want to protect your king or queen, then you’ll draw a circle around them. Or, if you want to divide and conquer the enemy, you’ll drive a wedge between the opposing force.

But drawing formations goes beyond the usual strategies you may be used to. You can draw a smiley face if you want, and surprisingly, the formation will scoop you some wins in certain battles. You can draw a stick figure and mellow at your entire army approaching the enemy in the shape of a giant walking human. In that regard, Toy Tactics’ gameplay is deeply creative. It has high replayability as you seek to try out new formations and discover possible outcomes. 

Spice of Life

The beauty of Toy Tactics is it never gets boring. Not only do you have limitless possibilities with the drawing formations mechanic, you also have a deep variety in units, enemies, objectives, side objectives, spells, buffs, modes, and more. Side objectives are wide-ranging and can be anything between defeating enemies using a specific spell or hunting down a certain treasure. 

Mind you, campaigns end when you fulfill the main objective. So, you might want to complete side objectives before embarking on the main goal. As for spells, they can be your last resort to turn the tide of battle. Often, you may be so close to losing until you unleash a powerful spell and scoop up the win. 

But first, you have to charge up your spells by defeating enemies. Then, you can explore the different spells at your disposal, from catapults to dropping meteors on enemies and hoisting up medical tents. Another way you can personalize your battle strategy and play style is by using buffs. You can have AoE perks or even health boosts for nearby units. 

When you want a change of pace, you can jump into the other modes besides the campaign, which include puzzles, mercenaries, skirmishes, sandbox, as well as online multiplayer. Puzzles will often challenge you to come up with clever formations for defeating certain enemies. Or perhaps you can have a unit of 20 defeating 40 miniature toys. 

Mercenaries mode is pretty much the same as puzzles, except with a specific budget to buy upgrades. Skirmishes, on the other hand, want you to capture points of interest and establish control. Meanwhile, the sandbox is a free-form place to do absolutely anything you want. It’s the place where you can go crazy with all sorts of ideas. 

Make Them Suffer

Unfortunately, online multiplayer has yet to pick up pace. Despite the gameplay being top-notch, there seems to still be a small community of players you can team up with or compete against. It’s a shame, as there are a whopping ton of activities and items worth checking out. Not to mention the clearly passionate work poured into this game. 

You can zoom in and out and even capture snapshots that pin down the most minute details, like bushy eyebrows. The physics is hilarious, with helmets rolling, and the text descriptions make an effort to put a smile on your face. Maps vary, from the sunny pirate island in the Caribbean to the dangerous jungles of feudal Japan. 

Perhaps the story is a little too barebones, but that is hardly surprising in the real-time strategy genre. Plus, the additional humor, decent voice acting, and breakthrough to the fourth wall at times more than make up for it. Meanwhile, you can’t help but wish the developers had implemented a touchscreen control system that would have married perfectly with drawing formations. 

In any case, Kraken Empire promises to add more updates in the future. They have been steadily improving the game throughout the Early Access period that kicked off on March 17, 2023. The reviews have been outstanding, through to the launch on September 19, 2024, at $24.99. However, Kraken still promises to add more updates even before they hit version 1.0 of the game.

Verdict

Toy Tactics introduces a new concept in the real-time strategy game. It lets you draw formations of all kinds, whether multiple lines, pincers, wedges, smiley faces, or stick figures. Anything goes, making for a limitless combination of strategies you could try. Further, drawing formations is quite easy, enough to provide a soft landing for every gamer. 

However, as much as the core gameplay is simple to grasp, it can grow complex. Ideally, you can make the battlefield as difficult as you like, trying out the most clever formations you can think of. But ultimately, the game also challenges you to think outside the box. It gives you varying objectives and scenarios to pull off, from capturing points of interest to defeating enemies with a specific budget. 

Through it all, Toy Tactics gives you all the tools you need to experience a truly satisfying and rewarding playthrough. You have a deep variety of army units, enemies, spells, modes, and more. You can switch up the flow of the game as you please, whether trying out timed campaigns or sticking to the free-form sandbox mode. 

With more updates to come, Toy Tactics has a high chance of climbing up the radar of most gamers’ minds. When it does, the hope is that the multiplayer mode will flood with potential teammates or competitors. And then, the game will have one more reason you ought to absolutely check it out.