Athena Crisis, the new strategy title from Nakazawa Tech, has much going for it. The core strategy gameplay is addictive and finely tuned, making each combat encounter a dance of precious steps and attacks. Any longtime fans of Advance Wars will find a lot to love here, with its retro graphics and gameplay feeling very much at home in that universe. The ability to create maps and encounters while playing through others’ content also gives Athena Crisis a ton to keep coming back to. While the main narrative and writing are just fine, the gameplay will be enough to keep strategy fans around, even if the always-online nature of the game diminishes the handheld experience.
Interdimensional Crisis
Athena Crisis has a dedicated campaign that focuses on a ragtag group of characters dealing with the appearance of the Crisis. Portals appear worldwide with various inhabitants of other universes, some more friendly than others. Discovering and solving the mystery of the Crisis takes center stage. It’s a nuanced narrative that serves more as set dressing for the battles than something to dive into. Similarly, the characters you meet along the way are okay, with the dialogue writing being serviceable at best. Again, they’re not particularly memorable in any instance, existing more to keep the plot moving than anyone you’ll fall in love with and want to revisit. The portals create some pretty fun situations that can be entirely unexpected, like dealing with bears, dinosaurs, or zombies.
Strategy Is Essential in Athena Crisis
The actual core strategy gameplay of Athena Crisis is fantastic and scratches that Advance Wars itch. Each map is sized well and easily readable, even when dealing with the fog of war. The standard win condition is to take out all the opposing enemies or take over their HQ, with my strategy usually being a total distraction. This also changes occasionally, making some maps more of a head-scratcher than others as you plan the necessary moves to win. Over 40 unit types range from standard infantry and snipers to tanks and helicopters. Taking stock of your units on the field and planning out each move is essential, as some encounters can get tough and require you to know your army.
Landlord Warfare
There are some different buildings to interact with that the player uses to generate new units. They can be built on the field in certain spaces by specific units, costing currency that builds up as you play. Barracks, for example, can spawn many units that move on foot. Pioneers can build new buildings for 100, while flamethrowers deal a ton of damage and cost 400. Other buildings can build ships, aircraft, or vehicles. The enemy has the same resources, and using some specific units, you can take their buildings over to use to your own devices. Blocking the buildings with other units is also effective, preventing fresh spawns if you can’t capture them.
Create Your Dream Campaign
The other significant aspect of Athena Crisis is its level editor. You can make unique levels, populating them and creating a new challenge as you see fit. You can also string together some levels to develop new campaigns for players, along with other user-created levels and campaigns. It opens up Athena Crisis far past it’s campaign, allowing for plenty of fights to plan and engage. The level editor is simple and easy to use, though not nearly as intuitive on Steam Deck.
On The Go (Kind Of)
Playing on Steam Deck is a mixed bag. While it runs fine, I had to remap the controls immediately to include a mouse on the right trackpad to read better and understand the units. Athena Crisis is also primarily online, meaning that pick-up and play only works with an internet connection. You can do a few things offline, including a short prequel campaign, but I wish you could download the core campaign or other user-made content to engage with on the go. The always online does lend itself well when you have an internet connection, as hopping from PC to Steam Deck and vice versa is pretty seamless. Mobile play is also an option, though one I didn’t test.
Verdict
Athena Crisis is a great strategy game with well-executed combat scenarios, let down by a middling story. The level editor is fantastic and adds a ton of replayability, with something new to constantly engage with. The always-online aspect of the game is a letdown on Steam Deck, making it not as pick-up and play-friendly on the go. For any fan of Advance Wars, this is one in which losing time will be easy.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PC/Steam Deck
