Game Under Podcast

Swords & Soldiers: Super Saucy Sausage Fest

Title: Swords & Soldiers: Super Saucy Sausage Fest
Platform(s): PC
Publisher(s): Ronimo Games, Steam
Developer(s): Ronimo Games
Genre(s): Real Time Strategy Sidescroller
Release Date: 25/5/2012
ESRB Rating: N/A (Suitable For Vikings from Erik to Keitel)

It’s three years (one and a half on PC) since Swords & Soldiers was released, so it’s perhaps a little strange that we’re only now seeing DLC for it. Perhaps it’s to take advantage of Awesomenauts’ recent release so that nothing extra need be spent on extra marketing or perhaps it’s simply endemic of the troubled development and release of the original game. Of course it all worked out for Swords & Soldiers in the end with the likes of IGN calling it one of best console real-time strategy games ever. A backhanded compliment to be sure, but one well deserved (the complimentary part, that is) because Swords & Soldiers was excellent. It was so well received on consoles because it was actually playable on consoles, but it was well received on PC too because it was actually good.

The game played out in 2D with the perspective of a sidescroller while still maintaining the basic fundamentals of a good RTS. There were tech trees, buffs, unit management and the ancient equivalent to Command & Conquer nukes: dragons and the wrath of Thor. But the gameplay followed only the basic fundamentals of the RTS genre, and they were well explored over the four campaigns so perhaps it’s no surprise that there was no DLC; there wasn’t scope for much else without changing how the game played, or at least expanding on it to the point of making a new game entirely.

Then the question is: what does Super Saucy Sausage Fest (SSSF)change? The answer as far as the mechanics are concerned is nothing at all. While this could have proved to be a disaster—thanks to some clever level design—it manages to succeed; instead of attempting to further explore the more classic RTS gameplay of the original, SSSF’s Chief Meat (a Viking glutton with a penchant for cannibalism and deceit)  campaign focuses on throwing you into clever scenarios, often with a limited number of units and no base, so that you must focus on using your magical buffs and killing the odd enemy with your own magic, rather an amassing an army. There is some army building here and there, but even then it is often restricted so that you can only use certain units which adds another layer of challenge to proceedings, though in some ways does take away a little from the strategy. Because there are not very many buffs there usually aren’t very many ways to progress through a particular challenge. Whereas in a normal RTS setting you could build your army how you like, choosing which types of units and which buffs to focus on and thus dictating how the battle is played out, in SSSF how the battle is played out is dictated to you by the design of the scenarios.

That’s not to say that the scenarios aren’t well composed, but too often the solution of how to win a battle is obvious from the start so that it is very easy to breeze through on the slower speed settings (effectively the difficulty of the game) and when you do raise the speed, unlike in the original where it meant you had to think on the fly far faster and could lead to some very intense set pieces, here it mostly leads to rather frantic clicking on buffs and soldiers, and magic and enemies, and is a far from cerebral affair.

But I said at the start of the review that they couldn’t simply throw together another campaign that followed the same path as the original campaigns with the focus on strategy and more traditional RTS gameplay, and that’s not to say that quite a few of the levels don’t provide a satisfying level of strategy. For example one of the latter levels pits you against eight stages of enemies. In most of the eight stages you are given a handful of soldiers. You have to make sure they survive their battle before you can move on to the next one. To make sure that they do survive you have to use your magic and buffs very particularly: I was sailing along through the first six stages with ease, only to find my mana completely depleted as I was set upon by a Sun Giant. I had to rethink my strategy, and it took quite a few different combinations of magic and buffs before I finally made it past the bastard—only to find myself faced with a veritable armada of Vikings! Several attempts later and a healthy dosing of hellfire courtesy of a dragon and I had finally cracked it! It was as satisfying as many of the tougher battles of the original game.

The wonderful sense of humour benefits greatly from the meaner streak that Chief Meat has, with the writers clearly enjoying themselves as Chief Meat’s insatiable lust for food has him cannibalising other Vikings, betraying (and then eating) monkeys, and dealing with the issues of having up to ten wives. All in the name of winning the Super Saucy Sausage Fest and its prize of 1,000 cows. That’s a lot of beef. Probably enough for lunch.

To sum things up…

When you consider that it’s only $2, and if you played the original you’ll no doubt want to play more, then…well, you get where I’m going with this. Time to start living like a $2 Vic.

The breakdown…

Gameplay
A worthy exploration of mechanics that were underused in the original campaign, but without quite as much depth as the more strategic moments of the original.

Aesthetics
The backgrounds are well detailed and the characters are amusingly animated, but on the quicker speeds it can be all too easy to click on the wrong character.

Soundtrack
The sound effects and voice acting (war cries and the like, not dialogue) fit with the amusing and endearing aesthetic, but as the same musical themes play again and again the music can become mildly repetitive, but as the same musical themes play again and again the music can become mildly repetitive.

Story/Plot
Chief Meat and his rampaging appetite make for a few amusing scenarios and perfectly fits with the visual and aural aesthetics.

Entertainment Value
While not as polished as the original it does take things in interesting new directions. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they don’t. When they hit they’re great, and when they miss they’re not too bad.

Tom Towers