Warpath, a Chinese publisher Lilith Games tells us that it takes place during the Second World War in an alternate timeline. This is because General Dwight D. Eisenhower greets you at each step of the tutorial. This dimension’s bad guys are the sinister Raven Army. They are a faceless replacement for the Nazis and have no identifiable goals or identities other than to be super evil.
Eight hours in, I am still unsure of the details. Every chapter begins with a brief cutscene that has no relevance to the current story. It often introduces people you won’t see again. My favorite character is the engineer, who’s a spitting image of Joel in The Last of Us. He wears a flat cap and jeans suspenders. To make sure you know he is an engineer, he carries a spanner in his pocket in his overalls. His name is Spanner.
Warpath’s gameplay is far better than its writing. This is a great alternative to an RTS game on your phone, and it’s free! You can build a base, train your units, and then control them on a map that is populated by other players. The units are varied enough that targeting and smart target prioritizing could have an impact on your battle success. You can win the battle by simply directing your tanks to their destination and auto-targeting them. But as you advance in the campaign, more units types become available, you will find that planning is essential.
There are two game modes to choose from: the linear campaign or open-world PvP.
You will be completing several stages in Russia during the campaign. Each stage has different goals. You don’t need to train or build bases. Each stage requires you to use the commanders and units you have built in the main PvP mode. To complete the task, you must also complete some tasks. Sometimes you will encounter allied units that can help you accomplish your mission, but their true purpose is to be cannon fodder and to circle the enemies to reach the bunkers or medical camps behind them. The quality of your units is the most important factor in the campaign. However, clever positioning can help you make it through some stages even though your troops may not be as powerful.
Open-world PvP provides the best gameplay. There is a limit to how many squads you can have, and you cannot zerging rush your opponents. You must instead train your troops and find new technologies that will make them more effective in combat. Research and training require materials and resources that can be collected from supply drop locations, scouting neighboring territory, or defeating Raven Army Squads scattered across the map.
There are limits on how powerful your troops can be, so you will need to replace them with more powerful troop types after a while. The gacha system can only unlock new units. Warpath.guide allows you to get one free drop per day. You can currently collect all 90 types of troops in Warpath.
The Monetisation Model for the “Warpath”
Warpath’s monetization system is based on in-app purchases and gacha troop drops. Universal Coupons are an in-game currency you can only use to purchase new troop types. They can only be obtained by daily logins or event participation. To speed up research and training, you can spend some money on Gold (the game’s premium currency).
Free-to-play gamers can make it far in single-player campaigns and perform well in PvP open-world game modes without spending a penny. As with all free-to-play mobile games based on the Games-as-a-service revenue model expect to spend a lot of time grinding Raven battles while waiting for new technologies to be developed and materials to be produced.
Gacha drops allow you to unlock new troop types. Each day you get one draw and can use Universal Coupons to unlock more troops. Although many troops have similar functions, there are slight differences in their stats, like the Militia Squad and the M2 Carbine Squad. Once you unlock a stronger version of the same type of unit, it is always better to replace your older unit immediately. You’ll need to start over because the training points that you invested in your previous unit won’t transfer to your new unit.
You can increase the combat capability of your troops in Warpath by using the Research Center to research new technologies. It doesn’t cost anything except your time. Even at the lowest level, you will still need to wait several hours before you can complete any research tasks. Spending Gold, Warpath’s premium currency, can help you skip the wait. There is no advantage to spending premium currency for Research as the latter tiers cannot be unlocked unless you level up your troops. All players will need to do this the old-fashioned, however.
The Warpath monetization model is fair for free-to-play players, but it’s clear that they get a different experience than paying customers. After eight hours of playing Warpath, the game has been refreshingly skill-based for a free MMO strategy game. I have not encountered any combat or upgrading problems that patience and careful positioning haven’t solved. While planning and positioning are useful in Warpath there isn’t enough strategic depth to enable a commander to outmaneuver an even more powerful opponent. If you reach the upper tiers of play, you may find that the power gap between you and your neighbors can make regular play difficult for someone who hasn’t invested a little money to keep their power levels competitive.