Rating:

Its not everyday that we get to play shooters with puzzle elements. 10 Second War is one such game that blends skill and brainwork into one ingenious package. Don't be fooled by the name - it definitely takes more than 10 seconds to beat this one. Much more.

Full Review

Imagine you have to take down an entire army of defensive structures with 4 tanks. Tough? Now imagine doing that in 10 seconds. Sounds impossible? Well almost, and that's exactly what you are asked to do in 10 Second War.

Don't fret yet, its not a completely hopeless cause. The game gives you an edge over the enemy horde in that you can repeatedly fine-tune your strategy, over and over again, until you achieve the perfect 10 second battle plan. You do this by controlling each unit you own in turn, they will remember your commands and repeat it while you are controlling their comrades. The resultant firefight after all units have been given their instructions is spectacularly epic.

This simple mechanic offers endless hours of strategical fun. You will find yourself endlessly tweaking your scheme to achieve each unit's maximum killing potential and even making use of their deaths as a distraction or kamikaze attack. Although this form of having "many yous" isn't completely original, and has an ancestry rooted in games such as Cursor Times 10 and Choke on my Groundhog, YOU BASTARD ROBOTS, it is certainly a refreshing twist with its focus on real-time tactics.

The game's graphics set it back a little, but not by much. It has an interesting lines-on-graph-paper look, but the artstyle gets bland after about an hour of play. The game would definitely benefit from having some visual surprises like a color scheme change towards mid and end game segments to keep players visually arrested.

There is no music in the game, which I felt was quite a waste, because the action would definitely have been augmented by an exhilarating soundtrack in the background. That said, the sound effects were well done and fits the action well without sounding too saturated during massive firefights.

The game was made using the Love2D engine for the Experimental Gameplay Project theme for March - 10 seconds. It does not have a permanent site, but you can download it from its own TIGSource forum thread.