Shieldwall

Review

Julius Caesar knew that he had to do something extraordinary to win the hearts of all Roman citizens. Something that no-one achieved before him and seemed impossible to accomplish at that time. His answer was to conquer the entire region known as Gaul!  Then he would return to Rome glorious and pronounce himself ruler of the Roman Empire for the next ten years (history of Caesar in a nutshell)!  Let’s relive the campaign of one of the great generals of all time, in Shieldwall!

Shieldwall is a strategy/third-person/action game developed and self-published by Nezon Production on the 23^rd of March 2020 on Steam as an Early Access title.

The game at its current version consists of 4 missions and a hotseat battle mode. The developer plans to have a full campaign with 16 missions, and then they’ll start developing a multiplayer mode.

In each mission, there are three to four factions (Roman and Gaul at this stage, with more to be added during the development). Each of them will start in their fort (their main flagship) and have a certain number of gold coins. Each map will have either one or three other neutral-coloured flags (area or outposts) to conquer. The idea is to control as many areas as possible to regenerate more gold coins so you can buy upgrades and keep buying more soldiers to replace the ones who have fallen.

However, you are limited in terms of soldiers at the start; you can only get 19, but it can be upgraded to 25 by purchasing the upgrade. That can be quite tricky as you might want to leave a few of them at your main fort, and possibly also at the fort you took over. Then you are left with a small army and might find it difficult to repel an attack on one of your areas. The good news is that some of these areas that you have conquered include the forts where you can buy new units while being attacked as long as you retain the flag in your colour.  If it becomes neutral (grey), or even worse, taken by another faction, well they will be the ones who can recruit new soldiers and your leader (your character) probably will die.  But don’t worry, if you purchased the equivalent upgrade it will respawn to the closest area under your control within 10.  It’s really hectic and so much fun!

I really like the third-person view. You control either a centurion or Caesar running around with his troop of up to 20 soldiers following him, and you start capturing flags while the other sections try to do the same. There is an upgrade where you can use spears in battle, and you see your troops ready to throw these spears onto the enemy troop who are putting their shields up over their heads to attempt to block your projectiles. It’s not as fun if you are on the receiving end of the bargain, as you might lose quite a few soldiers.

To win a battle, you have to either take over all forts or have the most gold coins at the end of the fight, which usually lasts 25 to 30 minutes.

I really like the roundish Lego style of characters; they are so much fun to look at, especially when they are running into each other screaming their little lungs out – it’s hilarious!

Great graphics so far and the soundtrack is also good. There are a few bugs here and there, as you would expect in this current version. It needs more content, but it is a solid Early Access, and I can’t wait to see and play new missions.