Toy Soldiers: War Chest – He-Man doesn’t have the power to make this game fun

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe take on G.I. Joe and Cobra, in a mix of strategy, action, and unfortunate pricing policies…

It’s very common to come across a game that sounds great in theory, but disappoints in practice. But with Toy Soldiers: War Chest we don’t think we’ve ever seen such a huge gap between the coolness of the concept and the crushing disappointment of the reality. A game that pits He-Man against G.I. Joe, with pastiches of Care Bears and Dungeons & Dragons mixed in, sounds amazing. But really, this is one of the dullest Tower Defense game we’ve played in a long time. And the most expensive.



War Chest is actually the third in the Toy Soldiers series, with the first being set during the First World War and the second during the Cold War. The set-up is basically the same in all three though, and as you might gather you control a toy army rather than a real one. You have a base situated at one end of a smallish battlefield and you spend the game defending from waves of attacks from infantry, armoured units, and aerial fighters.

Since this is primarily a Tower Defense game you do this by setting up turrets on specially designated platforms, of which there are typically around half a dozen per side. These turrets generally specialise in attacking one of the three unit types, although there are also more expensive artillery emplacements. Each turret can be upgraded at least once, with other upgrades available if you’ve previously unlocked them (we’ll get into that later).


Unfortunately that’s pretty much it on the strategy side of things. You get money for every enemy you kill, but you’re always encouraged to take direct control of turrets and to rack up combos while you do so. This in turn powers up a special meter that gives you the chance to directly control one of your army’s special units or call in an airstrike. Although there’s usually also a free extra, like a dragon or a tank, that you can control once its cooldown timer runs down.

Toy Soldiers: War Chest (XO) – why isn’t Skeletor the fourth licensed faction?

There are numerous problems with War Chest but the most obvious one with the gameplay is that the tactics involved are extremely limited. And while it is fun to take control of a hero unit it takes a lot of effort to activate them and most of the time you’re just left mindless manning a turret, which is very little fun at all.

And while it sounds great to have such a weird collection of armies there’s very little practical difference between any but the hero characters. Whether you’re fighting magic unicorns or giant robots it really doesn’t make much difference as there’s still only three basic types of unit.

There are four armies in the basic £11.99 version of the game, none of which are based on real world toylines. There’s the Kaiser Wilhelm faction based on First World War Germany, the Dungeons & Dragons style Dark Lord, the sappy rainbow-coloured Starbright army, and non-descript sci-fi team Phantom.



If you want any of the licensed armies you have to pay for them separately. He-Man, G.I. Joe, Cobra, and, err… Assassin’s Creed II aren’t in the base game at all and you either have to buy them for £3.99 each or as a four-in-one set for another £11.99 (there’s also a ‘Hall of Fame Edition’ that includes everything for £24.99).

But it doesn’t end there. The game also has microtransactions, that tempt you into paying to unlock extra units and upgrades, and all the online features have to go through Uplay – Ubisoft’s irritatingly unecessary online service. Everything the microtransactions give you can be earned in-game, through randomly awarded prizes, but the mounting cost of it all quickly begins to leave a bad taste in the mouth.

What’s worse is that again none of these armies really play any differently outside of the hero units. The cool-looking G.I. Joe vehicles and weird He-Man toys look cool in the menu screens but they’re all still just turrets. Pay for a missile-launching Cobra jeep and you don’t get to drive it; it just sits on one of the turret slots, spinning around on the spot.

Toy Soldiers: War Chest (XO) – turrets can’t retreat

To be fair the hero characters are a lot of fun, but it’s not nearly enough to keep your interest. The game feels even worse value for money when you consider how ropey the presentation is. To look at it you’d never guess War Chest was an Xbox One game, from the lack of detail in the graphics to the last gen style destruction effects and uneven frame rate.


The sound design is also awful, with the game often being played in near silence – as dogs bark in the background or birds chirrup. All you’d need is a tumbleweed rolling past and the picture of quiet tedium would be complete.

At least the single-player campaign is fairly long though, and there’s also two-player local co-op and a four-player online mode. But playing against another human inevitably leads to horribly protracted matches that play out like noughts and crosses: as long as you’re paying attention you can’t really lose, and so really it’s just a race against boredom not cunning strategy. And forget trying to set-up a match between G.I. Joe and Cobra if only one of you owns the DLC, because the game won’t let you.

War Chest fails on multiple levels, from the bland way it uses its licenses, to the scam-like manner it tries to price itself, and the simple fact that it isn’t a very good strategy or action game. There’s the nugget of a good idea here, that worked better in the previous sequel, but this is a toy story that should never have been told.

Toy Soldiers: War Chest In Short: Mixing Tower Defense, third person action, and beloved ’80s toys should’ve been a recipe for success, but this bland sequel doesn’t do justice to any of its ideas. Pros: The basic idea is fine and there are some cool-looking units, particularly the hero characters. The licensed armies are very authentic to the original toys. Cons: The strategy is extremely limited and the action brief and usually unsatisfying. Poor use of some fun licences and a manipulative pricing scheme that makes the full game very expensive. Score: 3/10

Formats: Xbox One (reviewed), PlayStation 4, and PC

Price: £11.99 (£24.99 for Hall of Fame Edition with all eight factions)

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Signal Studios

Release Date: 11th August 2015

Age Rating: 12

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