Review: Codename: S.T.E.A.M. (3DS)

If you like Valkyria Chronicles, you are going to like this game. Maybe Fire Emblem or Advance Wars are more your thing? Codename: S.T.E.A.M. might be a good fit. Even if you have never played or heard of those games, keep reading because it still might be the kind of game you like.

S.T.E.A.M. stands for Strike Team to Eliminate the Alien Menace. That pretty much sums up what you need to do.

Instead of a top down view of a map in many traditional turn-based strategy games, Codename S.T.E.A.M. lets you view the game world from on the ground which is unique and refreshing.

The single player campaign in this game is great and balanced (much like the rest of the game). There are all kinds of missions and new aliens are doled out to you at a reasonable rate.

The sound in this game is pretty decent for a game of this size. The soundtrack is quite varied and the voice acting is pretty decent as well. Although you will often hear the same clips over and over, that is pretty much true of all games.

The graphics here are pretty great for the 3DS. If you love the comic-book style then this is going to be a perfect game for you. The entire thing feels a bit like a Saturday morning cartoon and that is not a bad thing. It embraces the style and keeps consistent with it throughout the entire game, including the menus which perhaps could have used a slightly different style but this is a minor complaint.

The multi-player is present and pretty standard fare, but it's great that it includes it if that is more your cup of tea. The medals earned online will actually help you out in the single player mode. For me, the single player is the way to go.

If you love strategy games, this is a great game for you to try. There has been a patch already to help with the game's main problem (slow speed with alien movement) but if you really like this kind of game, I'd recommend using the new 3DS as the speed boost here is a welcome improvement.

- Syd Bolton
Follow @sydbolton

The Good:
- Bright, comic-style visuals
- Great voice-acting in a well presented story

The Bad:
- Alien designs and movements could be improved – movements are too slow at times
- Seems more optimized for the new 3DS, doesn't work as well on the original

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Syd Bolton surrounds himself in thousands of classic video games as Canada's top video game collector playing his games on a 80 inch Sharp Quattron Plus TV. He is also the founder of the Personal Computer Museum (http://www.pcmuseum.ca) in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.