Mushroom Wars 2 Review (PS5, PS4) – Love These Shrooms

It’s been over 10 years since developer Creat Studios released the widely popular Mushroom Wars on the PlayStation 3. Now with a new developer and on newer hardware, we finally have the long-awaited sequel in Mushroom Wars 2. Does this one build upon the base laid with the original and bring new interesting ideas to the table? Better yet, is it a good game on its own?

Mushroom Wars 2 takes the RTS formula and doesn’t try to do too much to it, opting for a rather easy-to-grasp system. Players take over bases with their troops, with each base producing more troops over time. Take over all the bases and you win the game. During the game, you can spend some of your troops to upgrade your bases to up your production of people. You can also turn these bases into towers or workshops. These cannot produce troops but the towers can fire at oncoming enemies and the workshops help strengthen your existing troops. It’s a fairly straightforward approach that about anyone can get the hang of.

Added depth

Adding some depth to the system is the addition of heroes that you can select. Each hero comes with a unique set of 4 special powers. To use these powers, you need to gain morale from capturing bases. The more you have, the faster your morale will increase. The special powers from these heroes are such things as increasing defense on a specific establishment or damaging oncoming troops. The morale system really pushes players to move quickly, capturing spots on the map promptly. To contradict that though, oftentimes maps start out very slowly as you wait for troops to arrive, only to spend those troops to upgrade your base, and repeat.

Mushroom Wars 2 has a lot of levels to play through which is great, though at times it doesn’t feel like there is enough variety mixed in there. Often times I went into a level feeling like I had already played this before, just with a different starting troop amount. The game tries to add wrinkles to some of the levels, with strategic structures during some levels that must be captured in full to win. Thankfully most levels are rather short, so you don’t have much time to think about it before you are off to the next. Added difficulties to each level allow you to beat it multiple times to get more stars.

Let’s take this online

A single-player campaign isn’t the only option here to play, as the game also features offline and online multiplayer. This is where things really take it up a notch. Things can get so chaotic during these sessions. Whether it’s couch co-op against the computer or a 4 player free-for-all, things can get rather intense when you leave the campaign. It’s a mess of colors in the best possible way, as troops from all sides are crossing everywhere across the map to take out various teams’ bases. It’s all about trying to make quick decisions to keep troops moving from base to base and using well time special powers to your advantage. The developer has done a great job balancing everything out in the MP, as no one character has an overpowering special move.

It’s not just that things feel faster in the multiplayer, everything must be done quickly. No longer can you see your enemies’ headcount at each base and there are no indicators telling you which base is under attack. It’s just each player trying to frantically figure out what each other is doing while trying to find the perfect time to pop that special move. It can be a tad frustrating at first as those who just enjoyed the campaign will be looking for those sweet indicators and are left hoping they sent enough troops to take down an enemy base.

Mushroom

At the end of the day, whether you played the first or not, Mushroom Wars 2 is an enjoyable RTS that is accessible to all and a cracking bit of fun to play. Multiplayer, whether local or online is a special kind of quick-paced, slap you in the face fun that balances things out in a very nice manner. Great game to pick up in short spurts, as it doesn’t have the depth to keep you invested for too long at a time. Well worth picking up if you are in the mood for some fun.