Guards II: Chaos in Hell Review

Have you ever wanted a game that you could play in the background without requiring hours of your emotional time? I’m talking about a game that you can pick up after a long break and not have to spend half your playtime trying to figure out what happened the last time you played. Well, that’s the kind of game Guards II: Chaos in Hell from developer Battlecruiser Games wants to be, so let’s see if this is a journey into Hell that is worth taking, or if you’d be better served playing Minesweeper again.

When it comes to plot, Guards II: Chaos in Hell is very bare bones. Essentially, there’s a Djinn who has tasked you with taking a team of heroes into Hell to help stop the devil. It’s simple, easy, and doesn’t ask for a lot of comprehension from you. What it means practically is 80 levels of demon-fighting fun, alongside another 80 in the Hell mode.

The real meat of the game has to do with the combat system, and honestly, it’s pretty fascinating. Each encounter is a battle against a horde of enemies on a grid-based map. Your warriors have three squares and one at the back that they can occupy, and you can swap them between those spaces. This movement is also how you attack, as that only happens when you swap two characters. Once you swap, then the front line will attack, while the one in the back will heal themselves.

At first glance, this looks pretty simple, but as you get further into Hell, it becomes far more tactical than you would think. For one thing, each hero has a different type of attack, be it physical, fire, magic, or curse, that can do more damage against certain monsters. The heroes also have different ranges for their attacks, as well as higher or lower health. Meanwhile, the enemies can use ranged, melee, or magical attacks and are just as good at dealing damage as you are. 

This creates a battle mechanic that offers a lot more complexity than might first appear. For instance, you have a Mage who does more damage to the armoured scorpion coming towards your Warrior, who also has a shorter range but better defence. As such, you swap the two, meaning the Mage can attack the ideal opponent. 

However, you then need to figure out what to swap next, as you could move the Mage with the Warrior again, who does less damage but will survive the return attack. Yet you can also see that your Alchemist is in direct combat with a mummy, whom he can do more damage to thanks to having fire attacks, but he has lost a lot of health. It becomes a game of picking the best option at the time and weighing the outcomes. At least, it does when the combat works, but sometimes you do find yourself just swapping two back and forth to get the most attacks out. 

Graphically, Guards II: Chaos in Hell isn’t astounding, but the pixel art is a nice look, and the animations are fluid. The character sprites should get a special mention, as they’re surprisingly detailed and even have little idle animations. The music is also pretty good, not “I’d buy the soundtrack” good, but enough that it sets the theme.

Overall, Guards II: Chaos in Hell is a game with an interesting combat system that you can just pick up and play. It doesn’t do more than that, but then it doesn’t have to. However, it’s not a title that you can just play for hours and focus entirely on, and it can get a bit tedious over time.