T.A.C. Heroes: Big Red One is an ambitious, unique offering for the DS platform. Using the World War II as a background, it casts the player as the commander of a squad of soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. The “Big Red One” saw action in many of the most significant battles of the war and Storm City’s offering seeks to give players the chance to get in touch with their own inner squad leader while directing combat soldiers.

The core of the game is hexagon-based, squad-level, tactical combat. After selecting either of the two available campaigns or the one-off scenario game, players are given a chance to select and equip their squad. Each soldier has a unique mix of stats which represent their speed, firing accuracy and so on. A limited number of points can be spent on equipment and players can fiddle around in the setup screens as long as they wish.

Which is a good thing because the small DS screens make selecting and equipping soldiers an exercise in eye-strain. The situation doesn’t improve much during the actual battles.

Once players are satisfied with their squad and give the go-ahead, the game positions the squad and the action starts. The action, in this case, is turn based which places the emphasis on thoughtful tactics instead of frantic button-mashing. Players tap on the hex beneath a soldier and then select an action from a pop-up menu. Actions range from commands for movement to changes of stance, attacks, or even calling in air support. Each soldier has a set number of “command points” which govern the number of actions they can take during a given turn. Once all of the command points are expended (or if the player decides they’re done) the computer takes its turn.

The lower DS screen shows a close-up three-quarter view of the battlefield and all of the commands are issued by way of the touch-screen. The upper screen gives a mini-map view of the entire battlefield. The mini-map is functional, the battlefield view less so. As units begin to occupy adjacent hexes it gets increasingly difficult to see exactly what’s happening during combat. More helpfully, when players select an action such as ‘move’ the available hexes are shaded to show where the soldier can go. Even so, even the simplest of actions feels tedious on the tiny DS screen.

The graphics aren’t particularly graphic. The tiny soldiers advance, crouch, crawl, shoot, toss grenades and die very cleanly. The deceased (after an appropriately Hollywood-esque “Arrgh!”) are replaced by tiny tombstones. So, although this is a game which deals with violent action taken in violent times, parents need not be concerned about what their young players will see.

They might be concerned about the audio, though. Every order to a soldier is met with a response such as “Yes sir” or “I’ll see what I can do.” Since every soldier has multiple command points and is given multiple orders, players will have heard all of the possible responses very quickly and will (just as quickly) get tired of them.

Those who stick it out, can play through two campaigns -- one set in 1942 and the other in 1944. Between these there are more than 35 missions. Additionally, the one-off scenarios allow players to pick their battles (so to speak), choose which side they want to fight for, and even take on another human in a hot-seat version of the game.

T.A.C. Heroes: Big Red One tries hard to bring traditional squad-level wargaming to the DS, but in the end it misses the mark due to the limitations of the hardware and the game’s own interface. Hardcore wargamers or history buffs might enjoy this, but most players will be happier giving it a pass.