Wallace & Gromit in Battle of Wits

Wallace & Gromit in Battle of Wits is an upcoming 3D Platforming Action-Adventure game for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC. It is a spiritual successor to Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo released back in 2003. The game features similar 3D action-platforming based gameplay with exploration elements introduced thanks to a more open environment as well as a greater focus on the combat mechanics to be more engaging for players.
==Plot Synopsis==
The game takes place a non-specific time after the events of the film Wallace & Gromit in a Matter of Loaf and Death with the dynamic duo having taken up jobs working on house cleaning, making full use of several of Wallace's gadgets to help with performing a thorough job. Although initially highly successful, the two quickly began facing competition when the strange Shertaf Cleaning Co. moves into town. A company with no past, they quickly begin distributing cleaning robots that are marketed to be able to do the job of ten people at once. Soon Wallace is pushed out of the business when all of his former customers end up purchasing cleaning robots. Curious about the robot's abilities, Wallace decides to get one himself to see how well it can do compared to himself and Gromit.
To both of their surprise, the robot is quite capable of cleaning their house, even handling most of Wallace's inventions when they cause a mess due to malfunctions. That night however, whilst the house was asleep, the cleaning robot activated, seeing from the robot's point of view that something had been confirmed. The robot quickly makes its way to Wallace's room, sneaking up on him before attaching a strange helmet-like device to his head. Within a flash of light, Wallace's mind is taken over by the robot which attaches itself to his back before causing him to walk off out of the house. We see that the other cleaning robots had also taken the townsfolk from all across town and were all heading off to somewhere beyond the town's border.
The next morning, Gromit wakes up, finding Wallace having disappeared. Attempting to look around the house he gets help from Fluffles and Hutch with Hutch initially lamenting Wallace's disappearance before realizing he could get more cheese. Gromit and Fluffles find that the cleaning robot has also disappeared and upon reaching the front yard find Wallace having left a series of tracks behind when he walked through a potted plant. Knowing that Wallace was taken somewhere, Gromit heads out in hopes of finding his master.
==Gameplay==
The gameplay of Battle of Wits is similar to the previous, Project Zoo. The player primarily controls Gromit in a 3D environment with regular movement for action and platforming alike. Each area of the game map is laid out with many ways to access different sub-areas through simple platforming. Enemies also dot the landscape and can pose a threat to the player in larger groups. The player's primary means of attack are the various weapons that Hutch and later Wallace make for the player, the game uses a third-person view during combat with a target reticule that can lock onto a target and swap between targets by flicking the right analog stick (arrow keys on PC). If the player is out of available ammunition for their weapons they are able to resort to their two melee weapons, the Knitting Needles and Unarmed. The former offering more damage but being slower to attack with making it useful for dealing with tougher enemies while the latter is better at handling groups of weaker enemies.
As the player progresses they also will unlock a number of other gadgets invented by Hutch & Wallace, these gadgets would serve to bolster Gromit's movement making it possible for him to reach areas he couldn't previously also giving him access to some parts of the game map that would be locked off otherwise. Some sections of the game would see the player taking control of Fluffles or Hutch, the former during particularly difficult platforming sections as Fluffles would boast a superior movement to Gromit in exchange for a much more limited ability at combat. Whilst Hutch would make use of his own inventions in sections reminiscent to the Gyrocopter and Speedboat in Project Zoo.
==Characters==
Gromit the Dog is the main protagonist of the game. He is the loyal if a bit reluctant pet of the inventor, Wallace. Gromit is often the more perceptive of the two, more keenly aware of the faults in Wallace's inventions as well as when danger presents itself to them, however his inability to communicate this to Wallace can make things more difficult than they would otherwise need to be. Gromit spearheads the investigation with Wallace's other pets; Fluffles and Hutch to try and find Wallace and the other townsfolk who mysteriously disappeared one night along with all the cleaning robots.
Gromit is quite capable of walking on just his hind paws but can also sneak by walking on all fours very quietly. He can also jump and perform a front flip to get to areas he wouldn't otherwise be able to reach.
Wallace is often the brains behind most of the jobs he and Gromit end up doing. A brilliant, if naive inventor, Wallace has built many gadgets and machines over his life ranging from small little contraptions to move his television to an entire rocket ship and a mind-altering device. Many of his inventions tend to blow up in his face at least once although after second or third (or fourth or fifth) attempts they come through and prove very useful.
For the first half of the game, Wallace is in fact missing and the goal of Gromit is to find him, after he's been rescued, Wallace provides assistance to Gromit and the others with his inventions and can provide information on where they need to go.
Originally owned by Piella Bakewell, Fluffles became Wallace's second pet dog when her former owner was devoured by a pen of crocodiles. Fluffles is mute like Gromit although where Wallace tends to have trouble communicating with either of them, she and Gromit are able to communicate easily through hand gestures. Fluffles is remarkably acrobatic and often diligent in helping others, a few sections of the game require the player to control Fluffles through particular platforming heavy sections.
After beating the game once, the player has the option to play as Fluffles through Gromit's sections, this offers considerably more challenge as Fluffles lacks Gromit's arsenal of weapons.
When an incident involving Wallace, a rabbit, a mind-altering machine and a giant vacuum cleaner during a pale moonlight resulted in Hutch among other things, the duo were uncertain what to do with the cheese-loving rabbit. Although initially Hutch stayed at Tottington Hall, his love of cheese resulted in him returning to Wallace's house a few weeks later. Hutch often helps Wallace think up new inventions and can be generally found scribbling away at Wallace's old workbench creating generally half-baked ideas that him and Wallace would sometimes refine.
During the initial half of the game while Wallace is out of the picture, Hutch provides the player with their inventions needed to progress. Hutch also serves as a bit of a vendor, trading in the player's nuts and bolts for upgrades to their equipment and special unlockable decals.
==Locations==
===West Wallaby Street===
* Unlocks: Acorn Slingshot, Knitting Needles
* Connects: Riverside Trail, Pidges Park, North Town
West Wallaby Street is the first area of the game available to the player, it includes Wallace & Gromit's house as well as the houses of several of their neighbours. The street is initially linear although as the player gathers more abilities and weapons they'll be able to explore the backyards and some of the other houses to find more nuts & bolts.
The player is introduced to most of the mechanics in this area including movement, platforming, combat and exploration. There is also a portion where the player takes control of Fluffles as she unlocks the way into the backyards sub-area. This area also includes Wallace's Workshop a sub-area that the player needs to visit but can later come back to upgrade things with Hutch and trial out weapons on sandbag enemies.
The boss of West Wallaby Street is the Big Clucker a large robotic hen that attempts to lay explosive eggs that roll towards Gromit, the boss is intended to test the player's ability to use both standard fire with their Acorn Slingshot and focused fire.
===Riverside Trail===
* Unlocks: N/A
* Connects: West Wallaby Street, Vicar's Chapel, The Heap
The Riverside Trail is an optional area that the player can visit at the start of the game, although not fully explore until later on. It serves as a connecting region between the Vicar's Chapel, The Heap and West Wallaby Street making it easy to traverse between the North and South sides of town once the player has unlocked the means to traverse the terrain. It is a mostly scenic area with overgrowth that can impede progress, it also crosses the train tracks for the town's station however due to the mind control no trains have come through as of late.
Although comparatively small, the Riverside Trail features the lowest density of enemies in the game making it a useful location to test new movement abilities as it has many paths that interweave with another another both horizontally and vertically.
===Pidges Park===
* Unlocks: Boxer's Longbow
* Connects: West Wallaby Street, North Town
A large parkland that many of the townsfolk would visit during their day's off and for vacations. The park has many facilities including a gazebo, gardens and a soccer field. Some of Wallace's older inventions can be found here, providing assistance such as the Soccamatic. The park's layout makes it easy to navigate as there is a large central circle that takes the player to each of the points of interest, although the player can also cross through the soccer field in the middle as a shortcut albeit having to deal with the various enemies.
The zone does need to be revisited later once the player has freed Wallace as one of the Flying Keys ends up here. During the player's second visit, parts of the Park become barricaded by the automatons making navigation more difficult and also swapping out the easier enemies found earlier in the game for more challenging ones.
===North Town===
* Unlocks: Springy Boots
* Connects: West Wallaby Street, Pidges Park, Central Circle
The North side of town, a bit of an entertainment area, there is a cinema where the player can re-watch cutscenes from throughout the game as well as unlock special animation shorts. The centerpiece of the area is the West Wallaby Theater which is normally used for performances of the dramatic and musical variety, however has been taken over by robots. Due to the high-rises it's quite easy to get a good view of the surrounding area and cross from one building's roof to another as long as the player manages to set-up the proper running distance.
The player needs to visit North Town and properly explore it to progress as the rest of the town is blocked off by elevated ledges that require a double jump. The player can acquire the Double Jump by first defeating the boss of the area Centurion a large, mostly immobile robot that fires lasers from nodes on its body which Gromit must climb up to reach its head. After defeating Centurion the player gets access to the Hardware Store where Hutch can put together the Springy Boots.
===Central Circle===
* Unlocks: Top Shelf Grippers
* Connects: North Town, South Town, Vegetable Row
The central circle in town is the heart of West Wallaby, forming a circle around the Town Hall, the area has many high-rises which form a network of interconnected pathways through the area. The Town Hall itself is also accessible and provides an easy central point from which the player can access most of the rest of the area. Although most of the buildings have a limited degree of accessibility with only a few select rooms being accessible, an exception is the Garden Supplies a large botanical store that sells gardening supplies for the townsfolk, within the player will find a number of overgrown plants that serve as obstacles as well as their first floral enemies.
Due to its central location on the map, Central Circle is visited mainly as a hub area, as such it opens up more and more as the player progresses with new side areas being explorable. It also serves to give the player the Top Shelf Grippers a pair of extendable hands which can help Gromit reach ledges that are further away and also gives him the option to interact with certain structures like swinging poles and narrow ledges.
===Vicar's Chapel===
===The Heap===
===South Town===
===Fishmonger's Corner===
===Mossy Bottom Farm===
===Vegetable Row===
===Misty Woods===
===Tottington Hall===
==Weapons & Equipment==
Item 	Description
Weapon 	Weapon
Acorn Slingshot 	A modified slingshot designed to sling acorns, although it's a fairly weak weapon it does offer some range making it useful for taking out enemies from afar. Due to the abundance of its ammunition it's quite easy to keep stocked up.
Upgrading the weapon can increase the amount of Acorns fired at once as well as the player's overall ammo capacity. The player can also upgrade the weapon's range and damage output.
Knitting Needles	A pair of oversized knitting needles that are used for creating equally oversized sweaters, although rarely used by Gromit they are effective in attacking enemies as their pointed ends both hurt and keep an enemy at distance. They're a bit slower to attack with than the Gromit's own fists however.
Upgrading the needles will make them tougher, dealing more damage. The player can also find paintings depicting different jousting techniques that the player can use to combo with this weapon.
Boxer's Longbow 	Made from the repurposed components of an old boxing set-up Wallace had when he was younger, the Longbow fires arrows with Boxing Gloves instead of arrowheads making it very effective at knocking an opponent out especially at range. The weapon has a somewhat lower rate of fire due to needing to tighten the bowstring but offers superior accuracy to most other weapons.
Upgrading the weapon can add a spring which causes the boxing glove to knockback the opponent and a whistling hole in the arrow shaft which can distract some enemies causing them to forget about Gromit or be easier to stealth attack.
Equipment 	Equipment
Springy Boots 	Springy Boots are a former prototype Wallace made during his and Gromit's trip to the zoo. They've since been improved on with greater accuracy and control, Gromit can use them to perform double jumps by having the springs deploy to give an extra bounce, they also increase Gromit's flip jump.
A unique effect of the Springy Boots is their ability to allow Gromit to perform a dive strike which can hit multiple enemies in close proximity.
==Trivia==
*Originally the game was not intended to be introduced at Fan15, however it was moved up after a long brainstorming session
Category:Games
Category:Fan Games
Category:Wallace & Gromit (series)
Category:Action Adventure Games
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Category:Xbox Series X Games
Category:PC Games
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