Battlefield, by Pocket-G $20
Reviewed June 2002
If you like to play RTS (real time strategy) games, let me introduce
you to a war RTS game that supports 3 languages (English, German and
French) and all major Pocket PC processors (MIPs, SH3 and ARM). Developed
by Pocket-G.com, Battlefield is one of the few RTS games offered in
the relatively uncharted waters of RTS for Pocket PC. With its interesting
game play, great graphics and sound, Battlefield is one of the more
worthwhile RTS games.
The game play is unique. There is no big
story behind the game; in fact there aren’t any instructions as to how
to play the game or why you are even fighting the war. You must go
to Pocket-G’s home
page for detailed instructions on how to play the game. A story isn’t
absolutely necessary for good game play, but it does show the finesse
of the game developer. In Battlefield, you’ll select from one
of ten terrains to start your game, ranging from Tropical war to Icy
war, from North Pole to Red River. You can also select the difficulty
level for each terrain. The goal in Battlefield is pretty much the
same as some other RTS games: destroy the enemy base! You’ll also
capture forts that will generate funds faster for you. Even though
the battle units are comprised of the usual suspects: Solders, Motorcycle,
Light Tank, Heavy Tank, Rocket Launcher, Turret, Gunboat and Supplier,
you can assign a main function for each of the units you build. For
example, if you are building a tank, you must give it one of the following
as its main function: guard your base, aggressive defense, capture
fort, fight to capture fort and attack enemy base. You can build your
units to suit the tasks you need to accomplish. This is a very nice
touch in game design.
Another unique feature is the movement
of the war units, which are largely controlled by a Space
Ship. After the war units have been built, the Space Ship
usually carries them to their destinations. Even though the
war units automatically go and find their attacking or capturing
targets, you might still want to use the Space Ship to move
units around. That’s because there is a fuel factor
in this game that makes the game play both interesting and
some times cumbersome. If your Space Ship runs out fuel,
it will blow up and quit doing what it was supposed to do.
If your tanks run out of fuel, they'll just sit there and
do nothing until you refuel them. When you read military
history books, you will find a quite few battles were won
or lost because of the fuel factor. So this game play design
is both realistic and intriguing. I don’t mind building
supply trucks to follow the tanks and motorcycles, but my
Space Ship frequently and quickly ran out of fuel which limits
the flexibility of game play (you must hover over the base
to refuel your Space Ship). Another limitation I found in
this game is that you can’t build multiple units at
the same time.
The graphics in this game are very nice
and the animations are very smooth. All 10 terrains have
their own unique style. The design of the war units is both
slick and creative. The stylus control of the movements is
very smooth. The game window uses a good portion of the screen
with command and information area on the bottom. There are
3 commands: Order Weapon, Geometric Map and Radar Screen.
When you click on them, they will bring up separate screens
for further options. The information window shows how much
funds and the number of war units you and your enemy have.
There’s a music and SFX volume control bar in the corner,
which is another nice touch in this game.
The sound effects are very nice and funny
at times and the music tracks are good as well. The game
installs itself on internal memory (even if you select a
storage card during installation).
Playing Hints and
Tips:
Use your Space Ship to move your war units
as much as possible, but don’t let the Space Ship run
out of fuel in the middle of transit. Build Suppliers to
support the tanks. |
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