Developer: Hasbro
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: Xbox One, PS4
Tested on: Xbox One
Battleship – Review
Battleship, where the familiar phrase of ‘you’ve sunk my battleship’ was used in The Simpsons for one of their best skits ever, is now out on consoles, like it has been many times before. Nonetheless, while some of the earlier releases did have a few quirks up their sleeves, they mainly followed the basic rules or didn’t bend them to extremes. This time your fleet of ships will not be limited to one shot per turn, but you can save up resources and truly make the battlefield a whimsical whirlpool of explosions, debris and death.
Story
Unlike the last two versions of RISK, Battleship doesn’t give you that much of a setting. All you know is you’re waging war at sea, and after a while ships of other factions will cross your path. While the campaign missions have story-like descriptions, they offer little to no actual story value. Nonetheless, we doubt you’ll need a elaborate story to properly enjoy this digital version of Battleship.
Graphics
Other than the white and red studs, the game has truly been adapted to something worth of our current generation of consoles. While things remain simple, the attention to small details is actually quite stunning for fans of the original board game. Your playing field are two ‘cubes’ of water, which you can turn to see your own position or to change the perspective, allowing you to have a better oversight. The borders mark your units and clearly show which are alive and which have been sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
Last but not least there is the small action screen above the playing field, that shows the cannon fire, your special skills when performed or the destruction of your or enemies’ ships. Even though you’ll see the same things over and over again, it’s an interesting version of a loading screen, and it’s simply satisfying to see enemy ships being swallowed whole after successful attacks. That being said, the graphical quality itself is pretty ‘last-gen’, if not more dated, but it’s still quite pleasant to look at.
Sound
The music in Battleship certainly gets you in the mood for a fight, but a rather good spirited one. While the soundtrack is very likeable and adventurous, it’s also upbeat and relaxing, at least as far as relaxing goes when your timer is steadily ticking away during a match. Sound effects are also properly done, whilst some may become a bit repetitive when you hear the same cannon fire over and over again. Nonetheless, the soundtrack sets the proper tone.
Gameplay
Just like the board game with the same name, Battleship is a turn based strategy experience. You’ll take turns chucking bombs, torpedo’s, mines and rockets at one another, hoping to sink the other player’s fleet before they put yours on the bottom of the ocean. You can play the classic style of the game, which is just taking one shot per turn, per player, but we were more interested in the new mechanics.
No matter if you decide to play through the campaign or play versus, you’ll start off by placing your fleet of five ships, all varying in size, on the battlefield. After having placed your army, the turn order will be decided, and you’re good to go. Each turn you’ll receive a ‘stock’ which allows you to do scouting actions, or attacks. When using one resource (white or red) at a time, you’ll be able to scout (white) one tile on the battlefield, or attack (red) one tile. When a scouting action is successful, the stud on the battlefield will be marked green, if nothing is present, determined by a scouting or attacking attempt it will turn white. If you launch an attack, and hit your mark, the stud will turn red. Of course, with the different ship sizes, you’ll have to hit the ship the proper amount of times, namely every spot on the grid it finds itself on.
As you’ll receive three white items and three red items each turn, you could fire three flares and launch three rockets, but you can also save up your items, expanding your stock. If you have leftovers during your turn, they will be stored, and the next time your stock will be enlarged by three of each yet again. Here is where the special abilities of your ships come into play. Each ship has two abilities, one using the white resources, the other using the red ones. Like with the normal actions, the white represent sonar actions and the red are attacks. Saving up these resources proves to be very valuable in your hunt for the other team’s ships, as for example you’ll be able explore eight tiles for a cost of five, instead of eight when you would perform separate actions. Overall you’ll have to take a look at the situation you find yourself in and determine what course of action will suit you the best.
If you go toe to toe with one of your friends locally, you’ll have to trust them enough to avert his/her gaze from the screen while you place your fleet and vice versa. You’ll get the choice to play according to the new rules of this game, namely different fleets and ships that have special attacks, all while using the resource mechanics. If you’d rather go back to the good old days, you can play the classic Battleship, in which you take turns firing only once per turn. Overall it’s pretty much a matter of personal preference, but the new mechanics do add a bit of extra fun to the equation, and you’ll notice that the different ‘stats’ of the different factions are on par with one another, thus balance doesn’t really seem to be a big issue.
Truth be told, there is not that much wrong with this title, as it provides good old fashioned fun with updated mechanics but there’s only one big annoyance that seems to become a reoccurring item in different games released by Ubisoft and Hasbro. To unlock a new faction, or even skins for those you already have, you’ll have to register for a Club Ubisoft account AND a Hasbro channel account, forcing you to create accounts for basic content you already paid for, before actually being able to use it. Other than that, there are a few small annoying bugs such as making the game crash during a local match when you fire a shot during the last few seconds of your turn, or the overall long loading times for a fairly simply game like this.
Conclusion
Battleship might look like the original board game in many ways, but the updated and modernized mechanics provide a great gaming experience, while staying true to the source material. Of course, those who’d like to play the original formula will also be able to do so. So if you’re in the mood to sink some battleships, alone, with friends or online, this game will provide you with ample opportunities for naval combat.
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