6:57 PM
The Game Peddler
All battle and no heart.
February 14, 2011 February 14, 2011 February 14, 2011
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The idea behind Battleheart, an RPG developed by Mika Mobile for the iPhone, is simple enough: take a team of four warriors and attempt to survive a series of increasingly difficult arena-like levels. While the idea itself is not without merit, Battleheart fails to flesh it out enough, resulting in a rather bare bones experience that leaves you wanting more.
Battleheart puts the player in command of a party of up to four soldiers of different classes, such as knights who engage in melee, wizards who perform magic, and clerics who have the power to heal. Aside from progressing, defeating a level earns you experience, which allows your team to level up and learn new abilities. You also earn cash based on how well your team did, which can be used to purchase armor, weapons, and new soldiers.
While the amount of equipment and the variety of characters you can invite into your party is impressive, pretty much everything else about the game is not. The biggest problem is Battleheart's touch controls, which actually sound really brilliant in theory, but in practice are often plagued by accuracy issues.
You control your team by pointing at an individual member and directing them to either move toward an enemy to engage or away from them to dodge damage. You can also tap a character to use one of their powers on themselves, an enemy, or a fellow team member. The problem is, the touch controls aren't very precise, which can cost you a lot of life and frustration when you're in the middle of fighting a fleet of monsters. There is also no way to control a character that is behind another one, making the hidden soldier all but useless until they decide to move on their own.
The levels themselves are kind of pathetic, as all of them are exactly the same with only cosmetic changes that don't affect gameplay. The graphics are also uninspired, with bland, boring backgrounds and chibi characters that are almost cute, but ultimately fail to make you really care about helping them and their kingdom survive. Even the music is underwhelming, with an only so-so battle tune and a level select theme that is far too mellow and fails miserably at setting the right mood to go into battle.
Battleheart puts the player in command of a party of up to four soldiers of different classes, such as knights who engage in melee, wizards who perform magic, and clerics who have the power to heal. Aside from progressing, defeating a level earns you experience, which allows your team to level up and learn new abilities. You also earn cash based on how well your team did, which can be used to purchase armor, weapons, and new soldiers.
Even giant spiders don't make this game worth the purchase.
While the amount of equipment and the variety of characters you can invite into your party is impressive, pretty much everything else about the game is not. The biggest problem is Battleheart's touch controls, which actually sound really brilliant in theory, but in practice are often plagued by accuracy issues.
You control your team by pointing at an individual member and directing them to either move toward an enemy to engage or away from them to dodge damage. You can also tap a character to use one of their powers on themselves, an enemy, or a fellow team member. The problem is, the touch controls aren't very precise, which can cost you a lot of life and frustration when you're in the middle of fighting a fleet of monsters. There is also no way to control a character that is behind another one, making the hidden soldier all but useless until they decide to move on their own.
All dressed up, but nothing to do.
The levels themselves are kind of pathetic, as all of them are exactly the same with only cosmetic changes that don't affect gameplay. The graphics are also uninspired, with bland, boring backgrounds and chibi characters that are almost cute, but ultimately fail to make you really care about helping them and their kingdom survive. Even the music is underwhelming, with an only so-so battle tune and a level select theme that is far too mellow and fails miserably at setting the right mood to go into battle.
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