'33rd Division': A Solid WWII-Era Line-Draw Strategy Game
posted by Blake Patterson on October 31st, 2009 10:55 AM EDT in $0.99, 3.5 stars, Reviews, Strategy, iPhone games, iPod touch gamesCraneballs Studios, who brought us the unique iPhone shooter Blimp – The Flying Adventures, has just released 33rd Division [App Store], a combat-themed tactical line-draw game in the ilk of Flight Control.
Set in World War II, 33rd Division offers gameplay across four different European battlefields. The goal is to guide soldiers, medics and sergeants entering the battlefield to each of their designated destinations without being seen (shot and killed). This is done by drawing a course across the battlefield (Flight Control style) in and among obstacles and roving patrols.
Sounds just like all the other line-draw games, right? Well, 33rd Division has some interesting variations up its sleeve. The aforementioned roving patrols have a limited field of vision, indicated by a highlighted sight cone that moves as they turn about the battlefield. As long as you stay out of their sight area, you're fine, but enter that cone and, well, let's just call it the cone of death. What's more, if you're trapped and about to be seen, you can lie down, rendering you invisible…unless the patrols walk right up to you, in which case they render you full of lead.
The game offers two playmodes, Life, in which it's game over after you lose all your lives, and Time, where it's an all out race against the clock. Helping you out along the way are eight different power-ups that can be collected on the battlefield, including invincibility, bonus life, extra time, double speed, and frozen enemies. The WWII-era menu music, complete with crackles and pops, adds nicely to the effect, as does the ambient battlefield sound during gameplay. OpenFeint leaderboards provide incentive to hone your skill.
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]
There are a number of line-draw games of this general sort in the App Store. I do have my favorites. And as it turns out, 33rd Division is among them. The temptation to shortcut your way across the battlefield, cutting dangerously close to the patrols and dropping to the ground at the right moment, adds a great sense of danger and exhilaration to the gameplay. But, be careful, you don't want to get stepped on!
App Store Link: 33rd Division, $0.99
TouchArcade Rating:
Hell yeah! 33rd Division is a great game, even if you are sick of the all the line drawing game, I highly suggest it. It's different than your normal ones; it's just awesome.
Awesome? It's a piece of crap.You can play about 15 minutes and delete it.
Don't pay for this shit.
I've had this game for almost a week, and am still not sick of it. It's a lot of fun, and can be quite immersive. It looks beautiful, and has great gameplay, and it costs $1. I've already got my money's worth.
Why? No one cares about your opinion if you have no reason to share it.
this dev doesn't provide lite, trial versions. they produce beautiful games, but i am not sure about fun… the first one, Blimp Flying Adventures, i bought it due to the nice graphics and raving reviews, turned out to be real boring. not going to buy this one until i try a lite version.
I disagree – Blimp is a great game for me – has quite a strategic element to it at times which may seem boring to some – but challenging to others
I haven't played it every day but have dipped in and out a lot since I got it and it's def in my top 5 iPhone games
have you finished Blimp? it doesn't have the characteristic of an addictive game, fact is it will probably take most people forever to finish it because you will play for 15 minutes and quit.
i think Blimp is badly balanced – too frustrating because you will either explode or run out of time. er… ok i just suck at the game…
i wish the dev will provide lite versions, but it sure seems like these two games won't sell as well as they do if they have lite versions, because with lite versions players will be able to see the actual game play instead of just the great visuals…
no gamer I didn't finish it yet
but one recent level I played was frustrating for a while and then I realised I had to leave some of the lower landing points until last
I found it challenging rather than frustrating and it was satisfying to achieve in the end
true, Blimp might not be a game you play from start to finish in one sitting – but that's kinda what I like about it
it's more a of a cross between arcade and puzzler which gives it replayability in my book – but everyone has different game tastes I guess
How the hell can you guys argue about if a game sucks or not? Its frikking opinion!
(Haven't played game so can't add to discussion)
Another vote for Blimp: it remains a favorite. Great control feel, terrific polish, and just plain fun. Certain levels are really hard, but all the more fun when you beat them.
(I also just got 33rd. I do like the hiding element and so far I enjoy it more than other line-drawers, but I haven’t played long.)
It's a great game!!
Just worth noting that another foil to the laying out of sight is the soldier patrolling with dogs. They'll have an indicated constant radius of observation around themselves besides their normal spotlight and ducking down will not save you from this little "doggy patrol ring" if so ensnared.
Testing testing (moderator please delete this post).
Lots of fun if you like drawing lines with your fingers.
Almost like "Commandos" back then… but only stealth part with some chaos…
i might have tried this game, but stealth is absolutely the worse imaginable genre to ever exist. utterly unplayable and i am insulted by the copious amounts of unfun offered by your typical stealth game. i would rather impale myself on a white picket fence then play a stealth game. it all comes down to a matter of opinion and of personal preference, of course.
Tried early versions of this, and quite frankly found it boring beyond belief. If you enjoy the stealth portions of the Commandos games it might be something to try. To me those parts felt horrible in Commandos, and even worse in this game as it is all it is about.
The timed mode is quite fun as you have the pressure of having to summon more soldiers earlier rather than later to top the timer up, which gets the multi tasking bit under way (multi tasking being the core of this type of game). The problem for me, and perhaps the reason why others say it's boring, is that the Life mode doesn't release multiple soldiers automatically, unlike say Harbor Master, so you work on getting one soldier to its destination, and once your done with him, rinse and repeat. There is no sense of things getting increasingly out of hand which is the point of these games I think (or perhaps I haven't got far enough into it yet…).
I think it's worth the price tag for the Timed mode alone. Not fussed about Life mode quite frankly. Other games of this type have nailed that formula better.
Just having a further think. One way to solve Life mode being so, well, lifeless, would be perhaps by:
a) Having soldiers automatically spawning (as expressed above) so you are forced to have more than one soldier on screen.
b) Having them relentlessly head for their destination regardless of the dangers, in a Lemmings sort of way.
c) Have them duck for cover only for a limited time (perhaps with a little timer counting down next to them) so you have to keep an eye on them. At the moment they can stay down for as long as you like…
Of course, it would be down to the developer to balance the above ideas out so that you didn't go from one extreme (dull) to the other (frustratingly impossible!) and that the game played out satisfyingly, but I think these things would certainly lift Life mode to another level.
I think life mode is specifically there to make the game easier as you're learning it. So I don't think they really want to amp life mode up.
(I'm still AWFUL at timed mode right now, so mostly I'm playing Life.)
also, both modes can be sped up at the player's choosing? Just tap the soldiers waiting in the wings and they come on…
Snake? SNAAAAAAKEEEE!!!!
I don't know what to think. I also bought Blimp and was pretty underwhelmed with gameplay. Most of the line drawing games have only been slight improvements on the airplane and harbormaster games.
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