Commanders, get ready for battle! Gameloft has just released the much-anticipated turn-based military sim Rogue Planet to the AppStore, and from what we’ve played so far we can tell you it’s everything we’ve been hoping for.
Fans of turn-based war games like Advance Wars and Military Madness will feel right at home here. Unlike previous iPhone attempts at tackling the genre, Rogue Planet felt like a natural fit from the first moment we fired it up. The space opera story about a ship returning to earth only to find it in the hands of a hostile force is exactly the kind of sci-fi popcornia that hooks a player on more than just gameplay.
Just like our initial impressions of the story, the touch screen mechanics feel as tight as you might want them to. Things move at a quick pace and everything is streamlined down to the basics. Move units, attack units. Lather, rinse, repeat. After playing the first few levels, we’re happy to say that they offered up great map layouts that never feel like you’re walking endlessly, marching and marching just looking for battles. Hardly a turn goes by without some form of combat occurring.
The other thing that both surprised and delighted us was the length of each battle. Developers try to tailor their efforts to what they believe is a “typical" iPhone experience, meaning quick bursts of gameplay without a great deal of depth or strategy. The catch, though, is that depending on the type of game you’re making you might be sacrificing everything that would have made your game great in the first place. In this regard, Rogue Planet unapologetically sticks to its roots and strays away from the bite-sized gaming experience that many iPhone gamers have come to expect. By the time we’d reached the third mission we found ourselves spending 30 minutes or more reach our objectives. It’s the same tried and true deep experience that has made games like Advance Wars such a success on other platforms.
The 2D art in the battle scenes and dialogue sections pops just as much as you’d expect from the trailer. There’s a very heavy anime influence to the art style. For some reason the whole experience reminds me of Macross. Maybe it’s the ship returning from space. Maybe it’s the choice in vehicles. Whatever it is, it works.
In addition to the single player campaign with 19 missions, Rogue Planet also offer local multiplayer over Bluetooth and Wi-fi. The absence of internet play stings a little, but Gameloft assures us it’s being worked on for the next update. In the meantime, those without iPhone pals hanging around their living room can still experience the feel of multiplayer in a single player setting thanks to the Quick Game mode. Quick Game let’s you fire up a multi-style battle against AI bots and here there are 3 levels of difficulty across 34 maps (19 from story and 15 new ones) playable with 2 different armies.
So far we’ve only had a chance to experience the single player campaign, and from what we’ve seen of the first few missions, it looks as though we might finally have a solid iPhone contender for the hearts of Nectaris lovers everywhere. We’ll take a more in depth look after we’ve had some time with the game.
App Store Link: Rogue Planet, $4.99
