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Rating : 7.2 / 10 Developer : Gameloft Availability : PlayStation Network |
If you’ve ever played Combat on the old Atari 2600, then Battle Tanks will remind you very much of it, pitting World War 2 tanks against each other in an all out skirmish, this is one battle you won’t forget.
The game consists of 50 battle fields and 3 game modes: deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag, with the flag spawning in random location depending on map design after being captured.
Although limited in game modes, it can be enjoyable when you have a group of friends or family playing with you. Some stages are very ordinary, while others can kill you or affect gameplay, which is what makes it both fun, and sometimes frustrating in the heat of battle.
Whilst playing on your own isn’t so bad as the computer is quite good at hiding and accurate aim, their strategies aren’t as impressive.
As the old Combat on Atari, bullets to ricochet off most surfaces, but tweaked to only once in Battle Tanks, to prevent uncontrollable mayhem. To add a bit more flavour, you can also collect power ups to give you a boost in your arsenal for a short period of time.
Power ups include extra life, flame thrower, missiles, rapid fire, speed up, and homing. Don’t think homing will lock onto your targets though; it merely bends the ballistic towards the enemy but if they are fast enough, they can dodge it still.
If you run out of time, perioidic air strikes are called to hit the whole map one line at a time.
Graphically speaking, it’s a mix. The resolution is pretty fair given the design and art of the game, but the textures is very plain. Yet, even like this, there are a lot of graphical slow downs on certain stages. Some just happens, and some because of the special effects that may occur, namely explosions; although simple, still looks beautiful.
Sound is both detailed and basic. It has your basic tank engine, shooting, explosions, powers, even a war theme playing as you wage combat, but there isn’t anything special that happens for those who love the little extra top notch, such as big booms.
Battle Tanks also offers network play, through the same 50 maps and game modes. One issue I found was lag, both graphically and network. The game seemed to struggle more to hold a smooth framerate and though network lag is typical, it creates a delayed response to what you want to do; I struggled just to move straight at times. Until this is sorted out, or at least the graphical interface, I would recommend multiplayer at home with family and friends, if any.
All in all, though the tanks are a little slow until you get the speed up power up, this game can be a blast. Some more game modes would have been nice like an attack and defend type of mode, or more variety among the 50 maps, but undoubtedly, grab some people to play with and you’ll be cursing at each other as you pick on one and another.
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