After 35 years exploring space, an aging captain and his crew return to Earth. However, the planet has been destroyed by an epidemic of self-controlled robots. In an effort to save whatever remnants of life they can find, the crew and survivors met along your journeys must work tactically with the units at their disposal to prevail. This compelling story is just part of what makes Rogue Planet a turn-based strategy game not to be missed.
The meat of Rogue Planet comes from the campaign. You play the role of multiple captains of an army who are at the forefront of the fight against the malicious robot infestation. 19 levels of various difficulty (although never so challenging that it becomes frustrating) and dialogue-based scenes between each mission kept us intrigued until the end.
Charge!
Each time you beat one of the levels in the campaign, its respective map is unlocked in skirmish mode. This content-filled free play feature that is a must for TBS games includes 34 maps, three difficulty levels, and the ability to play as either side (humans or robots). With so many layouts to select from and two sides to control, you will almost never play the same game twice.
There are also some new strategies to be honed through the damage review and suicide systems. Before attacking your enemy, you can view the estimated percent of damage that will be inflicted on them. A tip is to always check out all of your options before going in for the attack. Also, the suicide system allows you to blow up a unit to deal damage to all enemies in a one-block radius. This is especially helpful when a unit is low on health (meaning they also cannot attack well) and therefore has little use other than taking up space. The units available are your standard fare, but that worked fine for us.
One component that helps Rogue Planet stand out is the artwork. The hand-drawn character artwork and background images in the text-heavy cutscenes are incredible. Even battle sequences are entertaining to watch. As far as the in-game sprites and textures, the game doesn’t disappoint. While it's not as obvious in the screenshots, there are some quality animations and 3D models to be found here. To show this off, you can turn the perspective of the camera 90 degrees in all directions. There isn’t usually a true need to do this, but it leaves quite an impression nonetheless.
They're just cruising for a bruising.
Rogue Planet does have some drawbacks for new turn-based strategy players, though. A confusing user interface with tons of tiny buttons, paired with a weak “tutorial” that ultimately fails to teach the game’s somewhat complicated controls, will turn off newcomers not ready to spend time either reading the in-game instruction page or experimenting with the quirks. Also of note, although not quite a con, is that due the genre’s nature you will need to sink hours into some of the maps in order to beat them. The pacing seem slow if you expect to breeze through the game.
Multiplayer has always been a big part of TBS games. Rogue Planet’s efforts at this mode are halfway there. In the current version, there is multiplayer over Bluetooth and local wi-fi, both of which are fine if you are playing with friends. Unfortunately, online multiplayer did not make it into the release build, but the developer has stated it is coming in the next update.
If you enjoy turn-based games that will put you to the test, Rogue Planet is a title that should not be missed. An interesting storyline, tons of modes, and great graphics all help make this one of the best ways to spend $4.99 on the App Store.
9 Comments
A 4/4 it is not, gave it 4/5 at TouchGen as there are too many things still not in place yet. So converted to STP scores I would say a 3/4. Got to add that fifth step to your scores as too many games become must-buys now. Nice review though covering the game nicely.
I Feel this is the best single player TBS experience for the iPhone. It was an easy 4 (I'm a tough grader as well).
I keep killing my own troops, I dislike the moving context buttons!
Got to Level 3, Mexico, 2 bridges in the middle only way to move is through both of them, you have enemy factory on one side, your factory on the other. its STUPID. The gameplay is dumb you only build tanks as nothing else can attack and kill. and you have to keep doing pointless 1 attack a turn on a bridge and slowly grind your way through to the other side. Its like a 3 hour game of grind boredom. I gave up the gameplay is rubbish, you can't attack on diagonals and only attack front, back, left & right, so on a bridge yeah you can only attack 1 unit per turn, and it takes 2-3 turns to kill a enemy unit. They need to fix ALOT before this game is worth playing and I bet they won't fix noting.
Well... thats not quite how to play a TBS, but like I said in the review it isn't very welcoming to newcomers.
Sadly I have to agree with you Sambuka that this is a poor level design. The game gets better after the Mexico level so give it one more go. Grinding down the enemies is a must, and as the AI is stupid as a ton of bricks it pays off eventually. You have to amass a large force but most importantly you have to bring Turtles and Engineers to keep your attack force in fighting shape. Once you manage to gain half of the enemy area below the two bridges you will see an end to the level. The following levels are better at limiting grinding, and conserving troops becomes more important.
I take back some of what I said, if you grind your way through level 3 Mexico. (which I finally got bored enough to do. Then the game opens up a bit with a few new units, artrillary & a couple of bigger tanks. still very repetitive and very little strategy needed. But a few of the units classes became more fun to play. This game has the hallmarks of a fantastic game but it really is lacking polish. I mean they should of thrown in research, development, upgrades for movement & attack. I guess they did a lot of work just creating this game, I hope now they have the engine built they can create another game like this but with alot more depth and strategy. If they do it right and add in multiplayer my goodness it would be an absolute killer game.
Exactly, in Advance Wars I have spent up to 3 hours on a single map once to get a proper way of attacking. At times it is down to having one unit in the correct location, but to get it there you have to sacrifice 20-30 units.
I have to say I'm actually with STP on this one. Its the best TBS on the iDevice.
& to Sambuka & TSP; perhaps you noticed you get a Tiger tank? In future Please learn to play the game properly before trashing it.
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