Review: Harbor Master HD - Free With In App Purchase
by Staff Writer
May 15, 2010
Overview
Harbor Master HD is a line drawing game where you direct boat traffic, and now has been redesigned for the iPad. You guide the boats to dock where they drop off their cargo, and then you have to guide them back out. The app is free giving you one map, and a new update has provided another map via in-app purchase for $0.99.
Features
The free app features one map Treasure Island which is a more expansive version of any iPhone map you may have played before. The map features six docks with two color cargos, and some ships that have both colored cargo. The app also features multi-touch support to play with a friend on one iPad. The in-app purchase map is known as Pirate Passage which gives you three island docks as well as pirates. You need to shoot the pirates with cannons with two hits sinking them. Both maps feature online high scores.The Good
Harbor Master on the iPhone is hectic fast paced fun that is completely addictive. Harbor Master HD on the iPad amps up everything making it more hectic than you could have ever imagined. The game takes full advantage of the additional space on the iPad where the boats are the same size as the iPhone version giving you plenty of more room to maneuver multiple boats.
Now on these new maps you can put more ships in a holding pattern as you wait for docks to clear out. There is so much more going on with the bigger map to keep you drawing and adjusting paths at all times. Not only do you need to do this, but you can do this with the excellent design of the game.
Harbor Master HD looks amazing on the bigger device with actual texture on the land masses. The same great soundtrack is included as well as all the various honks as ships come together. Drawing the paths on the iPad is effortless, and it feels like line drawing was made for the iPad more than the iPhone.
Harbor Master is the best line drawing game on the iPhone, and still remains supreme on the iPad even with only two maps. Rather than just landing planes and having them disappear you need to guide the ships in as well as back off screen which adds such a great challenge and requires so much more strategy. The game also just plays at the perfect speed that isn’t too fast and isn’t too slow, but just right.
The Treasure Island map is completely free and it’s an amazingly complex and challenging experience that still maintains tons of fun. You need to guide the purple boats to the center docks while guiding the orange to the outer docks. The purple docks are more often full so you will need to keep them holding for much longer, and soon bigger ships with orange and purple cargo will enter.
Then you will need to guide it to the purple dock and then the orange dock or vice versa, and finally off screen. Most times you will lose when guiding boats off screen so you need to be careful, plus this map includes a cyclone to spin things up a little. Imangi could have easily charged for this one deluxe map, but it’s free, and it’s great.
The in-app purchase map Pirate Passage gives you three island docks that will fill up quick once the larger boats enter, and you will have all kinds of ships driving around the outside of the islands with heavy cross traffic in the center. The map is tough enough as is, but pirates come in to plunder your cargo, and you will need to blast them away.
As you fire on the pirates you lose track of your ships to increase the hectic action like never before. You will have ships all over this map when things get going, and you’ll love every minute of the madness. This is one of the best dollars you can spend.
Now managing this harbor hecticness by yourself is one thing, but adding a friend on one iPad is a whole new experience. You can have you and your friend each manage a half of the screen or certain docks, but you will need a strategy to not be busy bumping into each other to prevent boats from bumping into each other. Online high scores are also included based on best score, average score, time played, and cargo docked to give you more to compete for.
Now there are only two maps, but you will get tons of replay from each map. You may find yourself spending more time playing the same map then an in depth console game from the sheer addictive nature of the game. Once you guide your first boat in and out you will be hooked to becoming a Harbor Master.
