Review: iSink U iPad Edition - You've Sunk My Battleship
by Staff Writer
August 18, 2010
Overview
The classic game of Battleship isn't restricted to the hands of EA anymore with iSink U. You get the customary five ships, carrier, battleship, submarine, transport, and scout, and your goal is to destroy your opponents fleet before they destroy yours. This game gives you a new arsenal, and multiple different locations as you battle it out on the seas.
Features
There are three maps for three locations giving you frozen, tropical, and war zones plus one unlocakble location. Each of your ships has a different scatter shot where you can launch multiple bombs at once in different formations. You get to fire five regular shots on your turn, and you can reposition your ships during battle.The Good
The game offers brand new strategy to the classic game of Battleship highlighted by the new attacks. Rather than firing upon one square at a time, you get at least five shots per turn, and you can always use a massive attack. The new method let's you attack multiple squares at once to try to uncover the location of some enemy ships.
Being able to move your ships mid game also increases the strategy as you can keep your opponent guessing just with a change of location. Your grid only has so many spots to hit, and with bigger shots available it's tougher to keep your ships hidden, but the movement helps that a lot. The gameplay adds some really quality elements to the original to make it much more challenging.
There are great visuals with a well made 3D engine for the environments and ships. It's great to see the bombs deployed, and then hit target or fall harmlessly. There is a nice battle centric soundtrack to fit the theme of the game well.
The Bad
The controls are some of the worst I've come across on the iPad, that ruin the entire experience, and everything good listed above. Maneuvering is a chore with so many different sub menus, and zooms that it's tedious and time consuming. You can't do anything quickly in this game leaving it rather boring. Aiming is extremely difficult because instead of tapping where you want to fire, you have to drag. It requires considerable dragging to change your aim, and it requires a couple tries to get it on the exact grid square you want it. The same goes for moving your ships with the same terrible mechanic leaving you more frustrated than anything else.
Variability is lacking as well with every map the same exact sized grid with only the background changing. The two player mode could have a chance to change this, but it's set up so that on your turn you take the iPad and do all your moves, and then your opponent takes the iPad, and does all their moves. You can't share the experience because simply watching your opponents attack will let you see their layout.
