Overview
Get a Superman-like view of the planet as you glide between 3-D snow-covered peaks and above twisting waterways with Earthscape Basic. The image quality is not amazing and the app should be cheaper, but Earthscape Basic can be redeemably smooth and impressive.
Functionality
Earthscape Basic’s main draw is its perspective view, which presents a 3-D, birds-eye view of terrain and landscape. This same function is available in Google Earth, with perhaps better picture quality, but surprisingly comparable functionality.
After pressing a button to change perspective, a two-fingered swipe will have you breezing through the Andes or over the Grand Canyon. The familiar pinch and swipe controls work for zooming and panning (although these functions are not explained in any kind of built-in tutorial and a viewing of
the developer’s Youtube video is recommended).
Aside from this differentiating feature, users of Google Earth will be familiar with Earthscape Basic’s concept of zooming into a specific location anywhere on the globe.
Although the app offers this feature, there is no option to search for a location, so let’s hope you aren’t a total failure when it comes to geography and can locate, say, Beijing, on a world map.
But even if you do swipe a finger to spin the globe and double tap on China to begin a descent to Tiananmen Square, the clarity of the image will not leave you feeling very excited. That’s because the app’s developer has not yet secured the rights to better images of areas outside of the United States (kind of a downer on the whole “
Earthscape” thing). (Below are images of Beijing from Earthscape, left, and Google Maps).
Relocating to areas in the United States, like the Grand Canyon, or Times Square, display much better quality images, although the satellite photos of cities seem to pale in comparison to those found in the free Google Maps program on your iPhone.
Links to relevant Wikipedia pages are also displayed on the map. This can be problematic if you are trying to zoom in on a city, but keep hitting its name and bringing up its Wikipedia entry instead.
Review
If you bought this app for the purposes of zooming in on your swimming pool or finding the nearest Hooters, you’ll be disappointed. Besides the fact that the free Google Maps application allows you to do those things, the image quality for cities is just not there in Earthscape Basic (it’s pretty crappy, actually).
But the app does do a good job with its perspective view on terrain. Flying through detailed mountain ranges and glaciers from the palm of your hand is a pretty cool experience. At the same time, the app seems to do best with mountains and hills, while waterfalls and canyons don’t seem to have the same effect.
Its lack of a search feature is also disappointing, along with its huge price tag, which, although the app is complicated, is not warranted with Earthscape’s sometimes poor image quality and problems with some terrains.
The app also has a tendency to crash and has no way of marking favorite places. There is also no option for a grid view or any kind of on-screen compass (while the app usually points north by default, it can be confusing when you’re trying to look at penguins in Antarctica, or swirling around in the perspective view).
For $9.99 this app needed to offer more than Google Earth offers on your desktop for free. Instead it offers less and costs more than some of the most effective games and tools that we have seen. If the price was dropped, this would be a decent buy. Right now it’s too expensive to be selling as a halfway-there, pocket-sized world viewer.
Summary
Earthscape Basic can be impressive and has the potential to be an amazing 3-D world viewer in your pocket, but it needs a lot of work to warrant its currently high price. Let’s hope for some .
