Overview
Strategic Assault is a simple (by RTS standards) strategy game that pits two armies against each other in desert battlegrounds. Players capture strategic points to gain resources, then use those resources to construct their army. With a surprisingly large number of units and 15 missions, there is a lot packed into a fairly inexpensive package here.
Features
There are plenty of unit types to build, giving you multiple options when taking the fight to your enemy. I was surprised to see naval and air units in the game, and while they're not as numerous as their land counterparts, it still adds great variety to the game.
- Well-Designed Touch Controls
Though the iPhone’s screen is small and RTS games typically require a decent amount of screen real estate to provide a good experience, Strategic Assault’s controls and setup allow for an acceptable level of battlefield control.
Strategic Assault's level selection is, thankfully, well fleshed-out. With 15 different maps, each getting progressively harder, this game provides a lot of bang for a buck.
Breakdown
The Good:
I am a huge RTS fan. I have spent countless hours in Starcraft, Supreme Commander, Age of Empires, you name it. This felt like an RTS to me. Resource management, balancing offense/defense, unit combinations, and micromanagement all came into play in Strategic Assault. Mobile gaming has come a long way from the traditional Snake and Breakout offerings.
There was surprising depth and fun to be had in this game. I found myself taking extra time to place APCs in front of my tanks to absorb damage and give the tanks more time to take out enemies. I found myself clicking (well, touching) around the map quickly and purposefully. I was “in the zone” just as if I had a mouse and keyboard at my fingertips.
Once I figured out all the controls, I was pleased with the options available to me. Creating groups and adding units to them was fairly easy, and getting around the map to issue commands was actually doable. I ended up using my left thumb to navigate using the minimap and my right index finger to issue commands to units. This worked well enough that I could play without feeling too constrained by the small screen or visible area.
The Bad:
Lots of little things detracted from the experience here. I have to start off with the lack of instructions, which is a big pet peeve of mine. Don’t drop players into the middle of a game without arming them with knowledge, unless it’s an intentional feature of the experience. It only serves to frustrate people and turn them off from playing.
A big limitation to the gameplay was the inability to build structures outside of a certain radius around the starting point. I ran into plenty of situations where I was skirmishing back and forth over a strategic point and I would have greatly benefited from being able to build defensive towers once I had captured the area. Instead, structures are relegated to main base defense and expanding the kinds of units you can build.
I ran into a couple issues that didn’t bother me too much, but I’d have written them up in a bug sweep. If there are too many explosions going on, the sound appears to clip and/or crackle. Also, if you can get a unit in the right spot behind a Strategic point, enemies will fire at them without going around the point, basically allowing you to hold it indefinitely. This came in handy a few times, but I’d file it under “exploit”. Finally, there was some choppiness when scrolling across the map.
Verdict
Fun! Worth more than a dollar. At home, I’m not going to take this out and play it rather than hop on some Supreme Commander, but on the go, this could definitely be fun to wrap my head around. I recommend it for RTS fans, strategic thinkers, and anyone who likes seeing things blow up.
