Battle Tanks from Game Loft is as old skool as they come. A simple yet addictive game best played with friends or online, this is an enjoyable game in short spurts and doses and has great replay factor as long as you can find people to play with.
The Premise
This is an update of an old Atari game but has just as much in common with Bomberman in a way. Basically you have small arena’s, you are a tank and you must make sure you’ll be the last one standing by any means nessecary.
The Gameplay
Now as simple as the premise is, we know that simple games can be the best. Basically each arena has lots of walls and hiding points. You can have up to four players battling at once and you can’t all hide from each other. Therefore your own style of playing detirmines just how you get on with Battle Tanks. You can hide, but you’ll not gain the points you’ll want and the walls can be blown up too. You can’t go in all guns blazing as everyone will pick you off. You could make alliances to take out others but all it takes is two shots and you’ll be on fire and wanting revenge. Basically, no game is ever identical as everyone has to think on the spot and think fast too. Battle Tanks is designed to be a quick game.
The single player mode has 50 levels to get through which is great fun on its own but the mutliplayer shines the most. You have death match, team death match and capture the flag. Most people will be on the deathmatches it seems.
The Graphics
The graphics are poor, there’s no denying it. It’s top down, minimal but gets the job done. Each round is time limited and when the times up the arena is blasted and the slow down during this phase is horrible. Apart from that, everything runs perfectly fun, just don’t expect too much!
The Sound
Sound is passable, again, its one of those added extras and this is a bare bones battle attack game focused entirely on quick rounds for quick hits. Having said that, all the sounds needed are there. *bang*
The Replay Factor
This is where Battle Tanks wins. For a game that last in line for looks and personality, it certainly knows how to get you hooked in on its gameplay. When you’re on fire and losing your last life in a four player melee, you will want revenge and you will play again and again until everyone else’s tanks are in the scrap heap! What’s great is to have an online battle PSN game that’s not a complete pain to find matches on. Battle Tanks has not yet kicked me out of a match or suffered from lag yet. Trophies are available but there aren’t very many of them and only one seems like a massive haul for a silver.
The Positives
~Great old school gameplay
~Seemless 4 player battles really pull you in
The Negatives
~Some graphical slowdown ontop of some not-so-great visuals is a shame
The Conclusion
Battle Tanks is a fun little game. The single player mode will keep you going for a couple of hours while the multplayer mode deserves a lot of attention for actually getting everything right in terms of connection and lack of lag. Will it change the face of gaming? Of course not! There’s nothing new here at all, but that’s half the points. It’s a perfect drop in, battle, drop out game inbetween hours of Fat Princess or your other vice game you get engrossed in for far too long.