The times, they are a-changin’. Slowly but surely, traditional PC developers are starting to embrace the mobile phone and tablet gaming future - one that is argued to be nothing but a haven for super-accessible, ‘casual’ experiences. Creative Assembly, as a result, was no doubt presented with quite a conundrum when developing Total War Battles: Shogun for iOS.
Its
Total War series of real-time strategy games are, for a start, seen as pretty hardcore experiences. Not necessarily in a ‘too hot to handle’ kind of way, but in the sense that its mechanics and interface are quite comprehensive. As a result, a second problem rolls around - getting an RTS game to work on iOS devices at all. Touch-enabled ‘ports’, such as
SimCity Deluxe (a reincarnation of
SimCity 3000), have proven to suck major balls. A fresh direction is necessary.
And fresh is what Creative Assembly has really gone for here. Gone are the open worlds and mouse-controlled play you recognise on the PC, in favour of a straightforward honeycomb grid viewed from an isometric perspective. One the left hand side, your headquarters and troops are readying for battle. On the right hand side, the enemy awaits.
The result is a battle for power that usually begins when both troops meet in the middle of the battlefield, and ends when one side is pushed back and defeated. Each unit in your army commands its own honeycomb on the board, and troops are manipulated by tapping on them and then selecting a direction to move. Your men can only advance across the board, in a diagonal fashion - and if they come across an enemy unit, they’ll stop and engage in ferocious battle.
This all happens in real time, and there’s no limit to how far you can move your units. You are, of course, restricted in how many units you can build have on the map at once. The former is controlled by resource management. All troops, be they spearmen, swordsmen or archers, need to be created using materials gained from various buildings. Lumber yards generate wood and blacksmiths give you iron, for example. Establishments such as barracks and trading posts allow you to actually build different armymen.
Engaging in the enemy boils down to a glorified round of rock, paper, scissors. Archers can nobble spearmen, for example, while spearmen can take out swordsmen. The more enemies you defeat, the more experience points you collect and the better your chances of evolving your army. There are up to nine different tech trees to research into, and that will allow you to have the historical advantage on your foe.
For a tablet and mobile device game,
Total War Battles: Shogun is a really good fit. It almost feels like you’re playing a complex board game - and if you have to dart off the train it’s a pretty accessible little thing to jump back into. Creative Assembly also showed off a multiplayer mode, which has two players sharing a touchscreen and trying to conquer one another on a much smaller grid.
The differences in this mode are that you don’t have any buildings to worry about in terms of unit creation - each player is given a randomised deck of troop cards, which are made available after a time limit. With good timing, a canny player can knacker an opponent’s army before his deck is replenished and win the game. The beauty of it is that you could be playing one game for absolutely ages, as you constantly stalemate with your opponent in the middle of the grid before that chance breakthrough.
Creative Assembly is promising a 15-hour campaign mode in addition to this - the story of which is told through the missions themselves and your actions, rather than lengthy cutscenes. For anyone who’s never touched a Total War game for fear of getting massively confused, this portable version promises to be the perfect antidote. And fans itching to get a mobile fix certainly won’t be disappointed.
Total War Battles: Shogun is now available to purchase on the iOS App Store.
