Battleships Forever

Chris Kruger

PC

Battleships Forever attracted the spotlight recently when it became a finalist in the design innovation category at this year's Indie Games Festival. That is where I first heard about it. Intrigued by the screen shots and it's claim to be a Real Time Strategy of sort, I downloaded it to check it out and I was very pleasantly surprised.

Before I go on to tell you about the game I thought I would detail its history. Battleships Forever has been developed over a period of years by Sean "th15" Chan, a Singaporean student of games design. Additional supporting tools were written by comrade in arms, Jack Coady. The game is inspired by "Warning Forever" another Indie game written by a Japanese fellow named Hikoza T Ohkubo. In developing this ambitious title Sean used the Gamemaker toolkit and he has pushed it to it's limits.

While Battleships Forever is clearly graphically inspired by Warning Forever, Sean has evolved the game play significantly. The former being quite clearly a simplified real time strategy game and the latter being a shoot-em-up with a twist.

Battleships is a 2D game and it makes heavy use of stylized vector graphics, a clear artistic decision. Visually, your first instinct leads you to believe the game is a shoot-em-up but once you have learned the basic controls and you start to get the hang of the strategies involved to progress you realize it is really a real time strategy game. The game play is straightforward and unlike many current day real time strategy games there is no resource management and no diplomacy to divert your attention. This gives you a rarefied and pure tactical experience that's quick to get into, yet still has depth.

As there is no terrain to exploit to tactical advantage in space you need to look elsewhere for advantage over your enemies. Ship formations, arcs of fire, relative position and the right balance of firepower, defence and mobility all play a part in ensuring victory in this game.

There are three broad classes of ship design in this game, a fitting description of each would be along the lines of frigate, destroyer and battleship. Within each class there are variations suitable for different tasks. Some are fragile and fast, others are fragile and hard hitting while yet others are slow and tough. Some ships stand out simply by possessing unique abilities. In general game balance is good, and as one uncovers the depth in game play, you always feel there are yet undiscovered tactics and depths to explore. It unfolds in a way which endears the game to the player.

The ships are segmented and major components have their own characteristics. Individual parts can be targeted and separately destroyed and in the process of taking down larger ships there is definite advantage to be gained by targeting components in a specific order. Offensive weapons can be destroyed, shield generators taken down and protective armour belts removed in order to prevail against enemy craft.

Like tanks, many ships are better protected and armed in their frontal arcs and this is where manoeuvre really becomes important. Splitting a fleet to allow your heavily armoured ships to take the brunt of an enemy fleet's firepower while allowing your quick and hard hitting frigates loose on the flanks, will almost always yield significantly better results. Some Battleships are almost invulnerable from the front while undamaged. Shield generators protecting heavy armour belts can absorb your entire fleet's firepower while allowing your enemy's heavy weapons to chew large chunks out of your ships. Getting some of your fleet on to the flanks, or even behind, these behemoths is your only chance of survival.

There is considerable variety in the different types of armaments on available ships. Rail, plasma, pulse, Gatling guns and more make it into play. Not to mention several different types of missile, drones and fabricator modules. The depth in this game is quite impressive for such an outwardly simple looking title.

Sean has designed a small campaign with storyline which is highly recommended for first time players of the game as an introduction to the basics of manoeuvre and tactics. The campaign is pretty generic but challenging and entertaining none the less. It takes the first time player a little over an hour to complete.

Once you've completed the campaign you're ready to tackle one of the game's four skirmish modes. Titled Leviathan, Grinder, Escort and Raid. The Leviathan skirmish mode sees you with your fleet of ships face off against a gigantic space station. The objective is simple. Destroy as much of the "Leviathan" before time or your supply of ships runs out. Grinder places you and your selected fleet, plus a small allied space station, against progressively tougher alien fleets. This skirmish mode was by far my favourite but I found it really difficult to progress past a certain point. While you do destroy more than your fair share of enemies, by the time the really challenging foes come your way your precious fleet is mostly scrap. Pickups play a large part towards your success in Grinder. Destroying enemies swiftly will yield pickups that provide repair stations, gun platforms or even fleet reserves, watch for them. The Escort skirmish mode may appeal to some, but didn't especially to me. It gives you the task of protecting a small merchant fleet from incoming aggressors. Finally, the Raid skirmish mode will place your fleet in an attack against an enemy stronghold.

High scores in all the skirmish modes can be uploaded over the Internet to a global high score table. Try as I might, I never came close to achieving a score high enough to rate a mention. There are some serious fans of this game out there, and the time they have spent perfecting their hobby shows.

In addition to the four skirmish modes there is a sandbox mode which is undoubtedly responsible for the significant lasting appeal of this game. Battleships Forever comes with a Ship Maker (c/- Jack Coady) tool that allows you to construct your own ships and load them into the Battleships Forever game. You can try your ship designs in the Battleships Forever sandbox and pit them against whatever enemies you wish to send in against them. It's extremely addictive and there is some competitive spirit on the Battleships Forever forums, with people trying to design the ultimate ship or fleet.

One cannot help be impressed by this almost solo effort. At the present moment it's quite polished, well rounded, has depth and fun game play. This is an indie title well worth having a look at.

Fans of Battleships Forever have been screaming for multi-player capability to add even more scope to this fun to play game. While Sean seems very aware of this fact it's unclear at this point if he will endeavour to add this functionality. Firstly it's likely the Gamemaker tool is limited in it's network capabilities. Secondly it's unclear if Sean himself is motivated to do so. In any case Sean has made his mark and we look forward to seeing more titles from this industrious and talented Indie game developer.

The game is available for download on Sean Chan's Wyrdysm Studios website. While there you can also check out the Battleships Forever forums, read a short history of the game and check out Sean's Bio.

9/10