BattleForge

Since I’ve become a console addict, I hardly turn to my PC for gaming. It could also be because my computer now has such outdated hardware, that it’s better to use it as a doorstop or expensive paperweight. But before the era of console gaming, I used to love playing strategy games on my PC. The joys of scouring a map for resources, amassing a great army and then flattening an enemy base would send scintillating waves of pure pleasure through me (yes, you can tell I needed to get out more). So when I received BattleForge, the ‘strategy game with a difference’ to review for the PC, I was keen to jump back into my resource hoarding days of yesteryear.

What’s strikingly different about BattleForge is that there isn’t exactly any resource to  gather. And you don’t have to construct countless buildings and upgrade them to unlock newer units. This in itself puts a very different spin on the game, hence the ‘strategy game with a difference’ dubbing. BattleForge is all about magic and conquest, and your army is represented by a deck of magical cards. You can choose to create your deck from one of four primary elements – fire, frost, nature, and spirit, or mix and match different elements in your deck. To summon your army, you simply select the unit’s card from your deck, and click next to an adjacent building or unit to summon them instantly onto the battlefield. In order to summon units, you need two things – orbs and power. Orbs are simply elemental spheres held at special buildings called Monuments. When you build more Monuments of a particular element, more powerful cards in your deck will be unlocked for you to use. Power is amassed simply by building a Power Well on specific power sources on the map. By keeping the resource gathering extremely simple, the game allows you to concentrate more on your army, and the instant cast means that the tide of battle can sway either way when you confront your enemy. You also have the option of casting devastating spells during battle, some of which can obliterate an entire army from the map.

Rather than be a game that is to be played alone, BattleForge focuses strongly on online play. There are a few single-player maps that you can try out to gain experience, but most of the maps are large ones meant for teams of 2 or 4 players. Once you join a team map, the gameplay is fast and frantic, as the computer AI skillfully sends waves of troops into your camps just as you’re getting the hang of things. Most of the map objectives are similar, which involve you either rescuing a group of units or plundering an enemy base.  If you’d rather not go for the scenario maps, there are battlefield locations on the map where you can go head to head against other players to show your deck prowess.

At the end of each victory, you’re given random card rewards, such as new units or spells, or unit upgrades, which you can purchase to make your deck stronger. Capitalizing on the online aspect, the game allows you to trade cards with other players as well, or buy new abilities in the marketplace. It’s almost reminiscent of the ‘Street Fighter’ card collecting days of my youth where we would frantically swap duplicate cards with each other in order to build a stronger deck.

While the maps are often quite large and have a good amount to do in them, what’s a little bit frustrating is that you will always need an Internet connection to play the game, even if you want to run through the tutorial or play any of the single-player maps. This is quite a downside, as the ability to play the single-player maps offline would have been a great boost to the game. The other somewhat annoying thing is that the game is still undergoing a variety of bug fixes, so every so often the game will need to download the appropriate patch, which can vary anywhere from 30MB to over 200MB in size. The update servers also don’t seem to be handling traffic very well, as I often got extremely slow download speeds, or was disconnected mid-update.

The graphics in the game are fairly decent, and some of the spell effects are just downright nifty. The ‘Explosion’ spell is nothing but fiery goodness, and causes a small ball to appear on the battlefield, spinning rapidly and gradually growing in size, before finally imploding and releasing a massive wave of energy, throwing units backwards and leaving a charred crater in its wake. The sound effects are also quite good, with some units having quite hilarious voiceovers (“Here kitty, kitty” being my favorite).

BattleForge is an interesting take on strategy games, and it’s non-traditional approach seems to work, and with some of the map missions taking anywhere up to half an hour to complete, the game offers a unique experience whether you’re playing solo or on a team. The need for an Internet connection even for the singleplayer maps is a bit baffling, but I highly doubt you’d want to play a game like this on your own for very long.