Desert Stormfront: Full Real-Time Strategy on your mobile
phone!
Back in the nineties there was a strong period of strategy games which
spawned the likes of Mega Lo Mania,The Settlers, Warcraft… the list is endless
and now the developers at Noble Master Games have created a strategy game for
your touchscreen phone: Desert Stormfront. Check out the good points about this
game below…
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| Top games android: Desert Stormfront |
Gameplay: This is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game which
means that all the action happens live in real time as opposed to turn based
games. This means that you need to think quickly and react instantly. Perhaps
a better explanation is that Desert Stormfront is like Starcraft 2, but it’s a
cut down version instead. For you classic gamers out there, then the best
description is that this is a cross of Command and Conquer with Civilization
2.
At this point you may still wondering how such a complicated game type could
be put into a touch screen phone and maybe you’re thinking about what kind of
game compromises have been made. Well I can gladly say that this is very close
to a full RTS. There’s resource gathering, economy management, unit production,
complementing military units, the fog of war and most importantly you have to
control your units to obliterate the enemy. To satisfy proper hardcore RTS fans
then there are even control groups which you can assign units to!
Relative to the vast domain of growing mobile phone gamers, these strategy
games are likely to be very niche. So to add a bit more color for those who
still don’t know about RTS games, here’s a very short overview. In Desert
Stormfront you need to send jeeps into oil refineries and strongholds to take
ownership of them. Once you own the oil refineries then you will automatically
generate cash which will fund the military unit production at your strongholds.
After you have your economy setup then you can start building an army. (When in
doubt the trick is to mass build the units you think will work.) The best
players will understand that the unit composition is critical to win in the
fights – all units have their strengths and weaknesses. Then the aim is to
storm the enemy strongholds and wipe them out, but usually you’ll need to send
multiple waves of units to whittle down the enemy forces. There are control
groups available so you can then direct sets of units at once (instead of
clicking on each single unit).
Gut feel: Desert Stormfront is pretty darn amazing and the
campaign missions seem to be as clever as the modern RTS missions. The ability
to play this game with one finger touch is truly amazing and the developers have
definitely accounted for many factors. Eventhough multi-touch doesn’t appear to
be employed here, we suspect this won’t be far away as the phone technology gets
to that fully reliable multi touch state.
First Thoughts: When our team sat down with the game we were
blown away by the epic music tracks that are in the game. They make you feel
like you’re about to go to war in Gladiator and there’s beautiful depth in
sound! The next big thing anyone would notice is the old school elements…
Retro action: This game is fully stylised with nineties
classic sprite graphics which are accompanied with old school midi-like sound
effects. As I write this even I am confused because there’s very high quality
music which is matched up with low quality sound effects… but it works!
What’s in this Free Version? There’s a tutorial and four missions given for
you to try. Although that may sound like very little, quite a lot is exposed:
you get to see most of the Land, Sea and Air units (Jeeps, Tanks, Submarines,
Hovercraft, Carriers Choppers and Fighters come to mind). In addition to this
you will see the core game mechanics. So if you like these types of games then
you’ll know if Desert Stormfront is for you.
Downers: Unfortunately not everything is explained in the
game so it’s quite easy for a new player to get lost. Even a semi experienced
player may have to play the same round a few times in case they make a round
losing mistake. Although we’ve praised the developer’s single touch interface
solution, it’s still tough to use. We suspect a new player would find it sticky
and a hardcore purist would feel too restricted. Is this what it would be like
playing starcraft 2 with a single button mouse on the mac?
Rating: 4/5 A truly superb Real Time Strategy game for your mobile phone. We
highly encourage all players to give the free version a try. If you like this
game then buy the full version!
Video review:
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