Battle Academy
Cost: $19.99 | Developer: Slitherine | Platform: iPad | Version: 1.9 | 191 MB |
Yep, you saw the price right: Battle Academy is a premium-priced game. Luckily the game itself is also seriously good.
It’s a true wargame. Players control units of soldiers, tanks, and mortars in a realistic World War II-style setting, and are given the task to recreate (or rewrite) history. Players will need to take into account terrain, morale, supply and move to outflank their opponents. There’s a lot of real military strategy on offer here.
The BBC license helps give the game some authenticity, and history buffs will get a kick out of the accurate recreation of the strengths and weaknesses of the various weapons and vehicles that were put into use during WWII. The single player campaign itself is fairly brief, but there’s a superb multiplayer mode on offer for armchair strategists.
Essentially Battle Academy recreates the atmosphere of playing a table-top wargame. That’s a niche market to attack (and would explain the premium price), but Slitherine have got it right. It looks good, plays well, and really engages with the brain matter in a very chess-like application of military strategy.
Pros: A very deep, complex and intelligent game.
Cons: Right up there with the most expensive games on the App Store.
Verdict: For anyone looking for a real game, and not just an Angry Birds-style diversion, Battle Academy is your game.
Get it here: Apple App Store
This app was reviewed on an Apple iPad.
Got a favourite app? Email our appmeister, Patrick Budmar, your review or the name of the app you would like to see reviewed.
