Attack and Destroy Takes a Shot at Turn-Based Strategy on the iPad

Despite the relative lack of turn-based strategy titles in mobile and social gaming, it's a genre that lends itself well to those two platforms. So we were happy to find Attack and Destroy, a fairly new iPad (and iPhone) game from Appular that includes multiplayer modes and OpenFeint integration. Attack and Destroy is about as simple as the title suggests. Using three special forces units, players work toward the enemy stronghold at the far side of a top-down map, all the while protecting their own base. This setup is reminiscent to Digital Chocolate’s epic Facebook app, NanoStar Siege, but at a much more simplified level. However, while simplicity is often a good thing in mobile games, it tends to work against Appular in this particular case because of drastically limited strategies and overly simplistic mechanics and levels. Each unit comes with a pair of abilities and is in one of four classes: Grunt, Sniper, Scout, and Engineer. In short, Grunts are siege type characters, taking and dishing out damage (particularly to buildings). Snipers have long range, but are slow moving. Scouts are fast and move great distances, but have, supposedly, low damage. And last, Engineers are defensive in that they can build seemingly limitless static turrets, but are fairly weak themselves. Every match is broken up into a set number of turns, each of which consists of a planning and execution stage. In the former, users select what units will use what special ability (i.e. the Sniper can turn invisible, while the Scout can run extremely fast), and draw a path to where they want them to go. As the path is drawn, a cone representing line of sight appears, and shows where the unit can shoot. Moving units (except the Sniper, who must be stationary) will attack anything within that cone. The idea is to reach the enemy stronghold and destroy it before running out of the allowed number of turns. The problem is that, aside from the Scout, none of the units move very far per turn, and it takes three to four turns just to walk them to the other end, which must be repeated if they die. This is where the headache begins. Just having a unit die doesn't seem like it would be the end of the world, as a helicopter will pick them up and drop them back at your base to revive. But the wounded unit will be out of commission for an extra turn, which feels like a lot in the 15 or so turns allowed to destroy the enemy base. Adding to the potential for disaster, units take damage just from shooting the enemy base -- so if you get there with low health, you're out of luck. Also, the average single player match takes about 15-20 minutes, but running out of turns means complete failure and a restart, which feels like too much of a punishment. In the purely defensive missions, which only require that you survive until the turns run out, the game is so easy it becomes boring. Occasionally, players also get a special power to call down an air strike that will take out the enemies in its path. At those times, Attack and Destroy becomes a bit more forgiving in both its attack and defend modes, and allows you to progress without dealing with less enemies for a turn or two. Unfortunately, the game likes to put landmines everywhere, so by the time you reach the enemy base, you have low health and die after a couple shots. Unfortunately, in addition to these irritants it doesn’t feel like there is any real strategic value to be had in Attack and Destroy. The individual special abilities don’t really feel like they do much, and with narrow maps, so few units, and everyone having, potentially, the same types of units, it really feels more a game of luck and who gets more critical hits. Granted, players chooses what three units they will use, but other than the Sniper, in general, and the laying of turrets by the Engineer, they just don’t feel different enough. A perfect example is a Scout doing roughly the same damage as a Grunt. The other reason strategy feels weak is because things tend to die pretty quickly. Everything is more a tactical reaction to the immediate situation rather than a truly thought out plan. Thankfully, Attack and Destroy makes up for some of its shortcomings in the multiplayer department. Between Bluetooth and same-device synchronous multiplayer, the game does have the potential to be a lot more fun that it is in single player. Competition and human intelligence make the game more interesting as other people not only become more creative in both strategy and tactics, but unlike AI, make more blatant mistakes to exploit. Additionally, the multiplayer modes have 999 turns as opposed to just a handful. The game is also socially enabled on the OpenFeint network. As per usual for such games, this means sharable achievements and various leaderboards. Those are nice additions, but Attack and Destroy also feels like it could work nicely with asynchronous multiplayer -- either through turns and notifications or more passively, as in NanoStar Siege (where players set up defensive AI themselves). Additionally, there is a Challenge Mode that can be unlocked, but doing so requires completion of the nine single player missions. Honestly, it may not seem like much, but with the overly simplistic strategic features, slogging through single player is actually very boring to do. Overall, Attack and Destroy has a great concept but an unfortunate lack of variety and overly simplistic mechanics. Tactically, the game comes off as alright, but even strategy enthusiasts may not find it worth the $1.99 price tag (though if you do wish to buy it, the increased screen real estate on the iPad makes for a much better experience). All the same, the multiplayer and social integrations do help, even if not enough to carry the rest of the title. Long story short, Attack and Destroy is a game that’s going to need a few more updates before it's truly worth while.

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Attack and Destroy Takes a Shot at Turn-Based Strategy on the iPad

Christopher Mack

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Christopher Mack