Game Review: Battle (Commodore 16 and Plus/4, Mastertronic)

A battle is raging in the North Sea, as the last remaining deposits of oil are being sought.  There are two rival companies who have four oil rigs working day and night, and each is more than determined to put the other out of business.  They can do so with their armed forces of four ships, two submarines, a plane, and a helicopter – and the object of the game is to either destroy all the armed forces so that they cannot attack you, or destroy their oil rigs, so they have nothing to defend.  You can also play one player against the computer or two against each other.

Missing In Action

As Battle is a strategy game, it is well worth a read of the instructions first so that you can understand what to do.  Unfortunately, the text is small meaning that it is not the easiest to read.  In addition, when reading the instructions it refers to a set of icons that refer to your weapons, with no idea which is which.  It may have been handy to include a replica of the screen shot to show you which icon is which, and that would help you get into the game initially.  Effectively, for each player, there is the input phase, where the commands are input, and these are at least clearly labelled.  Once all the commands are input this changes to the action phase where the commands you entered happen, and it is turn based so that you get to go, then the other player or computer has their turn inputting, followed by the action.

Commencing Battle

The game asks whether you wish to play the computer or not.  It is worth noting that in one player mode, the computer player is red (on the left-hand side) and you are blue on the right.  You will also note when starting the game that there are several green islands. Planes can stop there but naturally ships must steer around.   Similarly, for the ships and submarines, if the forward face of the ship is North, then even if you sail backwards, then the true course is still North.  This for example affects the submarines when they fire, and makes sense to know which course that your seafaring fleet are aiming in.  All will become clearer during play when the icons for the moving and action are shown.

The computer opponent works out their moves, shown by the display at the bottom of the screen, and then it is your turn.  Each of the icons that show in the bottom left matches your forces, so normally this is the ships, submarines and then plane and helicopter.  For each of those, you can choose whether to use R or L to turn right or left, S to stop but remain on the same course, B to move opposite direction to facing (but it faces the same way), D dives a sub with U to bring it back up, and D can dip the helicopter’s sonar if it has stopped.

Ready, Aim, Fire!

The second part of the input phase is using the weapons for each of the fleet.  The plane’s rockets and the submarine’s torpedoes fire the way they are facing when pressing F, with the ships having guns. For other weapons, keys 1 to 8 fire in the direction that they represent, so 1 is North, 3 is East, 5 is South, 7 is West and the diagonals in between  Two of the ships have rockets and two have depth charges, and the icons at the bottom show which weapon is being used.  Again, it would have made sense for the instructions to refer to a screen showing which is which to aid you, especially on initial play.  You can also press RETURN if you do not want to fire that particular weapon, which can be handy especially in the initial stages.  You can also press P to pass play on to your opponent, so if you do not want to press RETURN a lot to skip each weapon, you can use that – a sensible idea there and shows thought has been put in to playability.

Time For Action

Once both players have made their moves, the action phase commences.  This shows the forces moving as needed and if any of them fire, the bottom of the screen changes to show the ship, plane, or submarine firing and if hit, an explosion shows on screen with some minimal sound effects.  You can if you are not careful hit something directly in front of you if it is your own ship for example, so it is much better not to fire and to get into suitable position first before firing, then let suitable battle commence.  Consequently, it is key to press RETURN as needed early on to move into a good position, then fire as needed to hopefully destroy the enemy.

North Sea Oil Rig

The four oil rigs are depicted on screen as graphics too, and these are the ones which do not move.  Naturally you do not want to destroy your own rigs, so careful firing is needed to ensure this does not happen.  If all four of the opponent’s rigs are destroyed, then you will win – even if you are only down to one ship.  If on the other hand all your forces are destroyed, then that it also a win for your opponent.  The key here is not to go out all guns blazing, but to use careful use of the sonar in the helicopter, which can detect a dived submarine, sound an alarm and show it on screen briefly so you know where it is.  That is a nice touch and shows that plenty of thought has been put into the strategy elements.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Battle are very small with a single user defined graphic on the field of play for each of the forces and the oil rigs themselves.  The islands show well enough from a top-down viewpoint, and the icons at the bottom, once you work out what they mean, serve their purpose well.  The little animated sequences for the firing during the action phase are small but at least show what is happening, and warmly welcomed.  The sound effects are minimal, mainly beeps for each of the input phases and the explosions during 8the action phase – somewhat understandable given the need to fit the game and its rules into the limited memory available to work on a stock unexpanded Commodore 16.

Final Thoughts

Battle is an attempt at something different for the Commodore 16 and Plus/4, a turn based two player strategy game, with plenty of emphasis on not just all out battle, but manoeuvring into position and then setting off the relevant weapons to destroy the opponent and their oil rigs into the bargain.  It does take some time to get used to, and had the instructions been documented a little better with a screen shot showing the icons referred to, that would have been much more helpful to get first time players up and running.  Once you do start to get into it, there is at least some strategy to think about, and ensuring that you do not blow up your own forces before you get chance to despatch the opponent is crucial.  It does also at least play well for what it is, and although having to cram everything into the memory limitations does mean some compromises, there is at least some longevity once you get into it.  Having a two-player mode and being able to play against a friend certainly helps to add to that.

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