Battleship (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.8 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Moira Muldoon
• Reviewed on: 02/27/1997
• Updated on: 05/01/2000
• Released on: 09/30/1996
• Originally published on GameSpot: Battleship (PC) Review

"You sank my battleship!" Ah, the sounds of childhood Saturday afternoons and a really memorable ad campaign. Dense blue plastic, knobby little red and white pieces (which the dog always tried to eat), and really strategic guesswork. Now that was fun.

Rather than simply relying on nostalgia to sell games, Hasbro develops, tweaks, adds, and replots the game until you have not only the standard Battleship, but also World Domination mode, air warfare, naval warfare, helicopters to fly, islands to defend, oil rigs to protect, and enemy submarines to torpedo. Some great visuals accompany an intuitive interface and suddenly the game of childhood afternoons becomes the one of I-really-should-be-working adult afternoons. This is a strategic, real-time wargame, and one thoughtful enough to include both host and guest CDs so you'll always be able to attack your friends.

While there can be no doubt that Hasbro has added extraordinary depth to this game, there is one big, fundamental flaw: the "Classic" game. This is the game you'd expect - the direct translation of the Battleship you grew up with to the PC screen. Fire missiles into enemy waters and hope you hit your opponent's aircraft carrier; little gridded squares turn white when you miss and red when you hit. And when you hit, you're treated to a cutscene with a dramatic explosion of your weapon of destruction hitting the enemy ship.

However, the Classic game springs a serious leak: no strategy. Not an intensely complicated game with intricate strategic developments to begin with, it's now just a guess-fest. The reason for this? You can't turn your boats lengthwise. Try as you might, you just can't. Sure, you can move your boat from one end of the grid to the other, but only horizontally. Try to flip it around vertically and you'll find yourself frustrated. And if that wasn't bad enough, those dramatic cutscenes also show you which of your opponent's boats you just hit. So when you fire your first missile and see it hit the aircraft carrier squarely in the middle, you know you have to hit it exactly four more times to make it sink. Same thing holds true for the submarine, the battleship, and the rest.

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