The GU iOS Game of the Week -- Imperium Galactica II: Alliances

There is always the issue of relying too much on cliche when you create a sci-fi based combat game, especially one that is well-grounded in strategy and resource management like this one, but somehow the folks over at Digital Reality not only manage to do this, but they do it on an interesting platform and at the same time manage to imbue the touch-based controls of the iPAD into a solid game asset.

One of the issues that tends to bog fusion games down is the need to manage lots of information and make lots of choices -- often on-the-fly -- but the use of the touch-based controls in the game actually lends itself towards making the process less challenging and even more intuitive than might otherwise be the case, so that the player not only quickly acquires a useable working strategy for their choices, but the control interface actually adds to the gameplay experience! What do we mean?

One of the prime examples for this is tech research -- which we do not have to emphasize will come to play an important role in your adventure as you proceed along the path towards galactic domination. Now they could just as easily have designed the game to rely only upon graphs and meter bars (a lot of games do that) but instead they built into the interface the capability to observe progress as part of the decision-making process! The specific example here is the way that the game depicts your progress in researching different tech in the form of the image that represents the project evolving as you progress, so that popping into that side of the controls is really all you need to do to obtain visual confirmation of your progress.

The combat interface enjoys the same sort of user-friendly, easy to master form, providing a reasonably shallow learning curve that is such that, once you fully understand the structure and your strategy, you reach a point where the controls are no longer something you have to actively think about while using them -- and that is all by itself a major bonus for gamers. If you have played some of the recent AAA titles (Mass Effect springs to mind) that use complicated controls that require thought, you will quickly see how that is a major benefit -- but it is more than simply making the controls intuitive -- they HAD to do that for this game because of the platform.

No matter what mobile game platform you prefer, there is a basic axiom to creating games for it -- they have to be capable of play in bite-sized chunks, and they have to allow the player to make a few moves and then be called away from the game unexpectedly. A really good mobile game/app -- and this is a really good one -- needs to take into account the fact that most gamers who play on those platforms do not approach it in the same manner as they do traditional gaming on console and PC -- they don't set aside a block of time to game because gaming in this mindset is more about convenience and being entertained than it is about conforming to the requirements that are imposed by traditional game design.

To make that happen in a game like this one you have to build into it the capability to quickly assess the current tactical situation and then rapidly move into action-mode. There is no time to bivouac while you dispatch spies to check out the lay of the enemy forces and advise you on what to do -- instead you need to quickly act -- and the use of perspective-oriented mini-maps with the ability to rotate and spin them and the option of speeding up or slowing down time using the time bar is a start, and the option to queue up actions? Well, that might sound like a given in this sort of game but you would be surprised how often it is left out when games are designed! Not the case here though, because stacking moves is part of the basic combat system -- as is useful utility moves like grouping units together so that they can attack -- or defend -- as a single entity.

Make no mistake about it -- under the well-polished exterior is a military strategy game in which basic and advanced tactics from individual units to squad tactics and even force tactics are not only necessary but make up a major element in the time-saving strategy that was engineered into this game! Any butter bar going through squad tactics training knows how and why you flank the enemy, entertain them with feint attacks, and when it is time for a full frontal assault, and being able to group forces in order to facilitate those basic moves is a godsend.

In the end as we played with the interface, experimented with the different units to learn what they could do and what their natural weaknesses were, it quickly became obvious that the people who created this game did so by thinking through the problems that often face a commander in the field while at the same time reserved the privilege of offering the player the ability to play the game at the single unit level if they wanted to -- and that makes all the difference.

You can probably tell that we were favorably impressed with this game -- that is not to say that it is perfect mind you, as there are some weaknesses in its design and implementation -- but thankfully they take the form of easy to ignore minor quibbles that do not negatively impact actual game play.

The use of Cut Scenes to illustrate the story in IG2 along with the cohesive set of plots and the way that you interact to change events is a measure of complexity that is rare in mobile games, but then this platform and the different traditional game genres that are associated with it represent a changing gaming environment in much the same pattern as that experienced by the PC and even console platforms throughout the 1990's -- it is change for the better, and IG2 is part of that trend.

Perhaps the greatest strength of the game is the fact that the people who made it refused to limit its features for the platform -- giving us a game in which there is more than a brief campaign that offers them an excuse to sell you kit through in-game purchases. There is a deep and interesting campaign to be sure, but there is also a well-built scenario play mode that is perfectly suited for the sort of brief play opportunities that established mobile gaming as what it is: an alternative form of entertainment.

The impressive variety of game play options, units, strategies, and goals will keep your interest solidly, but the impressive graphical environment, the CS's, excellent voice-work and SFX, and the inclusioni of an enemy you love to hate add up to a game we can easily give a solid two-thumbs up to!

Available now on Apple's App Store and iTunes (hit this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imperium-galactica-2/id510652364?mt=8) for only $3.99 (US) IG2 weighs in at just under 450MB and is rated 9+ (there is mild horror and a fear-based theme with modest violence), the game requires the iPad and iOS version 5.0 or better.