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Ben Smith
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Neuroshima Hex! is a slick iOS game that allows you to effortlessly play quick, tactical battles on the go.
 The Good:
- Great functionality and smooth, intuitive interface.
- Well integrated help and info system.
- Game Center achievements offer some extra challenges.
 The Bad:
- No online multiplayer!! Argh!
- No way to set teams in 4-Player games.
 The Meh:
- Even with the Fast-forward button, battle resolutions can take longer than desirable.
- The AI is questionable at times, especially in 3- or 4-Player scenarios.
There’s no better way to kill time at the bus stop or in a dentist’s waiting room than by starting a quick post-apocalyptic cyborg war, am I right? Neuroshima Hex! is an iOS app for your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch that’s let’s you achieve this pleasant dream.
The app is a very well done implementation of the board game of the same name. It is a turn-based tactical strategy game, with a good dose of randomness thrown in. Played on a hex board (which everyone looking over my shoulder thinks looks like Settlers of Catan), players take turns placing various types of military and support units until one player initiates a battle. Then all the pieces on the board shoot and hack each other, politely taking turns based on their Initiative (speed) rating. Once the dust settles and the dead are removed from the board the process begins again. The rules are fairly quick to learn, but there is a lot of depth to what you can pull off once you master the art of deploying units effectively. The goal of the game is simply to do the most damage to your enemy’s HQ, ideally destroying it completely to leave your opponent humiliated and demoralized.
I find the gameplay very satisfying. It moves quickly, but there are lots of tactical choices and various strategies to try. The game comes with four different armies or factions, each with a different set of units and a different special power for its HQ. You need to adapt your strategy based on who you play as, and who you fight against. There is also always the choice between conservatively deploying your troops to defend your own HQ, or aggressively deploying them to attack your enemy’s base. If you play craftily, you can accomplish both simultaneously.
Neuroshima captures the pros and cons typical of most board-games-turned-software. It’s great that the setup time is zero, and the program handles all the calculations of who attacks when and how. The design is great and the controls are quite intuitive, and you can quickly summon lots of handy info on units or game rules with just a few taps. And of course, there are AI opponents always ready to throw themselves into reckless battle. That AI has 3 difficulty settings, and is generally competent but to the experienced player quickly becomes only a mild challenge to beat.
Handy info on units and armies is just a few taps away.
As for cons, with the multiplayer there is NO online support which is a shame. If you have an Ipad, you can happily play with up to three victims friends in person, and this works very well. In theory you can do this on an iPhone or iPod as well, but the screen is so small it’s not really a great experience. Still, an iPhone allows for excellent single-player gaming on the go.
I heartily believe that the $4.99 price tag (as of this writing) for Neuroshima is a very worthwhile investment, and I also recommend shelling out 99 cents each for the two expansion armies; they add even more depth and variety. One purchase gains you access across all your iOS devices, which is nice.
If you’re looking for a clever and quick-to-play strategy game for your iPad (to pull out when friends are over) or your iPhone (to play during conference calls at work) then shove a fiver into your iTunes slot and get yourself a copy of Neuroshima Hex!
Bonus Mini-Review of Neuroshima Hex Puzzle
Ultimately, I did not find this game to be worthwhile, compared to the regular Neuroshima Hex! core game. It is essentially a series of pre-set scenarios, where you have a choice of 3 pieces to place and then must battle, with various objectives set. If you’ve never played Neuroshima Hex!, it can serve as a good tutorial since it goes over all the different tactics and unit powers. For those more experienced it offers up a few interesting challenges but I found it overall to be not very captivating. Each "puzzle" has a quirky background story to go with it, which would be fun except they are often poorly written and sometimes downright nonsensical. I have a hunch they were cleverly written a language other than English, and a lot was lost in translation. For me, I gave up on Puzzle after a while and went back to playing the main game, which I consider to be much more fun and which organically creates its own puzzles in the course of normal battle. Neuroshima Hex! Puzzle currently costs $2.99. I would advise that you instead use that money to buy the two expansion armies for the core game, and then a soda.
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I find the gameplay very satisfying. It moves quickly, but there are lots of tactical choices and various strategies to try. The game comes with four different armies or factions, each with a different set of units and a different special power for its HQ. You need to adapt your strategy based on who you play as, and who you fight against. There is also always the choice between conservatively deploying your troops to defend your own HQ, or aggressively deploying them to attack your enemy’s base. If you play craftily, you can accomplish both simultaneously.
Posted Fri Nov 11, 2011 5:01 am