Magmic Stratego for BlackBerry
Rating 9/10
Link: http://www.magmic.com/game/stratego
Cost $6.95 (CAN)
Well Magmic has done it again. They have ported one of my favorite boardgame classics to the BlackBerry. They have even taken it one step further and added some inspired gameplay modes. The controls are intuitive and the gameplay is addictive. My only complaint is that the level of difficulty could be increased. As a middling gamer I should not be able to defeat the whole campaign mode in 2 tries.
First of all let me provide some background into the game. Stratego is a strategic board game where each opponent has a certain number of pieces each with different strengths and weaknesses. The objective of the game is to find and capture the enemy’s flag before they capture yours. To read more about it look at the Wikipedia page on Stratego.
Magmic has provided 3 different gameplay modes in their version of Stratego, Battle, Campaign, and Duel.
Battle is the classic version of Stratego that all of the board game fans would remember. You can place your pieces anywhere on the board and move them about with the trackball. All of the regular Stratego rules apply. This more or less the classic rendition of the game. I found the gameplay to be addictive in this mode and a throwback to when me and my brothers used to play this game for hours.
Campaign is a game mode inspired by the original Stratego where you play against 10 different historical generals such as Alexander I and Napoleon Bonaparte. Each general has a different objective and a different defense/attack strategy. This provides for some new gameplay with my only complaint being that the campaigns are a tad easy.
The last gameplay mode is called Duel. In this mode the computer gives you 10 different pieces as you can see on the right and allows you to move them around in to create your own strategic offense/defense. Once again you play against one of the 10 historical generals. This allows for some quick playing action while your waiting for a meeting.
Pros:
- Great controls and the game load time is much shorter then other Magmic titles
- Takes the fun classic gaming of Stratego and adds a few twists
Cons:
- Game difficulty in Campaign mode is not quite up to par
- No multiplayer (Yes a man can dream)
In summary this is a must have game for all BlackBerry users especially if you are a Stratego fan. The game takes all of the gameplay from the classic Stratego and adds some fun new modes. As I said before my main reason for docking this game to a 9/10 is because the campaign mode too easy for my liking. Hopefully Magmic can correct this in a future release. Another fine release by Magmic games.
