aNewDomain — We’ve done this 17 times before, and every single time it has ended in defeat. But not this time! This time, we flank the machine guns and go for the mortars directly. Men, attack!
“Come with a plan or leave in defeat,” the commercials say. From the makers of the epic mobile game Clash of Clans comes Supercell’s newest creation: Boom Beach. Boom Beach does have some of the old mechanics of Clash of Clans, as well as some cool features of its own. Let’s take a look. Here’s my Boom Beach review.
Twisted RTS
Boom Beach is your typical real time strategy (RTS) mobile game, with a special twist. Just as the name implies, all battles are commenced in the style of beach landings, with offensive actions conducted in a similar matter to Clash of Clans. But the defensive battles are played just like a conventional tower defense game.
In simple terms, during Boom Beach you will be playing both sides of a tower defense game. For the vast majority of the single-player campaign, you’ll be assaulting enemy bases that have a network of traps and towers deployed to kill you. Your own motley band of random freaks will land in Higgins boats and, during attacking battles, you assume the role of the AI in normal tower defense games. You must find the ideal way to dismantle the enemy base at minimal cost to your own men.
In this way, Supercell has done a great job of diving into the tower “offense” genre of gaming, something not done by many gaming companies in mobile or console.
To be clear, Boom Beach isn’t a rehash of Clash of Clans — it has its own unique style of gameplay. You do gain rewards from battle, but the strategy in the game is purely about taking down enemy defenses and, finally, their base — there’s no raiding mechanism.
While to some players this might be a disappointment, I think it stays more true to the classic RTS genre. It makes Boom Beach more strategy oriented, and while it may seem like as easy rush game at first, the AI’s defenses do get more intricate as the game goes on.
Mobile Storyboard
The campaign even has its own storyline to make the gameplay not feel quite so repetitive — because it is, a little. The story centers around a villainous organization called the “Blackguard.” The Blackguard is capturing the islanders and every assault made in the single-player campaign is a move to liberate a particular island and the islanders on it.
While the overall storyline does seem cheap and a bit rushed, the fact that Supercell even decided to include a story in what is basically a reverse tower defense game is fairly impressive.
Likewise, the amount of variety in terms of units included in the game is also quite good. There are 10 unit types to choose from, which have to be unlocked gradually, but the colossal amount of defenses present a nightmare for any would-be attacker.
Multiplayer Madness
Boom Beach also has an impressive multiplayer mode. Players can join clans (it’s Supercell, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise) called Task Forces that can launch attacks against other players. That’s where the real defense part of the game comes into play. In order to protect your own residence from being raided by other players, you’re going to have to set up your own defense network to defend your town center.
The multiplayer resembles Clash of Clans quite a bit, but overall it’s a fairly good PvP system. Supercell has never faltered in its multiplayer for Clash of Clans, so the one in Boom Beach is solid as well.
While the game doesn’t hinge on it, Boom Beach does have extraordinary graphics. The characters look almost like spitting images of their Clash of Clans counterparts, which probably made creating the game easy for Supercell, but they still look good. The water in Beach Boom looks very realistic, too, which is hard to do.
The Bottom Line
Overall, I give Boom Beach a nine out of 10. The gameplay is awesome, the variety is good and the graphics are great for the genre. While Supercell does try to mix up the levels, the game gets a bit too repetitive as you go on. But that’s just a minor stain on the game’s overall awesomeness.
Boom Beach is free to play and is available for Android and Apple iOS. I recommend it to anyone who likes Clash of Clans or RTS games in general.
For aNewDomain, I’m Puching Zhang.
All screenshots courtesy of Supercell
