The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Let’s bang out some iOS game review thought things I’ve been putting off, hm?
We’ll start with Neuroshima Hex.

If you feel like you would ever play a hotseat multiplayer sort of strategy game, buy Neuroshima Hex.

Neuroshima Hex is a strategy game played on a hexagonal board made of hexes. It looks like a Settlers of Catan board, if you want to picture it. Players pick one of four armies, each with unique abilities and units. Play starts with each player placing their base on the board. This base starts with 20 HP, and by the end of the game (which occurs when only one player is left alive or one player reaches the end of his “deck” of tiles) whoever has the most HP is the winner. Pretty standard in that regard.

Players draw from their “deck” of tiles each turn. They draw until they have a hand of 3 tiles, and then discard down to two. They can then play as many tiles onto the board as they can fit, and use any abilities, such as free moves, that their units might have. When they’re done, they pass the turn to the next player. Tiles can be actions, like a tile that causes Battle to happen, soldiers, who are the ones doing the fighting, or “buff tiles,” which gives bonuses to soldiers touching them on certain sides. You can hold off on playing tiles in a turn, but you always must draw up to three and discard down to two at the beginning of your turn. Finally, if the board is ever completely full of tiles, or every player has taken their last turn, a battle occurs without playing a battle tile.

Units only attack in specific directions from their hexes, which are indicated by various triangles (short triangles for melee attacks, and long triangles for ranged). Each unit also has an initiative value which indicates in what turn they attack during battle. It counts down, so a soldier with a value of “3” attacks before one with a value of “2” and so on. This is super important, because you can use these numbers to take out pesky units before they attack. There are also many other special abilities, like having “armor” on certain sides which blocks ranged fire, or having extra HP. The game using an iconography for all of this that can take a little bit to get used to, but once you learn to translate it, it’s really easy to see what any unit does.

That’s the description. The game itself is a lot of fun. It’s basically constant trying to fuck your friends over by undoing their plans while pushing yours forward. It can be slightly confusing in games more than 2 people with passing the iDevice around to keep track of who did what, for revenge purposes, but other than that, the game works perfectly on the platform. It’s deep, it’s interesting, it’s fun. Plus, they promise online multiplayer down the line. That’s not a reason to buy it now, of course, but if that would push you over the edge, keep an eye on it.

Also of note is a separate game, called Neuroshima Hex Puzzle. This is basically a single player experience set up like a puzzle game. You’re given a pre-set board and have to win in one turn. It’s almost like a tutorial of sorts, and is really useful in learning the game and the strategies each army can employ. It’s unfortunate it isn’t part of the main game itself, but I’ve really enjoyed it, and I bought both of them during a sale where I grabbed them both for less than what Neuroshima Hex normally costs, so I’m not complaining.

Basically, this game passed the “friends” test. I forced my friends to play it, and I’ve had them request playing it again. That means it’s got something there, you know? If you like strategy board games, it is worth your time.