Battle Group 2 (PC) Review
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System PC
Developer Bane Games Publisher Merge Games Genre Action # of Players 1 Release Date June 13th, 2014 |
Pros
Decent controls Ship choices Cons No challenge No reason to replay once beaten |
Review
by Thonos
4/21/2016
Battle Group 2 is one of those small indie games that I go into not expecting much but come out happy at the end of it.
The story here is pretty generic; A terrorist organization called the Talon is attacking everyone for no reason. The only thing standing in there way is your two ship fleet. After the first two stages you get a primary ship to attack with and a support ship that has an ability that can be used when not on cooldown. Each of the 31 stages in the game take about 2-4 minutes to complete.
In the game you do not control the ship, the game does that for you. All you have to do is point and shoot all the enemies on the screen. In this regard I feel the game is a on rail shooter. Your ammo is unlimited but you do have to wait a second you two to reload. You also control when you support ship uses its ability which takes longer to recharge. As you play through the game you unlock three special abilities that can be used when needed: a slow down mode, a EMP that wipes out all missiles on the screen and a recharge that instantly refills your ammo and support ability. The last one I might be a little wrong about, in my game there was a glitch and I never unlocked the ammo recharge ability.
Over the course of the game you gain barrels of oil from defeated enemies which let you buy new and powerful ships. There are four primary and four support ships. The primary ships either have missile or artillery attacks while the support ships have abilities like missile countermeasures and support aircraft. Oil is also used to upgrade primary ships ammo capacity and health while support ships can have there cooldown reduced and there health increases. There is some variety here which is good but ultimately I found getting the strongest primary and support ship will get you through this game no problem.
And that is where this games problems start, you can unlock the strongest ship in the game after about 15 minutes of grinding the 3rd and 4th stages. Fully upgraded this ship is not invincible, however I got this ship starting on stage 5 and I aced every stage up until the last 3, and even then they were not that hard. Once you get the strongest support ship, this game becomes trivial until the last few stages. And even then, all you have to do is use your special abilities, which keep in mind I had not used until this point, and beat the game. This game is also short, only taking me just under 2 and 1/2 hours to complete. While for a small indie game that is not a bad time frame, I was hoping for at least 3 hours of gameplay, which is possible if you want to unlock every ship and upgrade.
Graphically the game looks mediocre. The enemy models are slightly detailed, the explosions are alright and the player ships are about the same. The stages looked bland and uninspired. The audio is better, but still far from great. The small amount of voice acting in this game was done well though. For being an indie game I was not expecting super graphics and sound.
I enjoyed my time with Battle Group. While the game has some flaws, I feel it accomplished what it set out to do. With that said, this is one of those games that once you beat it you probably will never come back to again.
by Thonos
4/21/2016
Battle Group 2 is one of those small indie games that I go into not expecting much but come out happy at the end of it.
The story here is pretty generic; A terrorist organization called the Talon is attacking everyone for no reason. The only thing standing in there way is your two ship fleet. After the first two stages you get a primary ship to attack with and a support ship that has an ability that can be used when not on cooldown. Each of the 31 stages in the game take about 2-4 minutes to complete.
In the game you do not control the ship, the game does that for you. All you have to do is point and shoot all the enemies on the screen. In this regard I feel the game is a on rail shooter. Your ammo is unlimited but you do have to wait a second you two to reload. You also control when you support ship uses its ability which takes longer to recharge. As you play through the game you unlock three special abilities that can be used when needed: a slow down mode, a EMP that wipes out all missiles on the screen and a recharge that instantly refills your ammo and support ability. The last one I might be a little wrong about, in my game there was a glitch and I never unlocked the ammo recharge ability.
Over the course of the game you gain barrels of oil from defeated enemies which let you buy new and powerful ships. There are four primary and four support ships. The primary ships either have missile or artillery attacks while the support ships have abilities like missile countermeasures and support aircraft. Oil is also used to upgrade primary ships ammo capacity and health while support ships can have there cooldown reduced and there health increases. There is some variety here which is good but ultimately I found getting the strongest primary and support ship will get you through this game no problem.
And that is where this games problems start, you can unlock the strongest ship in the game after about 15 minutes of grinding the 3rd and 4th stages. Fully upgraded this ship is not invincible, however I got this ship starting on stage 5 and I aced every stage up until the last 3, and even then they were not that hard. Once you get the strongest support ship, this game becomes trivial until the last few stages. And even then, all you have to do is use your special abilities, which keep in mind I had not used until this point, and beat the game. This game is also short, only taking me just under 2 and 1/2 hours to complete. While for a small indie game that is not a bad time frame, I was hoping for at least 3 hours of gameplay, which is possible if you want to unlock every ship and upgrade.
Graphically the game looks mediocre. The enemy models are slightly detailed, the explosions are alright and the player ships are about the same. The stages looked bland and uninspired. The audio is better, but still far from great. The small amount of voice acting in this game was done well though. For being an indie game I was not expecting super graphics and sound.
I enjoyed my time with Battle Group. While the game has some flaws, I feel it accomplished what it set out to do. With that said, this is one of those games that once you beat it you probably will never come back to again.