Battle for Wesnoth

Battle for Wesnoth is a must-own game. Intuitive controls are combined with a fascinating battle system to create a unique gameplay experience. There are a host of available campaigns and multiplayer maps on the base game itself, with scores more available from the immense add-on repository. You can even create your own campaigns using an easy-to-use map editor and a programming language designed for the game itself (Wesnoth Markup Language, or WML). I’ve played this game since I was in high school, and have downloaded it onto every device I’ve owned. The iPad experience is a far better one than back when I would play this on a first-generation iPod Touch and the hours of playtime generated are well worth any price.

Two reviews - a short one and a longer one. The short one is the title. Here is the long version - I'm SICK of all the crappy games in the App Store getting 5 stars. Cut the Rope? Really? Great - if you're four years old or have the attention span of a hummingbird. I've been looking for depth. This is it. Something to sink my teeth into. The reason it gets four stars is because it is great (IMO five stars means "perfect"). Now when the wife wants me to go to the mall (GRRRRRRR!!) I say "sure". Sitting on a bench playing Wesnoth. Wife wants to go car shopping? No problem - sitting in the customer lounge playing Wesnoth. Wife wants to visit her Mom? You guessed it - sitting on the sofa playing Wesnoth. Full disclosure - this game is not for everyone. This is old school, turn-based, strategy RPG at its finest. It is more akin to electronic chess than Elder Scrolls - plan accordingly. If you're looking for thoughtful gaming that's going to take a long, long while - this is it.

I first encountered this game on my laptop and absolutely loved it! Later, I got it on my iPad, and it was still good, but a little glitchy. Now I have a much newer iPad and I downloaded the game again and was pleasantly surprised by the updates they did to it. There are new graphics and music, and it runs way smoother than before. The only reason why I only gave four stars is that the controls are different now. I haven't played this new version for very long, but I have encountered a huge problem with the silver mage - you can't toggle off the screen, so the teleport abilities are limited to only what you see on the current screen. Otherwise, it's an excellent turn-based strategy game and something you can pick up or put away at any time.

I own the non-HD version, the PC version, and this version. Cannot recommend this game enough. Maps look much nicer in HD version, but oh man, character portraits look terrible without proper uprezzing. I wish I was an artist so i could redo the campaign character portraits... For those not already familiar with this game, if you enjoyed Fire Emblem or Civ you need to play this game. A little more ghetto, obviously not polished looking, but gameplay is solid. Like chess, but with units that level up and grow as you play through. Story is actually pretty decent, if generic, dialogue is decent but not great. I would be willing to help do a writing pass on the game text.

This app is a wonderful port of the computer version of wesnoth that contains many features that most App Store games lack. Features such as mod support and cross platform multiplayer are both rare things to find on current apps. The game plays smoothly and is for the most part stable even when handling mods that are designed with computers in mind. With this in mind the only real issues I find are in the interface. Currently functionality is missing in the multiplayer lobbies that makes it near impossible to use various chat features that PC and Mac users enjoy, this includes the near inability to private message other users and the inaccessibility of the friend system.