Battleheart Review

Let it be known that you can never have too many Role Playing Games (RPGs). Especially not ridiculously cute yet deceptively borderline deep ones such as Battleheart. It's a little rough around the edges but it's got huge potential to be one of the greats.

Playing the game is simple. Starting out as a knight called Shepherd, you're guided through the basic moves in this part action RPG/part RTS. Moving is a case of dragging your finger around the screen. Tapping where you want to go by might have been a little easier but dragging still works reasonably well and ties in fine with the RTS side of things. Combat is a simple case of moving your characters within range of the wandering enemies and sometimes tapping on the special power button too.

The storyline is admittedly wafer thin but the rest of it is pretty detailed with only a few gaps. For one thing, there's a certain level of strategy involved in simply knowing what class of characters to use in battles. You can recruit new party members if you've got sufficient money, and a balanced team is often essential for success. Typical RPG elements such as being able to buy items and equipment are also in effect and a levelling up system exists too. This also enables you to acquire new skills and powers as you progress. A wider range of statistics would have been nice for the RPG geek in all of us but it's still all quite functional and no doubt makes it more accessible for RPG newbies.

The campaign mode is pretty extensive with 30 levels in all and if a storyline had been attached to it, Battleheart could have been something amazing. It's still great to play though with plenty to do here though. There's also a survival type arena mode to keep you playing even more. Plus it's positively charming to look at.

There have been reports of Battleheart being prone to crashing but I didn't have any problems with it running on an iPhone 4 so I assume I was either one of the lucky ones or this is only a problem with the iPhone 3GS.

Regardless of any of these slight problems, Battleheart is well worth a purchase. It's charming throughout and very easy to get into, while not sacrificing depth too much. Here's hoping for an update or two offering Game Center support, new items and other delights.