Mountain Tanks: Scorched Earth Fans Rejoice!

If you are a fan of turn-based strategy games, this may seem simplistic to you. If you feel that most turn-based games have too many variables to worry about, then this may well be for you. And if you like to blow stuff up, then this is definitely for you!

Mountain Tanks is simple to learn. The objective is straight-forward: destroy your opponent’s cities before they destroy yours. For those who remember the early 90’s artillery game Scorched Earth, this will bring back fond memories, and there are strong similarities between the two games. And, one can hope, there are some features the devs will implement in future versions. For now, here’s how it goes down…

Each city consists of a fenced-in area with several buildings, and you must be the first to destroy all of your opponent’s buildings in order to win. With each turn you can choose to attack or to impede your opponent’s attack, and play continues turn-by-turn until one city is decimated. The strategy changes with multiple opponents, where your best best might be to protect your city and let everyone else destroy each other.

There are offensive weapons and defensive weapons to help you accomplish your goal. For offense, rockets are the bulk of your firepower. Grenades have a different physics model than rockets; they can be bounced into places you couldn’t otherwise reach. Barrel-makers put explosive barrels near buildings, amplifying your damage when hit. Defensively, you can shoot smoke screens to block your opponent’s view, and wall-makers to place a physical barrier between them and the target, which can buy you a few free turns in a close contest.

You can control the trajectory of your payload, as well as the power, both of which affect the type of impact your shot will have. For a tall building, you can shoot a low-flying rocket with low power and smack into the side of the building, doing significant damage. But you can also lob a rocket with a higher trajectory and more power, and have it explode on the ground in the vicinity of other buildings, causing more damage to more buildings with one blow.

You may be wondering if the game gets repetitive. The problem with a simple game is that it runs the risk of seeming like it lacks substance. With Mountain Tanks, you should know going in that you do one thing and one thing only in this game: shoot stuff from your tank, while others shoot stuff from their tanks. With that said, every map is randomly generated, so each game is different and you can’t simply do the same tactic every game. The realistic physics also add a sense of diversity, as your rocket might fly way over the target, goading you to keep the laws of physics and gravity in mind. And finally, once you’ve vanquished your computer foes, you can play online with up to 6 other players in fierce turn-based combat.

This is where the die-hard Scorched Earth fans will be left wanting more. But the good news is that the developers could add some or all of the following features to future releases, and it would really make the game shine. One suggestion would be to add a long-term goal to the game. Currently, you can share your score with others via the Internet. But what if you played a 10-round battle, and won some sort of currency which you could spend on upgrades or new weapons between each round? Another suggestion would be to increase the environmental variables in the game. Currently, all matches take place in a controlled environment. What if there were significant terrain differences, and a prevailing wind that factored into your calculations? A third suggestion would be to reward players more for hitting the opponent’s tank. Currently, striking your opponent’s tank directly resets all aiming/trajectory/power settings to defaults. Oh, but what if you could damage or destroy your opponent’s tank, or take away some of the upgrades they purchased? These three areas could add significant playability to Mountain Tanks, taking the solid gameplay to the next level. I’ll keep practicing while I await the next release.

Mountain Tanks is $18 and can be downloaded from Battery Acid Games.