Tank Ace 1944 – the review

Action-loaded 3d tank combat in the pocket of your hand…sounds like a perfect time waster if done right. RESETgame’s Tank Ace 1944 plans to be exactly this – can it stack up?

The game contains three different campaigns, containing a bunch of missions each:

All missions begin in a terrain map similar to Command&Conquer’s – the map displays the squares currently under combat. A quick tap begins your mission:

The tank can either be controlled with the 5way or via softkeys on the screen:

Terrains can be viewed from the top and in a 3d perspective; enemy tanks are rendered in impressive 3d:

Once you actually start driving around, the engine starts to ‘redraw’ the terrain whenever you leave a ’tile’. Since each redraw changes the view angle(and field of visibility), not loosing control is almost impossible. The 1-2sec lags don’t really help the game either:

Even though the developer took an insane effort attempting to create realistic graphics and varying terrain types, the gameplay is lackluster. Most of the time is spent looking for tanks – fighting them is rare:

This review looked at version 1.0 of the game on a Treo 680. Tank Ace needs approx. 750KB of memory and was stable in the testing period.

In the end, Tank Ace delivers its promise of 3d graphics – but at a high price. Finding enemy tanks is extremely hard(radar, anyone). The permanent ‘engine redraws’ happen at the worst possible moments(e.g. in a battle) – furtherly draining the already boring gameplay of fun. The company definitely tried hard – but Tank Ace is one of these games that should be avoided by all non-freaks…

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3. Platypus – the review
4. Astraware Westward – The Review
5. Meteor Breakout – Arkanoid for Palm OS