iPhone: Battleheart stole my soul

There was a Penny Arcade strip about Minecraft in which Gabe kind of meanders through the world trying to figure out what to do when he finally “gets” it — and then says, “Oh no.  Oh no.  I’m in some real [bad word] trouble here.”  He knows the game’s about to steal his soul by appealing way too much to his desires, and he’s powerless to stop it from happening.

This is exactly how I felt when I booted up Battleheart for the iPhone last night.  I’m in some real trouble here.

It’s odd, because other than my recent foray into Dungeon Raid, I really haven’t concerned myself with iPhone games lately at all.  I don’t have time for them, I’d rather read, etc.  But I started to hear incredible things about Battleheart, and it really looked like something I’d enjoy, so why not?

How little did I know.  Forgive me!

Everything about Battleheart just clicks with me.  At its core, the game is an RPG battle simulator where you control a party of four characters going through a succession of fights.  You can swap out characters, equip new gear, replay levels and add new abilities every fifth level.  Simple, clean.

The sheer flexibility of the system, the easy-to-control combat interface and the lovable animations gel together to make a game that’s a lot better than it has any right to be.  You can make a party of almost any mix of classes — so far I’ve found clerics, knights, barbarians, bards, rogues, witches, wizards and monks — and see how they work together.  If I use my cleric to constantly heal and buff my knight, who in turn takes all the aggro, then I have an unstoppable duo.  Or maybe I want to overcharge my barbarian with bardic songs and have him cut through the enemy like butter.  That sort of thing.

I can’t get over how silky smooth the interface and load times are, either.  I have an older 3G model, and Battleheart boots up and runs perfectly — and it’s a universal app, which means it scales up to the iPad as well.

What’s probably the most damning factor (and I mean that in a good way) is that Battleheart compels you to do “just one more fight” over and over again.  The replayability factor is off the charts, because if you’re bored you have a wide canvas to experiment with classes, skills and gear.  The fights are really interesting too — I got to the first big boss, who takes breaks from beating you up by running around on a rhino while smaller enemies drop in.  It was a nonstop battle from start to end and it impressed me with the variety.

Anyway, just wanted to pass along another high recommendation for iPhone gaming, especially if you’re already bitten by the RPG spider.