Lomocotion – a blog about the little games

My flotilla of three ships are facing off against an equally sized group of enemy ships of varying size and ordinance. I’ve just encountered a fleet of space pigs who’ve asked for my protection against some hostile pirates and I’ve chosen to do the right thing and step in and kick some pirate arse.

I quickly assess the situation that the game has put in front of me and decide to order my beam frigate to move at flanking speed to try and get behind the enemy position so that I can use it’s superior firepower on their weaker rear and bottom armour. I make sure to orientate my ship such that I present only the front armour to my enemy. I take my two smaller destroyers (the default ship, small, fast and armed with slow firing but powerful nuclear missile batteries), order them to move and fire and set co-ordinates opposite the beam frigate.

With my genius pincer movement planned out I end my turn and get ready to watch as my plan is acted out in 30 seconds of real time full 3D space warfare set to a beautiful classical piano score. Both your’s and your enemy’s turns happen simultaneously with no opportunity to alter your plan for the full 30 seconds once you end your turn.

I press the go button and the battle commences.  Immediately my frigate turns sharply to move towards it’s designated position. One of my destroyers, already accelerating has no chance to evade the incoming vessel and is cleaved in two as the the much larger ship ploughs straight through it.

With only a quarter of it’s health left the frigate limps into it’s position bombarded by a barrage of  tiny homing missiles. As the missiles streak through space and bounce harmlessly off of the strong front armour (each missile’s ricochet impressively calculated by the games physics engine) my remaining destroyer unleashes it’s payload as it glides round behind one of the pirate ships. I’m rewarded by a series of “dings” as the missiles score critical hits on the rear armour and then the action pauses and I’m back on the map screen tasked with issuing the next set of orders.

Despite the terrible start, I’m able to fend off the pirates and I’m rewarded with a module to increase the bottom armour on one of my ships. Later I come across a Flamingo who will let me trade two items for one of his.

From Blendo Games, the studio behind the awesome Gravity Bone, comes Flotilla: Orbital Battleship Manoeuvres. A “simultaneous turn based strategy” game in which armies of anthropomorphic space faring animals do battle amongst the stars in enormous space ships armed to the teeth with homing nuclear warheads and great big laser beams! Yes, it’s just as awesome as it sounds.

The basic idea of the single player adventure mode is to move your fleet around a small galaxy visiting planets one at a time. Each time you reach a planet you are given a situation by way of a pop up box. Sometimes it will be someone asking for help and you can choose to help them or pirate their cargo. Other times you’ll have no choice as you are ambushed by a bunch of deer dressed in military uniforms. Other times Rastafarian cats might offer you some cargo in exchange for taking some stolen property off their hands.

Gradually you’ll acquire better and better loot and more ships with which to defend yourself. The end however is always close at hand. You may be wiped out by space bandits or die of natural causes but one way or another your adventure will end almost as soon as it’s begun. Interestingly there doesn’t seem to be a way to save before visiting a planet so every battle you have is a nail biting experience as once you are challenged to a fight there is no surrender and losing a single battle will end your adventure and all your loot with it!

I would certainly welcome the edition of a longer campaign mode. While the fragile nature of your fleet makes for some tense battles, the short turn limit means you’ll struggle to get very far. Perhaps a way to  spilt your fleet so a single loss doesn’t end your whole adventure wouldn’t go amiss.

That said, it’s an absolutely charming game. The graphics are simple but look great with flat shaded ships in bold primary colours. The interface is very slick and easy to navigate once you’ve completed the short tutorial. The characters and art displayed in between missions are delightful with Rastafarian cats looking just as cute as you’d imagine. The sound is basic but works to good effect, with the classical music in particular standing out and really offering a unique atmosphere during the epic battles.

It’s also a very deep and challenging game. It’s all to easy to be wiped out in a single turn if you let your enemy get behind you. Once you get the hang of manual orientation for your ships though a whole slew of tactical possibilities opens up as you send your ships pirouetting around with their top armour always facing your opponent.  One sneaky tactic I like is to back my ships up against an asteroid to protect my weaker armour and leave the enemy no choice but to attack my front.

All in all Flotilla is an excellent game from and well worth your time. Over on the Flotilla site, you can try a demo and watch a short video demonstration on the Blendo Games YouTube channel.

Flotilla is out now on PC for just $10.  A planned Xbox Live Arcade port is coming soon.

Tags: Blendo Games, Flotilla, PC, review, sci-fi, turn-based, XBLA

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at 11:41 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.