This one's a sunken ship.
Let's start off with the story. Well basically... there isn't one. You're an E.O.D. Tech Officer named Cole Mathis who is tasked with helping American soldiers fight an unknown alien species across fictional Hawaiian islands. During your four-hour stay you'll fight just three enemy types, utilise just five weapons (pistol, carbine rifle, KRAW alien gun, shotgun and railgun) and destroy tower after tower in the war to save mankind. That basically sums up the Battleship game in a nutshell. The objectives boil down to destroying a tower, planting charges on an emitter or protecting soldiers while they inexplicably set charges (why couldn't Cole just do this: he IS an EOD technician after all!?) and kill lots of aliens. You can sometimes have the opportunity to find collectible pegs in each of the game's 7 missions (of which there are four per level) but they aren't exciting to find in the slightest, but are easy to.
The game follows the generic first-person shooter design. Aim down sights, shoot aliens, throw grenades, sprint/reload are all present. But it could be better. A lot better. See, the alien AI seems to have a problem with standing still. They usually just stare at you until either you kill them or even notice them. Sometimes, I had an enemy run straight past me, hide behind cover and fire at one of my team-mates – while I was in plain sight all along. To say the AI is terrible is actually an understatement. Thugs, an enemy type you'll encounter around three missions in, are large armoured enemies that attack you with powerful claws. They do a lot of damage, but they just run straight at you until you kill them with 4-5 shotgun rounds. The third and final enemy is equipped with a railgun, and are the most frustrating in the game. The gunplay works fine and isn't broken, but the constant AI bugs, the visual glitches and occasional game crashes ruin the experience completely.
The visuals are very weak. It looks like a last-generation game. There are a lot of technical issues including screen-tearing, large framerate drops, clipping and poor textures. The aliens look bad, but the ships look good. The visual effects are also uninspired, as are the environments, which are repetitive in look and feel. The sound effects are also generic, as is the voice acting. The music is also forgettable.
I suppose the most interesting and best part of Battleship: The Game is the ship gameplay. Cole can access the Battle Comm at any time while in battle. This enables a visual grid that highlights enemy ships and ally ships. You can move ships to different positions such as support areas and newly unlocked native squares which are one step closer to the objective. Enemy ships will fire at you and so you can take control of them using Wildcards. These are perks that aid the ships in battle, such as extra damage, more armour, missiles and a repair of the ship. Though they mostly fight ships while you are engaged in the FPS gameplay, Wildcards can grant access to Ship Control, in which the player takes command of the ship while they fight an enemy ship. This switches to a third-person view and you can aim and fire at the enemy ship. It's an interesting system and can often be quite fun, but it's appeal is lost when there just isn't much depth to it. I would have loved to continue fighting, as you only get 20 seconds to fight one ship per wildcard, as well as the ability to call for reinforcements, and it lets it down. There are multiple ships to command, and you can add wildcards at any time (although they reset upon a different mission).
The major flaw of the experience is the often frustrating cheapness of the game design. Enemies you can't see killing you, cheap deaths from enemy spawning and some annoying difficulty spikes lead to a lot of anger. The final mission in particular definitely takes the award for "Most Annoying Final Boss in Gaming". An exercise in repetition, bad AI and tired objectives, as well as the game's most aggravating flaw – poor checkpoints. Die half an hour after a checkpoint and you start from the beginning. There are one or two checkpoints per mission which is very annoying. So if you are succeeding on the ground as well as at sea, and you die suddenly – back to the last checkpoint.
There is no replay value, either. Like I mentioned earlier, there are 28 pegs to find but they aren't exciting at all. They're an easy find, but not rewarding except for a trophy. The game has no multiplayer or unlockable content and feels far too lacklustre to warrant a purchase.
If you're after a game to coincide with the release of the Battleship film... you won't get one. Not a good one anyway. Battleship: The Game is generic and mediocre in every way. The story (or lack thereof), the bad visuals, the underwhelming game design and the seemingly fun but eventually devolving sea combat makes it feel rushed and uninspired as an overall package. Save your money for something far better.
SUMMARY
Presentation 3.5 - A non-existent story and poor cut-scenes. Menus lack any kind of flair.
Graphics 4.0 - Poor animations, screen-tearing and bad textures.
Audio 4.0 - Sound effects are serviceable, but everything else is underwhelming.
Gameplay 4.0 - Battle Comm is a neat idea, but the shooting, AI and objectives are boring.
Replayability 0.5 - A four hour story and some collectibles pegs. Forget it.
Overall - 4.5/10