Devils At The Gate: Pacific War Review

As a writer, there's a constant urge with any war game to want to start with "War, what is it good for?" In the case of Devils at the Gate: Pacific War, it's good for enjoyable tower defense action with a side dish of oddly cute animated characters. And, unlike the start of this review, there are no tired cliches to suffer.

Following the exploits of the war in the Pacific during the second World War, Devils at the Gate: Pacific War offers a brief description of the historic events it channels, before getting straight into the tower defense side of things. There's no actual towers to build, instead, the game uses infantry, artillery, engineers and logistics, but that adds a certain sense of fluidity. Admittedly, once placed, such figures can't move around, but they can interact with each other to an extent boosting each other's defenses and providing bonuses. More importantly, each can be upgraded to a certain degree, assuming the player has enough money to do so.

For instance, the infantry unit starts out as basic cannon fodder but can eventually go down one of two specialist paths: sniper or machine gunner. This can prove particularly useful in certain conflicts that require significant firepower, plus it ties into the hero's talent system that also plays a part. The hero can be upgraded after each level, via the number of stars that are accrued through quality completion of stages. There's a nice sense of accomplishment and progression that works well alongside the otherwise quite predictable tower defense strategies. The only flaw in this system is through its implementation, thanks to some excessively small buttons that can be hard to touch correctly on the iPhone 5 screen.

Enemies are quite varied, ranging from general basic infantry to plane based units and invisible, stealth soldiers. Each comes with their own strengths and weaknesses, adding a little more depth.

Devils at the Gate: Pacific War is a relatively simple tower defense title at its heart, but that doesn't stop it being quite enjoyable. The amount of waves that the player must withstand steadily increases, meaning later stages can take quite a while to complete, but it's possible to drop in and out of via multi tasking support. This, amongst the other gameplay mechanics, ensures that Devils at the Gate: Pacific War is a quality example of its genre, if not particularly revolutionary.