Tank Hero: Laser Wars Review

Tank Hero: Laser Wars sees the player take control of a heavily armored tank and set the task of destroying all the on-screen opposition. Despite a strong start, repetition does kick in well before the 180 levels are over.

Each level in Tank Hero: Laser Wars has one basic goal: destroy everything in sight while taking as little damage as possible. Initially it's all fairly simple, with a handful of rather docile enemy tanks which can be easily picked off.

The difficulty soon ramps up though, as the enemy upgrade themselves in terms of speed, power and aggression. At certain points there are also boss fights, with much tougher enemies.

Luckily the player is also well-equipped. The standard tank weapon does a decent amount of damage, but soon the player will be granted access to much more interesting weaponry such as lasers and shields.

To make things harder, a number of obstacles are also introduced, although with some clever maneuvering they can actually be used to the player’s advantage. These include energy fields that the player cannot pass through, energy fields that block any projectiles attempting to pass through it, and retractable walls.

There are a number of control methods supported in the game. The default seems to be controlling the tank by swiping across the screen, and firing by tapping on an enemy.

I found this to be extremely awkward. My preference was the option that used a virtual thumb-stick to control the tank, and firing by tapping on an enemy. The inclusion of a second thumb-stick option for firing would have been a good idea.

Graphically the game looks great, with good use of lighting and shadows. As funny as it sounds the start menus are also well done and have a quality look about them.

Tank Hero: Laser Wars is an enjoyable enough game. Unfortunately, despite Clapfoot’s best efforts, there are only so many ways the player can clear a room full of tanks before repetition sets in. Even the inclusion of a split-screen offline multiplayer option fails to liven things up, due to limited maps that are just too small.

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