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What it Does:

This app is a battleship-esqe naval comabt game. The goal is to sink the opposeing fleet, but comes with a twist and a persistent scoring system.

How well it Does It:

Unlike some other games that you play through Facebook applications, this one is played in real time. Though the game of “battleship” would certainly allow a turn based play structure, taking it real time has proved to be a good idea as an instant action alternative to the other slower games.

When you start the app, it gives you the option of inviting up to 20 friends to download the application, granting you a maximum of 500 extra points. If your friends are the kind that do not like to receive app invitations you can skip this with out it changing your game play at all. That is another reason why this app is so refreshing, it does not rely on your network of friends to determine how successful you will be.

A load screen will come p displaying a picture of a gunship. There are three tabs at the top: “Play Sea Wars” which is the screen you are on and shows you how many people are currently running the app (545 at the time of this writing), “Invite Friends” which is where you would go if, you wanted to, you know, invite friends, and the last tab is “Leader Boards” which will give you a ranking tab for your friends, and for all of Facebook.

Clicking the big red button that says “Find Me a Game” matches you with another player who is also looking for a game. The game launches in a separate window. Your opponates profile picture is displayed in the top left corner. Under that is a box with their name and points in it. Below that in their own boxes is a turn timer and a chat window. Game announcements are done in text along the top The right side panel has the game controls, your score stats, and diagrams of your ships so you know how many hits each one has left in them.

You are presented with an empty angled blue grid with five ships under it. This ships are direct analogs to the ships used in Battleship. To place them to click the once, use your arrow keys to rotate the ship, and then click the place o nthe blue grid you wish it to be placed. You have about two minutes to do this before the game starts. Your targeting is done on a black vertical grid. A red targeting reticle follows your mouse pointer until you click a square. The square lights up, and so does the fire button at the top of the right panel. Having to select the target square and then select the “Fire” button is a nice precaution against accidentally firing into the grid with a misplaced click. There is a button under “Fire” called “Air Strike”. “Air Strike” is where this app really takes a departure from the board game. Pressing the button will cause a random four square box to be hit making it possible to hit two target spaces on an enemy ship with one shot. You can only do this three times, so it doesn’t feel over powered and means enough that you want to use it wisely.

There is one last thing that should be mentioned; the sound for the game is decent. It is blessing that it it is not annoying repetitive and that it actually adds atmosphere to a good app game. Only at the end does the victory music loop start to wear on your ears and by that point you can close the window.

I have never had a problem finding opponents when i wish to play the game, the player base seems large enough that you should be able to find some one at any time. Some players on the app page are complaining about players dropping before the game begins. I haven’t had this happen to me but it could be for a number of reasons. One could be accidental disconnects do to poor connections, another could be people being intimidated by your high score sense it is basically your ranking. If you enjoyed Battleship as a child (or at all, really) this is a great app to add to your profile. This application can be obtained for free from: Sea Wars

Score: 9/10

Popularity: 2% [?]

Filed under: Reviews