Here Comes the Boom
The game begins as your beleaguered forces land on a small island in the middle of a clouded archipelago. Before you can build more than a sniper tower, Lt. Hammerman of the Blackguard, a cartoonishly Bondsian villain, pops up and announces his intention to crush your puny base. His gunboat bombards your few standing buildings and a landing force attempts to penetrate to your headquarters. Luckily, your sniper kills them before they make serious inroads. Retaliation is expected. Train soldiers and build landing craft using gold and wood respectively, the familiar currencies of 99% of building games, then scout your nearby target before opening up with your gunship's bombs or flares and sending in your troops. If done right, you free your first group of stereotypically feathered and painted natives.
This is just the beginning of the campaign to destroy the oppressive Blackguard. This cute tutorial did not overdo it with the obvious, since this should be easy for anyone who has played building games before to figure out at a glance. Returning to your base, you are free to design your island from the ground up, but construction is always the annoying aspect of freemium building games. Construction and training takes time, wood and gold, but you can purchase resources and fast forward time with a few diamonds, the freemium currency. You can discover the gemstones while exploring, win them as a reward in combat, choose them as the daily gift or, naturally, purchase them for real money.
Once you have enough troops and a radar dish you can explore the nearby islands for the offending Blackguard. Your radar's level determines how much of the archipelago is available to unlock with gold, otherwise it's obscured by clouds. Clearing clouds with gold opens up enemy islands for scouting and attack. Since each battle costs gold scouting first is a good idea; then a tap on opponents' defenses shows their damage, hit points and range. Your forces can't be directly controlled, so using the scouting mode to figure out the best plan of attack is part of the strategy. Wins are rewarded with resources, gold, medals, and an hourly tribute. Losses grant only humiliation and the cost of training new soldiers back at your home base.
Exploring and raiding was fun. When I leave Boom Beach for a few hours, I know I'm going to return to find some of my bases have been reclaimed by the enemy. There is also the chance that you will encounter other player bases in the archipelago. They offer the most challenge and the best rewards. Of course, for several hours every day your base is open to attack, so defense deployment is also part of the strategy. If an enemy makes it to your base, you lose resources proportionate to your level as well as a medal.
Boom Beach is so great it's a shame Supercell, of Clash of Clans fame, has chosen to go the freemium route. Most building games bank on the fact that the player gets bored during construction, but in Boom Beach the player can explore, scout, and plan the next incursion while waiting. In addition, the diamonds, the only item available for purchase, become less important in the late game, when crystal shards for use building power-up statues become available as rewards – they cannot be purchased with diamonds. Why not just allow a certain number of coins to equal a diamond and charge for the game itself? Buying diamonds via the in-app store negates the strategy implied in deciding when to upgrade or build and lessens the awesomeness of a pretty awesome little game. With those changes, Boom Beach would be four-star.
Supercell has an established cartoon style that is as clear and appealing as it is cute. Raiding added something more to the building game formula and the smooth design makes playing a pleasure. The pointless inclusion of in-app purchases will only affect Boom Beach's deceptively simple strategy if you confirm Supercell's assumption that gamers are fools quickly parted from their money.
