I’ve mentioned playing Clash Royale a time or two. It was one of the first games I played that does what it does (and does well) but whenever a new type of genre emerges, you can rest assured other developers will run with the concept. Genres from recent memory are MOBAs and the Hero or Class-based Shooter (Quake Champions looks like a pretty cool new iteration on that). I’m not sure what people are calling the Clash Royale type of game, but it’s real time strategy meets card collecting, and it’s pretty addicting and fun. Minion Masters is the last game I came across that reminded me of CR, and I’m still regularly playing CR on my phone as well. Minion Masters has been trucking along with development and it has a fair bit of character and mechanics that set it apart from CR, to the point that I wouldn’t call it a clone. Battle Islands: Commanders on the other hand, is exactly that. But is that a bad thing?

I was browsing through the Playstation Store the other night and decided to take a look at the free to play section. I’m already playing a few titles (SMITE, Paladins, Warframe from time to time) on PS4 that are F2P, and for the most part I am very satisfied with them. As such, I stumbled upon this title and apparently it’s based on an already existing franchise called Battle Islands. I’d assume BI is to BI:C what CoC is to CR. And that’s fine. I’m sure the game world this one is based on is likely a Clash of Clans clone as much as this game is a clone of Clash Royale. I’m not really saying that the game being a clone is really a bad thing though. Honestly, this is Clash Royale (albeit horizontally aligned rather than vertical) with a WWII military skin on it. If you like CR, you’ll probably like this game, as pretty much every single concept is present, and it plays identically. I played on my PS4 because that’s where I happened to see it, but it is also available on Steam. It is free to play no matter the platform.

The game consists of various menus that any veteran of the genre should be easily familiar with. The meat and potatoes takes place on the above screen. Instead of towers, you have bunkers. Instead of a castle you have a warship. Otherwise the standard two lanes of combat exist, and you will play cards that spawn units with various abilities or perform actions like shooting missile barrages from off screen on a targeted area. These are obvious swaps from the fantasy creatures and spells from CR. For what its worth, the animations, the unit variety and the gameplay is on par with CR. It does seem to hitch a bit sometimes from lag, but I have that problem with CR at times as well. From what I’ve played of it the amount of chests that you will unlock from playing, and the costs to upgrade cards feel fair. There is a cash shop of course, and this is mostly used to upgrade cards, or buy chests that will also give upgrades, or to get currency to hurry up unlocks. These are all the same concepts used in CR. From the Steam reviews, it seems that the majority of negative scores point at the fact that it is “pay to win” and in a sense it is. However, just like every other competitive F2P title, you will earn the same power over time without dropping any cash. You’ll just get there faster if you do spend a bit. I see no problem with this.

 

Standard fare. Chests will give a variety of drops + some supplies and gold. Gold can be used to rush chests, and supplies are used to perform upgrades, and also buy cards from the shop that rotates cards out daily. You’ll earn stars from battles, and after 10 stars you’ll get a supply drop chest. Wins also come with chests, and they all take time to open. Cards start at level 1, and through gaining extra copies you can level them up. These numbers grow exponentially, and the costs go up as well. CR vets will understand this right away. Your overall account level is affected by this, in that each time you upgrade a card, you get some points to eventually level up your account which comes with the benefit of a stronger bunker and warship.

 

Overall I like the game. Is it a copy? Yes. But it’s reskinned and just different enough to warrant playing. Will I get significantly involved? Probably not as much because CR is with me in my pocket where ever I go. But for a couple quick rounds in between other things while I’m at home? Sure, why not?