BANG! – Review (iOS)
Bang! has existed as a card game for almost 10 years now and has been extremely successful, winning awards and accolades in many countries. It is a game that I am personally very fond of, so I was both excited and a little nervous about the adaption when introduced to the ios version of the game.
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Likes
- Characterful graphics with subtle animation
- Very useful tutorials
- Online play for up to 5 players
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Dislikes
- Single play against A.I. feels weak in a game that is about bluffing
Bang! at its heart is a game all about bluffing, misdirection and sneakiness. Set in the Wild West, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly engage in shootouts and duels to the death. The players all take on different roles, each with its own objective. Someone is the sheriff, whose objective is to kill all the outlaws. Other players are the outlaws who, guess what, want to win the game by killing the sheriff. The sheriff is helped by a deputy role. The last role you can be is the renegade (my personal favourite) who wins the game if he can engineer it so that the Sheriff is the last man standing, before killing him himself. Only the identity of the Sheriff is known, so the secret roles of all the other players have to be deduced, and this is the heart of the game – trying to work out which side people are on and then dealing with them as friend or foe.
All the players have a character assigned to them, to add further variety from game to game, giving the player a different amount of life points and a special ability. The turns then proceed round with players playing cards from their hand to thwart their enemies and aid their friends. Bang cards cause damage to other players, but can be avoided if the person being shot can play a Missed card from their hand. There are weapon/equipment cards to beef up your character and instant affect cards that cause a whole range of amusing situations to unfold (sent to jail, blown up by dynamite etc.)
So how does this excellent card game fair on the ios platform? The first thing that really struck me was the quality of the graphic design. All the artwork that has been used is extremely characterful and quirky. Along with the music, the artistic elements of the game really help to create that Wild West Spaghetti-western feel. All the animated elements can have their speeds adjusted which is a great bonus, as it can feel like a long time for your turn to come around if you are watching lots of heavily animated turns from the other players. There is a very useful tutorial for the game, as well as a text based rule book to help you with quick reference questions.
As for the game play, I had mixed feelings. Bang! is all about reading people (image – a group of Wild West poker players sat round a table in the saloon, letter box eyes trying to read everything while giving nothing away to the other players). With this in mind, the single player option with this game just does not make the grade for me. Yes, you can try and work out the roles of the different players by their cardplay, but this game is all about table-talk and bluffing, and an AI is just not up to the challenge. This is not the fault of the game designers, it’s just not possible on the medium (yet!). The pass and play option for the game fairs much better, as now we have the heart of the game back again. I still would prefer a deck of cards if I was sat around a table, but this mode for the game would be very fun to play in situations where cards would not work, such as on a car journey/outside in the garden etc. What has really added to this app is the addition of online play through an update in mid-October this year. You have to sign in with an additional login to your Game Centre account, but once you register you can play against live opponents across a range of different platforms.
So, in conclusion, this is a game with a lot of personality and beautifully adapted for the iOS. Now it supports online play, I think that it is well worth the money for the app. Do I still prefer the card game? Most definitely yes – if friends are coming over for an evening of games. But for all the times that this isn’t a possibility, playing Bang! on my ipad provides a very amusing tactical high-noon-shoot-em-up in the Wild West.
