Battleships: Sea on Fire

One of the difficulties I've always had with Battleships is that it initially feels like a very exciting game, but, just like Monopoly, tedium tends to set in rather fast and it becomes an exercise in perseverance just getting to the end.

By that point, you no longer care who wins and who loses, just so long as you can put the boardgame away.

At least with a digital version, as we have here in Battleships: Sea on Fire, there's no faffing setting the board up or putting it away again. This leaves more time for the good stuff, but it has to be said that the game still drags like a long sea voyage.

Despite a glossy new sheen, this is very much classic Battleships. You're given a selection of your own ships to secrete about the screen, positioning them on the grid while kidding yourself that certain arrangement (like bundling them all into one corner) will dupe your opponent.

The ships can also be rotated, so you've a bit more control over how they're set up.

It's then a simple case of firing off random shots at your opponent's board (handled through a point and click cursor, so you don't muck about with co-ordinates) until you hit something and hunt around surrounding squares looking to sink it.

It's a classic formula, and while it might drag during the latter half, it's as enjoyable here as it's ever been.

To jazz up the old boardgame stalwart, thee different settings are provided - World War II, pirates and outer space. The game plays the same, but the visuals offer a vaguely different slant on the usual gameplay.

It also responds very quickly, cutting down on the often sedate play, though completing a 20 round campaign is a marathon bomb-dropping task.

For anyone who's very much into the classic conversions and has a penchant for old-skool Battleships, Sea on Fire is a great example of pocket boardgaming and should really float your boat.

The lack of any multiplayer options is a downer, though, and if, like me, you can only hunt around the grid for so long before hoping for a friendly bomb to bring it all to an end, then Battleships: Sea on Fire doesn't have a whole lot to offer.