Battle Chess
- April 20, 2017
- Interplay Entertainment Corp.
Get on Steam"Battle Chess" is a historical strategy game that was first released in the late 1980s, gaining popularity for its unique feature of animating battles between chess pieces. The game, developed by Interplay, saw two sequels and many imitators, leading to a remake for Steam. Despite its success, "Battle Chess" was criticized for its weak chess AI, which was not consistently competitive until the mid 1990s. The game offers both single-player and multi-player modes.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Amiga
Apple II
Atari St
Commodore C64
Linux
Ms Dos
Reviews
- Strong nostalgia value for those who played it in the past, making it a fun throwback experience.
- The animations and fighting simulation add a unique and entertaining twist to traditional chess gameplay.
- Includes both the original and enhanced versions, providing players with options and a creative interpretation of chess.
- The game runs slowly, with no option to speed up battle animations, making gameplay feel tedious.
- Technical issues such as screen freezes and poor sound quality detract from the overall experience.
- The port feels lazy, as it simply uses DOSBox, leading to bugs and a lack of modern features like online multiplayer.
- graphics16 mentions
- 19 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are largely considered dated, resembling those from the original release in the 1980s, with limited improvements over the years. Players note that while the 3D pixelated and 2D modes offer a nostalgic experience, the visuals may not appeal to those seeking modern graphics. Overall, the game is recommended for fans of the original, but many suggest purchasing it on sale due to its outdated appearance and control options.
“The game offers a game of chess in both '3D' pixelated/voxel graphics with medieval characters as playing pieces instead of figures, and a standard '2D' mode that is merely a simple top-down view of a standard chess board with appropriate images for each piece.”
“Just like the old game, can't change visuals like uniforms, but great.”
“Graphically identical to how I remember the game back in 1988.”
“The graphics and animations looked better many years ago.”
“Graphics are the same as the original, which I believe were in the 80s.”
“Dated graphics, bad control options, and a bit expensive for what it is.”
- music6 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The music in the enhanced edition has received praise for its significant improvement over the original, with users noting that it features faster tempos, engaging sound effects, and a more dynamic composition reminiscent of the 15th anniversary CD. The pieces are described as having their own distinct music, adding to the overall enjoyment of the game.
“I love how the pieces move and have their own music.”
“The original is bleh...but the enhanced edition is exactly like the 15th anniversary CD one right down to the sounds and music.”
“It was faster, the pieces could talk, and the music was ten times better.”
- stability6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is notably poor, with frequent screen freezes occurring in 60% of sessions and slow, buggy animations. The reliance on the DOSBox emulator contributes to these issues, resulting in an overall unstable gaming experience.
“Every 3 out of 5 games played, the screen freezes up.”
“The animations are slow and buggy.”
“For one thing, it literally just uses the DOSBox emulator to simulate the game running on an older machine, and as a result, the game is rather buggy.”
- gameplay4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The gameplay is essentially traditional chess, featuring animated characters in place of standard pieces, with minimal changes such as altered sounds and cursor colors. Despite these visual updates, the core gameplay remains unchanged and continues to be highly regarded.
“Only the sounds (and maybe the cursor colors) seem different though, everything else is the same - gameplay hasn't changed at all, it's still great.”
“Gameplay is simple chess, with animated people instead of the usual pieces.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is criticized for its poor performance in DOSBox, leading to issues with sound and animation speeds, which detracts from the overall experience.
“One of the best PC chess games from days of yore, marred by poor performance in DOSBox that butchers the sound and animation speeds.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Users appreciate the monetization model of the chess game, noting that it provides a quality alternative to other options that are plagued by intrusive advertisements.
