Trenches: Generals

From the wide view to the responsive touchscreen, the iPad is a pretty ideal platform for strategy games.

The original Trenches got a following on iPhone (and a Bronze Award from us last year) so the move to the bigger iPad seems like it would add to rather than subtract from the fun.

Unfortunately, Trenches: Generals's control issues and confusing gameplay may leave you longing for the original’s simpler setup.

Set up in a First World War-inspired scenario, Trenches: Generals has British and German forces fighting over a strip of territory. You have to manage your army effectively and overpower the enemy.

The focus is on resource-management, with you spending your money on soldiers, ranging from grunts with bayonets (cheap and plentiful, but weak) to powerful machine gunners (expensive, but strong).

The era-appropriate weapons include killer gas and shell mortars, but the heavy violence is cut by the quirky visuals. The big, bobble-head enemies are impossible to take too seriously, and the gruesome deaths are more South Park than Full Metal Jacket.

There are three different gameplay modes to choose from: the long Campaign, the one-off Skirmish, and the versus or co-op Multiplayer. The campaign cycles through several different types of battle, like The Great Escape, which is an escort mission, and Over Run, which has you holding down a fort for five minutes.

Multiplayer was sorely missing in the original, and its presence is welcome on iPad. Trenches: Generals split-screens the iPad so you and a friend can play on one device. Bluetooth and wi-fi options are sorely missing, though, so you have no choice but to have intimate battles.

Multiplayer omissions aside, there are some bigger issues that prevent Trenches: Generals from being as fun as it should be.

The controls are strange and rather muddled. If you want a character to move forward, you touch him and then draw a line to where you’d like him to go. The difficulty comes in trying to direct a single soldier from within a group. It's confusing and overcomplicated, especially since the side-on perspective makes the soldiers overlap.

Of more concern are the instructions – or lack of them. As voiced on the iTunes reviews and on forums, Trenches: Generals gives you absolutely no guidance when you start.

It took us a while just to figure out how to move troops forward, never mind survive the relatively steep learning curve unleashed by the AI. It's strange that the developer wouldn't take five minutes to include a tutorial or even a few help bubbles.

Hardboiled strategy veterans or fans of the original Trenches may be able to jump in and immediately enjoy this title. The lack of instructions and unintuitive controls suggest that Trenches: General was made for people who've played the game before.