Rapid Action Force

Rapid Action Force – Speed’s important but planning’s essential

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to save the world one city at a time? Well if you have, then Rapid Action Force is going to definitely appeal to you.

Rapid Action Force is a game where you must try to prevent hordes of terrorists from advancing and capturing your base. To do this, you have a limited amount of cash at your disposal and it’s down to you to assess the Google Maps of real cities around the world and work out the best positions to set up your defensive forces. These defences come in the form of a machine gunner, mortar, missile launcher, RPG rocket, 105mm canon and fighter jets. Each of these units have different levels of firepower which is reflected in the price. For example, a machine gun has a shorter range of fire and is not as effective as calling in an airstrike by fighter jets, which are able to cover a larger distance and obliterate all enemy they come into contact with.

Tactics prove to make the difference between success and failure and if you fancy yourself as the next master tactician to equal Hannibal (the ancient warrior not the evil genius from Silence of the Lambs), then you will certainly be meeting your match in this title.

The main problem with the defensive forces is that they are just as likely to be destroyed by the enemy forces when they blow up should they get caught in the blast. This doesn’t just weaken your defensive line but also can cost you greatly to replace.

This game is a turn based game, where you get to assess the possible attack routes, deploy your units and then watch as the enemy advance towards their target. The enemy moves are quite slow and jerky to observe, but undoubtedly watching them approach your defences and indeed blow up definitely makes this quite enjoyable. Similarly, watching the enemy blow your tactics to shreds and indeed wipe you out can bring a bit of a tear to your eye.

For me the most horrifying element of this game is that if you were more like Hannibal Lector, you could probably learn how to cripple a major city and I can only hope that no-one uses this as a blueprint of how to do this in the real world. I think this fear would have been easily quashed had it been placed on cities that either didn’t really exist, or, not using the actual maps of these locations.

However, this game is certainly good for keeping your attention and testing your wits and tactical skills as well as using a little bit of luck at times too.

Rating 76%

Positives

Very realistic and combines Google Maps with traditional gameplay – a first for mobile games!

Challenging and rewarding

Highly addictive

Negatives

Frustrating

Quite slow and monotonous at some stages

You have to download many of the other maps from the web