Not as bad as they're making it out to be....
Now, is it worth $60? No, I can't say that it is. I picked it up off eBay for $37 and I can say that I feel like I got my money's worth. But I enjoy these type of games so I'm willing to pay a little bit more. For the average video game player I'd say if you can get this game for $30 or less you'll feel like you got your money's worth out of it.
Now, on to the reivew:
Grpahics:
7/10
-Not bad, but not that great. It's a movie tie in game so don't expect earth shattering visuals
Story:
7/10
-The missions are somewhat repetitive and the protaginist is silent. None of the characters from the movie are featured in the film. Still, there is some semblance of a storyline and the final mission is an "edge of your seat" encounter (for me, at least).
Gameplay:
9/10
-This is where Battleship shines. The FPS action is standard fare, if you've played Call of Duty or Battlefield you'll feel right at home here. However, after the simple tutorial in the first mission the action picks up and doesn't stop. The RTS portion is great: you get to control a battleship (USS Missouri), a destroyer, a frigate, and a submarine. Pressing "LB" will bring up a tac map and you're free to move the ships around the island at will; some enemies drop power ups when killed that you can apply to your ships to make them more powerful (e.g.: boost rocket damage, apply armor, repair damage, etc) when an enemy drops a "ship control" power up you can take control of any of the ships and fight the other vessels directly with deck guns, torpedoes, and rockets, etc. This is pretty fun.
-Note: You can press "LB" at any time during a mission to enter the RTS mode. Pressing "LB" "pauses" the action on land so you don't take any damage while out at sea fighting the enemy vessels.
-If you manuver the ships into "support positions" (which are hilighted on the map) you can then use the ships support powers in battle in FPS mode. For instance: you can call in an artilery strike, a rocket strike, an LRAD (sound emiting projectile that disorients and confuses enimies), and various other weapons. After a 1-2 minute recharge you can use the support power again and can use it an ulimited number of times. There are generally 3 "support positions" on any given map so if you manuver all 3 ships in the postions you'll have 3 support powers at your disposal.
Note: One annoyance with the gameplay: Battleship runs on a checkpoint system, and at times the checkpoints are few and far between. It was very frustrating to put a lot of work into a certain section of the game (particularly the last level) only for my guy to get shot and I had to start all the way at the last checkpoint and replay 10-15 min of the level.
Replay value:
-This really depends on the person: I initially beat the game on hard mode and it took me about 5 hours. I plan to play through again on "Admiral" (hardest mode) for the achievement and because the game was fun. There's no MP so all you've got is the SP campaign, but there are collectables to be found in the missions and the achievements are pretty easy to get (my first time through I got 27 of the 33 available). This might warrant a replay for some.
Overall, I'd say this is a pretty fun game and while I probably couldn't justify it at $60, it's definitely worth $30; and it's certainly better than a 3.5. A solid 7.5-8. I'm going to rate it at the high end and give it an 8...but as I stated before, I really like these type of games.
If nothing else, it's most definitely worth a rental.