IWO: Bloodbath in the Bonins Reviews

No issues with this title. Plays great.

have not yet been able to play every time i load up it freezes my computor

11/8-17 PC ver. The mouse pointer go very slow in the game. Trying to set all to off and 640 x 480 resolution. The menues does not work anymore .

Played on MAC. I haven't seen any problems to play. I have also boardgame version but I prefer digital one to avoid to calculate enemy actions. It's hard to win, I've only draw in my best game yet.

How is this still allowed to be sold? I've never gotten it to work, freezes immediately upon play. I made the mistake of not trying it as soon as I bought it so now I'm past the time it was possible to return. Steer clear of this game barring them doing something to actually get it to function. It appears they have fixed this game now and it's playable.

Unfortunately, instead of reviewing what initially was an enjoyable little mobile port (my hours played are pre-patch), the game has been completely broken by two patches and is now considered both unplayable, and worse abandoned. This is the issue: Start a New Game, and be presented with the map of Iwo Jima. Fine so far.... Only two things on this screen are selectable - East and West arrows. That's it. Everything else on the screen is frozen. You cannot progress, you cannot play. Hell, you can't even Exit. You must use Task Manager to quit. Four emails to support@HexWargames have resulted in a range of feedback from "We promise to pass this on to the developer" at first, to now no response at all. Post in the HexWar Fourms and find your post ignored, much as this shonky product is. It works, apparently on Mac but the Windows version is a wreck. This is a major blemish on the name of the publisher. Beware HexWar Games. Strategy War Gamers aren't known for forgiving this shabby treatment and will carry a grudge. Believe me, we carry big time grudges. Where to from now? If the Developer and Publishers have no intention of fixing this mess (and it's obvious they don't), then it falls upon the Publishers, HexWar Games to issue refunds/compensation (much as Paradox Inetractive have done with games they have published, not developed, that are broken) and offcially withdraw this product from sale. It is a travesty that this broken product has not been removed from sale, despite being reported numerous times to Steam. It bvreaks all terms of service and if was a real-world product it would be gone from the shelves in a flash with lawsuits to follow. DO NOT BUY!

The game seems true to the brutal nature of WWII island warfare. I've now played it twice. The first time I was too aggressive and lost badly. (You only play it from the US perspective. The Japanese AI is essentially passive for the first three quarters of the game as it won't move units and its only decision is which US units to bombard. This is true to the history. Late in the game there may be some banzai charges and Japanese unit movement.) The second game I played with a better strategy and execution. I thought I did well, altho the game said I lost. This game is much different than most other games about the Napoleonic era, Civil War, and even WW II as it is more of a chess game where you have to carefully map out your moves and attacks. My main complaint is I didn't find where all my options are. For example, it was only near the end of my second game that I learned the US can retreat after a "stiff resistance" result instead of depleting a unit and also that you can stack units. Using both of these should help when playing it in the future. It is a quick game, taking at most two hours. Having now played it a few times more I think it is impossible to win unless you have 'clear weather' all but one or two turns and if you have stormy weather you are totally screwed. That said, I think it portrays the actual battle well, and for me that made it worth it playing the game.

Game still has glitches. Bombardment stops working around turn 8. Got to turn 12 and the whole game froze.

I read the negative reviews but also noticed in the update history the game had been patched since the last one. I'm glad I took a chance. I've only played through one game so far (I run Windows 10, by the way) but did so without any problems. The developers seem to have fixed the bugs. I own several HexWar games and have never had a problem running any of them. If you're at all a fan of board war games you will enjoy this. Also, there is a very good in game tutorial that runs along with the game and can be turned off once you get the hang of the mechanics - which doesn't take long.