Fury Review

Fury, developed by Auran and published by Gamecock Media Group.

The Good: Fast paced action-oriented gameplay, balancing spells and items is interesting, generally easy to find matches, good loot system, optional monthly fee

The Not So Good: NPCs are not readily accessible, abrupt tutorial, long load times, can have unbalanced games, repetitive and frustrating hyperactive combat

What say you? A first person shooter disguised as a role-playing game: 5/8



MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

With the ever-increasing battle for gamers’ wallets, developers have been coming up with title that put new users quickly into the action, eliminating a lot of the time-consuming minutiae. We’ve seen this done well in World in Conflict, which removed base building and resource collection to produce a faster-paced real time strategy game. Another notoriously drawn-out genre is the role-playing game, typically featuring lots of grinding against low-level foes to increase your level so you can grind against high-level foes and increase your level. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Well, Fury is an action-focused RPG, taking more of a first person shooter approach to the action and removing all those monsters with pure person vs. person combat. Will this streamlining produce a better game?



GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Fury is one of those Unreal engine games, and the graphics look generally decent for a role-playing game. Fury doesn’t have an extensive world, since most of the game occurs in a handful of maps and the common areas, but these locations do look good with some decent detail, from the overall architecture to texturing. The game comes with “high level” and “low level” rendering options, which basically turn down the pixel shaders for older video cards. The characters models are decent, and the spell effects are what you would expect for a role-playing game. The mouse-driven interface is typical; it can be difficult to select enemy units sometimes and health bars are not present to determine who the best target is. Also, load times for Fury are very long, even for recently-visited or small arenas, and the audio stutters a lot during and just after loading. Still, the graphics of Fury fall right in line with what you would expect for a modern third-person RPG and the game maintains a good level of quality. The audio is also very representative of a role-playing game: spell effects, voice acting, and background music are all generic though well-done. Nobody will be disappointed with the presentation of Fury, as the game exhibits the level of quality you would expect in a game such as this.



ET AL.

Fury is an online-only, person vs. person (or, as the cool kids say, PvP) role-playing game. Once you purchase the game you can play for free, although you can choose to play an extra $10 a month (cheaper if you pay for more time at once) to enjoy some extras. What are those extras, you say? “Immortal” players get faster transportation, a better chance of getting loot, priority queuing for matches, ladder events, and beta access. If you play the game a lot, I could see this being almost worth it, but the advantages are not overpowering so non-subscription players will not be at a great difficulty. Fury features a short tutorial that teaches the basics of the interface, but you really need to read the manual to understand everything as the game leaves a lot unexplained. When you start, you can choose from one of eight archetypes (classes). They are not as varied as you would think: there is a ranged spell-caster (called “spiritual”) and a close-combat specialist (“physical”) in each of the four schools of magic (life, death, growth, and decay). The spells obviously change between each of the schools, so there is some change in whether someone is offensive or defensive. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t make this terribly clear until after you’ve chosen your archetype, but you can change it later if you’ve made a wrong choice.



After you are finished with the tutorial, you’ll start out in the neutral sanctuary, populated with hordes of non-playable characters (or, as the cool kids say, NPCs). The sanctuary is generally divided up into each school and NPCs serve as quest givers, traders, and faction leaders that can unlock special items if you bribe them enough. The quests in Fury (called “trials”) are actually stat goals you must reach through combat to unlock more spells. You proceed down the line, talking to more NPCs and getting more and more advanced tools to kill things. Other NPCs offer weapons, spells, or random crafted objects. You can spend a nominal fee to have someone create an item for you; generally, it’s better to make it a low-level item since it’s cheaper, uses less inventory room, and you’ll generally get the same random stats anyway. The NPCs are needlessly spread out, wasting a lot of time walking around instead of fighting (isn’t that what the box advertises the game avoids?). You could have accomplished the same thing in a menu system. Also, having trials for an archetype split over many, many NPCs is silly; why can’t the same guy give me missions no matter what level I am on? Now I have to remember which person I am “on” in order to advance. For a game that supposedly streamlines the gameplay and throws you right into the action, the unnecessarily high NPC population and the requirement of long walking distances are strange design choices.



There are three game types in Fury: deathmatch (called “bloodbath”), capture the flag (“vortex”), and last man standing (“elimination”). All of these modes have been present in first person shooters for quite a while, but they may be new for the role-playing genre. Really, Fury plays a lot like a first person shooter, except guns have been replaced with spells. Joining a match is straightforward: find one of the seemingly hundreds of NPCs for the match type you’d like, and you are placed in a queue, given teammates and similarly-skilled opponents, and off you go. I’ve found that it generally takes less than two minutes to join a match, during which time you can tweak your inventory or run around like an idiot. Bloodbaths are organized on-the-hour only (to maximize the number of players), so there is some waiting involved if you prefer free-for-all action. Since there aren’t a high number of players yet, you can run into terribly imbalanced matches where veteran, high-level players have been put into the match to fill out the contest. These obviously aren’t as fun; although high-level players aren’t at a great advantage in terms of equipment, coordinated high-level players can wipe the floor with you. As you can imagine, this is not very fun and it will probably turn away some new players. Hopefully a steady stream of new players will keep low-level contests more balanced. You can coordinate with your group using VoIP, an increasingly common feature in team-based games. You are placed in groups so you can play with the same people for multiple games in a row. While this is a nice feature, it does tend to lead to some really organized players dominating matches and the games can be less fun for more casual participants.



Fury’s interface takes some getting used to, although this may be due to the fact that I don’t play very many third-person role-playing games (or many RPGs period). Movement is done with our good friend WASD, and the spells can be activated by clicking on their icon or pressing the appropriate numbered key (the specific key can be set by the user). Camera movement and character movement can be independent of each other; this can get confusing but it allows you to look around without actually turning around. All of your spells are part of one of four elements: fire, water, nature, and air. Each time you use a basic spell, it produces “charges” that can be used to fuel a more powerful spell of the same element. However, fire and water (and nature and air) are opposed, so you want to use either all fire or all water spells to maximize your offense. The effects can range from a general decrease in health to long-term benefits or detriments like damage absorption, immunity, and disarmament. There are a lot of interesting choices to be made during battle regarding which spells to use and when to use them to maximize their effectiveness. The gameplay is very fast paced and there is a lot going on with protection spells and curses and whatnot. It’s a lot to keep track of and the first couple of matches will be quite chaotic. Maps can include power-ups like health, buffs, and speed, so further enhance (or complicate, depending on how good you are) the gameplay. Fury does not have a death penalty, and since you will die often, this is a good thing. In general, the game centers on targeting foes susceptible to your spell elements and using low-level spells to allow for large attacks. As with most team-based games, teams that work together, pairing healers, support, and assault characters, will win. Like in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, it's more fun to be on a coordinated team. Clans should have a whale of a time with Fury because of this. Of course, playing pure deathmatch removes the team element so you can enjoy the game without being part of an organized clan.



The gameplay of Fury has a lot of similarities with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, as both feature fast-paced team-oriented gameplay. The options for beginners are obviously limited, since you don’t have access to very many spells, so combat for new players is a bit boring because you will spam the same spell over and over. However, the strategies increase dramatically as you level up, and you have to do some balancing thanks to the equipment limit. While there are a lot of spells to choose from during your ascent in the game world, most of them offer insiginificant bonuses so most everyone of the same class will use the same spells. More balancing of the spell system would have resulted in much more interesting gameplay. Every player, regardless of rank, is restricted to 1,000 equipment points. Every item and spell costs a different amount of equipment points, depending on how good it is. This means you must decide which spells and items are most important and useful for your next battle. The equipment limit also means that veteran players won’t be at a severe advantage since they have the same limits you do, although their spells will likely offer more bang for the buck. The games themselves are very, very fast, and probably too fast for most people (especially new players). It’s really hard to keep track of what is going on: most of the time you're just pressing TAB to select a semi-random enemy and clicking on spells until you die. Maybe this is because I’m not that good at this type of game, but it should be more intuitive and less of a contest of who can press buttons more quickly. After each battle, you are allowed to bid (using dice rolls) on a list of items depending on your performance. Earned goods are delivered to a mailbox after a period of time; you need to search for one periodically in order to receive your goods (another tedious and unnecessary task). Over time, you will gain rank and earn points to complete the quests to unlock better spells. People who haven’t played for a while aren’t at a great disadvantage, as Fury offers a cash bonus for rested avatars.



IN CLOSING

Fury takes a unique stance in the role-playing genre, and the idea would work well in theory. The basic gameplay has a fast pace and the exclusive PvP action reduces a lot of the grinding present in other RPGs. Joining matches is pretty easy and the game attempts to match people of equal skill levels, although you might encounter unbalanced matches if the server is unpopulated. There is a ton of stuff to earn with a large range of attributes that allows users to tailor their characters to specialize in different areas, and the equipment limit brings about some tough decisions on what to take into battle. The trials give you short term goals to achieve and advance in rank. The games themselves can be enjoyable if you are part of an organized team. However, the time between battles is spent walking around talking to NPCs that are too far away. Sure, it’s realistic, but I would much rather interact with merchants in a drop-down menu than spend my time walking instead of fighting. It’s annoying to have to waste precious smashing time searching for a belt crafter. If Fury would have incorporated the system present in Space Trader, where you can access everybody from one screen, then trading would be much more streamlined and ultimately enjoyable. Still, not much time is spent outside of battles so the level of annoyance isn’t as bad as it could be. The battles can be a bit messy for new players and I felt like I was simply pressing buttons most of the game as enemies flew around the screen, but I think more time spent with the product would reduce this level of helplessness somewhat. If you’re looking for an action-packed RPG and you can ignore some questionable design decisions, then Fury might be right for you: it is easy to get in to, provides speedy gameplay, and incorporates a large array of available strategies.

Luxor 3

Luxor 3 is the latest incarnation in the best-selling Luxor series of casual games from developer MumboJumbo. It takes you on an ethereal battle for the eternal afterlife, with over 140 nail-biting levels, 7 challenging game modes, and unique upgradable power-ups.

Armada Tanks Review

Armada Tanks, developed and published by Enkord.

The Good: Simple mouse or keyboard controls, purchasable upgrades that beget different strategies, nice graphics and an informative interface, fast pace

The Not So Good: No multiplayer, does get repetitive

What say you? A 2-D tank game whose fast pace and constant action makes for some fun arcade gaming: 6/8



MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

The gaming system of my youth was the Atari 2600, and it shipped with a tank game called Combat. The game features squares in a square maze shooting squares at each other. But it was pretty fun. Hoping to capture that simplified enjoyment is Armada Tanks, a single player action game where you blow up enemy tanks in a maze. That’s all I have for an introduction, so let’s move on with the review!



GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Armada Tanks features some nice cell-shaded 3-D graphics that are easy on the eyes. Each of the distinct environments are rendered well, the tank models look good, and some of the effects are pleasing. The clean graphics might not have any fancy shading or power-hungry effects, but Armada Tanks does look good. The simple but catchy music and sound accompanies the less-is-more graphics to produce a pleasing package overall. That’s all I have for the graphics and the sound, so let’s move on with the review!



ET AL.

Armada Tanks is a single-player only game where you must shoot and destroy enemy units, usually tanks but sometimes bunkers. You may also be required to defend a base or collect boxes along the way, but in general you’ll be shooting stuff. While Armada Tanks does feature a good number of levels, each of which is designed well with different strategies in each, the game lacks multiplayer so that reduces the replay value dramatically. Games are always more fun against human opposition, so it’s disappointing that Armada Tanks is limited as a single player affair. The game has you destroying a specified number of enemy units before advancing to the next level; each level comes with destructible walls that can be removed for strategic purposes. Armada Tanks has a nice control scheme using the mouse (the keyboard is available but not recommended): the mouse cursor can be placed anywhere on the map and the left mouse button fires in that direction (very easy to track moving enemy targets) and the right mouse button moves to that location. In addition, the path your tank will take is displayed on the map, so there are never any curious pathfinding issues.



While you are laying waste to the various enemies on the map, boxes can be dropped (by destroying indicated enemies) that contain health, invincibility, bombs, and other goodies. You are occasionally given an ally to help with the fight; they are competent assistants, although they keep stealing all the power-ups. The action can get pretty hectic when a number of enemies are present on the map at once. The levels go by quickly, so you are never grinding on the same map; this helps reduce the monotony of the game design. Each level and mission is essentially the same, so it’s good that individual battles are short. Armada Tanks does allow the user to purchase upgrades to their tank. These include stat upgrades, like armor, movement speed, reload time, projectile speed, and damage, and new weapons. I like the design of the weapons in Armada Tanks, as each of them uses a different strategy. The lightning is like a sniper rifle, while the rockets cause area damage and can be used against clustered tanks. Giving the user choices in their upgrades is a good way to tailor to different strategies in the long term: creating a quick sniper tank or a stout, powerful one is up to the user. The workshop upgrades are greatly appreciated and they elevate Armada Tanks past a simple action game.



IN CLOSING

Despite the relative short length of this review, I did like Armada Tanks. The mouse control scheme is very polished, the graphics are nice, the action can be intense, and the upgrades allow for user customization. Sure, each level is essentially the same as the last, but Armada Tanks does offer some nice designs that allow for different plans of attack. Armada Tanks kept me entertained for a while, but I do wish multiplayer was included to allow for even more value at its budget price. Those looking for a slick action game won’t be disappointed by what Armada Tanks offers.

Galactic Dream: Rage of War Review

Galactic Dream: Rage of War, developed and published by Evolution Vault.

The Good: Straightforward once you learn the mechanics, random maps, sense of humor, huge battles and quick build-up

The Not So Good: Antiquated user interface, hard to see units, extremely linear building requirements, drawn out dialogue that must be manually advanced, ships must stop in order to fire, very difficult

What say you? This by-the-numbers real time strategy game has a fast pace and big fights, but it is somewhat hindered by a steep learning curve, high difficulty, lackluster features, and a bland presentation: 5/8



MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

Small developers have a tough time making good games. Throw in limited budgets and small teams with limited feedback and you usually have a recipe for disaster. Take for example Galactic Dream: Rage of War, a game I’ve been aware of since late 2005 when I first contacted the developers about a review copy. Fast-forward two years and the game has finally been released, and I received a copy of the first retail release of the game in September. The game was very rough around the edges and it was missing a lot of common features, so I let the developers know this and they actually listened to my feedback and made a number of improvements in 1.01. Apparently my opinion matters, or something. Anyway, the game appears to be in reviewable form now, so let’s get to it!



GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The graphics of Galactic Dream are a bit behind the times. The game is rendered in 3-D and features some nice looking space backgrounds, but the buildings and units are generic metallic models. It can sometimes be hard to see units on top of buildings, because of size and the fact that they have the same colored textures. I’ve “lost” countless builder units because they chose to hide next to a newly constructed building. The larger units have a lot of flashing lights and boxing a large number of units will select the military units, so they problem only really happens with constructors. The units really need a static icon near them to make them easier to spot. You can zoom out to see more of the battlefield and the minimap does a good job showing friendly and scouted enemy units; for some reason, clicking on the minimap will reset your zoom level, which can be a bit disorienting. The sound is OK, with repetitive (but humorous) voice commands and a variety of annoying to not-as-annoying music. There isn’t any voiced dialogue in the campaign, though, which requires a lot more reading than I want to do. So while Galactic Dream features a good presentation for an independent title, it can’t obviously compete with the big boys in terms of quality.



ET AL.

Galactic Dream is a standard real time strategy game with resource collection, base building, and pure destruction. The game features a single player campaign with varying objectives, from simple “kill all enemies” to timed defenses to escort missions. The amount of variety is appreciated and it increases the replay value somewhat. The campaign is driven by dialogue, but unfortunately it is not voiced and only appears in annoying pop-up windows that are manually advanced. Well, to be truthful, they do advance on their own, but I was never patient enough to wait; I guess I am a fast reader. The story isn’t very interesting and the dialogue seems very extraneous and unnecessary; it would have been much better to have some voiced lines to lend some authenticity to the story. There are multiplayer skirmish battles available and Galactic Dream features an in-game browser to easily find matches; I wasn’t able to test online performance because I never found any opponents to play against. The objectives in multiplayer matches are all the same: eliminate all enemy forces and buildings. This can make for some drawn-out battles and isn’t very innovative. The two races in Galactic Dream are identical except for different ship names and some small, generally insignificant changes. Multiplayer matches do take place on random maps, but since all of the maps consist of simple asteroid fields, this isn’t that impressive of a feature. Galactic Dream does not offer anything innovative in the features department, but at least it offers some skirmish battles to let the action last a bit longer beyond the campaign.



The user interface has been improved since I last saw it, but it’s still tough to get pertinent information in a timely manner. There is a lag after you select units to when their information appears on the screen. While the minimap (now) shows important objective locations, these are not accompanied by a short briefing text on what you are supposed to do; accessing the log and reading through the drawn-out dialogue is the only way to jog your memory. Galactic Dream also doesn’t zoom out as far as I’d like, although I may be spoiled by the bird’s eye view offered in games like Sins of a Solar Empire and Supreme Commander. Resource collection in the game is very straightforward: build a mining base, build some workers, and they will automatically gather and deposit resources, bringing in fat stacks of cash. You will also need to build housing to increase your population cap (called “supplies” in the game). Workers can also be used to construct any of the game’s buildings; they are placed at the worker’s current location and can be placed anywhere on the map, which makes hunting down the few enemy units at the end of the game a chore in multiplayer matches. There is a very linear technology tree present in Galactic Dream: one building is required for another, and that building is required for another. This doesn’t allow the user to customize their attacks, focusing on, say, defensive structures, since you have to build everything in a set order to access higher-level units of any type. While this makes for some boring and repetitive gameplay, this does cause the game to be easy to learn since the build order in every game is exactly the same. Most of the buildings in the game either produce units or unlock units for production, and there are a few defensive turrets available as well. Unit-producing buildings can queue five units at a time; once you get your economy rolling, this is far too few and an infinite queue where a single unit could be produced automatically would be greatly appreciated. Units run the gamut from small fighters to hulking battleships, and they generally get better as you advance up the building list.



I’m no slouch in strategy games (I review enough of them), but Galactic Dream is very, very difficult. While you can set different AI skill levels in skirmish games, this doesn’t seem to do any good as even the easier setting offers quite a challenge. The campaign is also set at a default difficulty level, and I had quite a time with the first non-tutorial mission (and even ran into some trouble in the tutorials!); luckily, you can now save the game mid-mission, which reduces the annoyance level somewhat. The generic gameplay of Galactic Dream doesn’t help replay value, since you will use one of two strategies: rush early or advance to the high level buildings. It seems that the latter strategy is preferred from the games that I have played. The general mechanics of Galactic Dream is classic RTS, featuring large quantities of units and massive battles. There are some strange happenings in the gameplay, however. First, none of the ships in the game can fire on the move. I’ve never known any type of ship that had to stop in order to fire; imagine an F-14 stopping to launch a missile! You also need to make sure to issue an attack move to make sure your units stop along the way and engage enemy ships. Shouldn’t all moves be an attack move, or at least an attack move by default? I know if I saw an enemy unit I would fire on them. Galactic Dream: Rage of War doesn’t offer anything innovative to the genre, but it is, at its core, a decent strategy game. I had fun for moments of time, at least before the tough AI destroyed all of my ships. I will say that the developers have shown a willingness to improve the game, which bodes well for the future of Galactic Dream. Based on my initial feedback I alluded to earlier, changes or enhancements were made to the minimap, AI, resource collection, screen resolution, rally points, and mid-mission saves. So it appears that Galactic Dream is not one of those games where it is released and the developers throw away the key: a good sign for longevity.



IN CLOSING

Galactic Dream: Rage of War is a game that’s arrived about ten years too late. While the gameplay might have been remarkable around the time of Red Alert 2, now it just feels archaic in comparison to recent strategy offerings. The basic gameplay isn’t necessarily bad, but Galactic Dream doesn’t offer anything new to the genre. The completely linear technology tree, less than stellar interface, lack of campaign voice acting, and stop-to-fire requirement all add up to a pretty generic game. The high difficulty will turn away some players, and the lack of strategic variety will turn away some more. Galactic Dream seems intended for novice players, based on the simplified technology tree, but the high difficulty makes me think otherwise. It is promising that the developers improve the game based on user feedback, so maybe Galactic Dream: Rage of War will have an extended lifespan. Galactic Dream does offer up some old-school real-time strategy gaming, but old-school is just old fashioned these days.

Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa Review

Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa, developed by Chronic Reality and published by Shrapnel Games.

The Good: Randomly generated maps are different each time you play, robust yet simple editing tools, oil is a neat resource to deal with

The Not So Good: Drab levels, somewhat cumbersome controls, repetitive loot, slow start

What say you? Random maps and mod support save an otherwise generic action role playing game: 6/8



MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

The action role playing game has been popular on the PC for a while now. There is something about hacking and/or slashing that makes people come back for more. Exploring through uncharted regions, killing things, and gathering precious loot is the name of the game in Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa. The thing that may set this title apart from the pack is the Random Adventure Game Engine, which produces new maps each time you play based off some values in a text file. Will this amount of freedom grant players with a new level of awesomeness, or will it just result in muddled, unpolished gameplay?



GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Due in part to the randomized nature of the maps, Scallywag features some frugal graphics. The game maps are rendered in 3-D, but all of the items and characters are 2-D sprites superimposed on the background. It doesn’t necessarily look bad, but it does seem out of place. Speaking of the maps, Scallywag features some of the most boring levels seen in an action RPG in recent memory. The levels consist of walls and floors, and that’s it: no furniture, no architecture, and no realism. No wonder all of the beings in the dungeon are trying to kill you: there is nothing for them to look at! There is also a functional problem with the graphics: since you can’t tilt your view, it’s hard to see past your 2-D character. This makes moving (done by clicking on a map location) way more difficult than it should be. You also have to manually rotate the camera, adding to the dilemma. I probably spend more time moving the camera and trying to see around things than actually playing the game. A more overhead view would be greatly appreciated, or give the user the ability to move using the minimap. The highlight of the graphics is the lighting effect from your lamp: it looks good and is an integral part of the gameplay, not just a bell or whistle. The sounds in Scallywag are basic at best: some decent background music and utilitarian effects for the hacking and/or slashing. The graphics and sound of Scallywag makes it easy for editing and promotes the random map generator, but they aren’t the best to look at or listen to in the genre.



ET AL.

Scallywag is a single-player only action role-playing game that takes place in a dungeon, or, more specifically, in the lair of the Medusa (I know because the title of the game told me so). Something that sets Scallywag apart is the random map generator: every map in the game is made on the spot based on values in a text file. While most games just change the enemy locations (if anything), Scallywag changes everything, from the map layouts to the loot to the enemies. This randomness almost makes up for the lack of multiplayer…almost. The game takes place over eighty levels that increase in difficulty and complexity. The first ten levels start out slowly, especially for people who have played the game before, but the action picks up after the first set. You can only save the game every ten levels for some reason, but autosaves are made at the start of each level. All movement and interaction is made by clicking the mouse and quick slots can be used to switch between weapons in an expedient manner. The minimap is useful as it shows the layout and important objects around the map; finding the exit is easy if you consult the minimap. However, you can’t issue movement orders using the minimap so traveling large distances is difficult, even more so considering you can’t tilt the camera.



As with most role-playing games, there is a suite of weapons to discover in the field. that differ in the amount of damage they cause and how fast they cause it. You can also equip yourself with armor to fend off enemy attack. The items in any single area are very repetitive so there is not much reason to scout a single level extensively (except for oil). You can combine shards to make powerful items, but these are scripted combinations. Some items can have magical effects, like fire, electric, smashing, drain, or drunkenness. Thankfully, combat in Scallywag isn’t a matter of endless clicking: just select and enemy (there is a good assortment of enemies to deal with) and the game does the rest. In fact, your character will automatically defend himself: what a novel idea! Over time, your character will lose health that can be replenished with tasty rat meat and other items like magic mushrooms. The protagonist also gains experience through combat, which will automatically increase health and other stats when you gain a level. Oil in an interesting resource in the game: since you are playing in a dungeon, you need to see, and your lantern and its limited supply of oil is the only way. You need to budget your oil consumption and balance your supply against how far you can see. It’s an interesting dynamic beyond the simple killing of monsters. You can even use your lantern in a sneaky mode and move past dangerous foes unnoticed.



The goal of each map is to find the rope (which may be inconveniently held by a boss) and then find the exit, finding objects and monsters along the way. The maps are generally repetitive as I mentioned earlier, but the game is still fun to play as you smash your way through each map. Scallywag also features some of the best editing tools I’ve seen since Europa Universalis III. All of the files are simple text entries that are used to generate each of the levels. That means anyone can come in and change a lot of the settings without having an extensive modding background. In addition to incorporating new fonts, sounds, and textures, C++ programmers can develop new plug-ins that almost have unlimited potential within the framework of the game. The text files include the stats for all of the weapons, armor, items, monsters, and map designs. Everything can be altered, from speed to damage to rarity to icon to mutator effects to strength to room count and more. There is already a mod made by the developer ready for download that showcases how easy it is to make a slightly different game. I’m interested in seeing how flexible this design is once some modders get their hands on the game.



IN CLOSING

At its core, Scallywag is a basic action role-playing game, but the modification potential of the game elevates its overall value. The graphics and sound may be very elementary, but it does allow for easy modifying and random map generation on the fly. There are some interface issues, such as the inability to change the view angle which makes moving more difficult than it should be. The minimap is informative, but you should be able to move using it: backtracking to the exit can be quite annoying as it should be a one-click affair once you’ve explored the map. The use of oil adds an interesting layer of strategy that makes Scallywag more than a simple clicking affair. The random maps increase replay value tremendously, as do the modding tools that make changing anything you don’t like in the game easy as pie (apple, specifically). I do wish the loot was more diverse in the beginning of the game and the slow start may deter some new players, but the action picks up after the first ten levels. Overall, Scallywag is a good RPG that offers enough replay value through its random and custom elements to make it a notable title.

KingMania Review

KingMania, developed by Rake In Grass and published by 300AD.

The Good: Straightforward gameplay, fast pace, numerous upgrades for different strategies, online multiplayer with server browser

The Not So Good: Controls are a bit cumbersome, not much variety with singular objectives

What say you? The quick, easy strategy gameplay makes up for some lack of diversity: 6/8



MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

Strategy games are moving away from the hour-long slugfests of days gone by to more succinct matches. The importance of base building and resource collection is being replaced by more action-packed excitement, as evidenced by games like World in Conflict. Another game that cuts to the chase is KingMania, a fast paced strategy game in the vein of Galcon and Mayhem Intergalactic. Will the more straightforward gameplay of KingMania reduce the strategy, or just simplify the process?



GRAPHICS AND SOUND

KingMania features some OK graphics and sound using the popular Torque engine. Games using this engine have a similar look: simple but effective 3-D graphics. We saw this in Penguins Arena and it’s present again in KingMania. Most of the levels in the game are small and consist of a green island with various castles placed on the map. The maps are reminiscent of simplified wargame boards except KingMania renders it in 3-D. The graphics make it easy to spot things but won’t overwhelm you with graphical glory. The sound is good enough, featuring some appropriate background music and repetitive but effective effects. Overall, KingMania has a below average presentation, but the game is playable and not terribly muddled so that’s something.



ET AL.

The object of KingMania is to take over your opponent’s castle (apparently everyone is fighting over potatoes). This is done by capturing surrounding locations with your troops to increase your income and recruit more troops. The single player campaign of KingMania is a sequence of skirmishes of increasing difficulty, usually giving more locations near your opponent and making the AI more aggressive. The “destroy enemy” objective that is present in each level becomes repetitive very quickly; it would have been nice to have some other purpose than total domination of your opponent, like capturing a certain town or holding a location for a specified amount of time. The game’s tutorial is integrated into the first couple of levels; the in-game “how to play” information didn’t make much sense until I actually played through a couple of levels. KingMania also features multiplayer over the Internet and provide matchmaking through the game’s server browser, a feature that a lot of independent titles lack.



Your kingdom can consist of several types of buildings: your starting castle that produces knights, villages that produce food and villagers, mines that produces gold, mage towers that produce spells, and scout towers that will reveal exactly how many units are in each building on the map. While it is nice to have a small selection of buildings for simplicity, it does limit the overall strategy somewhat. Sending troops to other buildings it simple: select and click. You can set a percentage of your troops to send on a pop-up display (which can commonly obscure other buildings in the distance) and choose to send just knights, just villagers, or a combination of both. For those who don’t excel in math, the game also indicates exactly how many individuals will be traveling over the river and through the woods to your destination. Traveling takes time, so it’s important to coordinate and send your furthest troops first (similar to coordinating nukes in DEFCON). You must select each individual building as there is no “select all” command or selection box like in Galcon; this isn’t that big of deal except on large maps.



There is some variety added to the strategy through upgrades. Through the money and food that you earn at mines and villages, you can purchase a number of improvements to your buildings. Upgrades can improve a building’s offensive and defensive capabilities, good for front-line structures that are likely to be attacked. You can also increase the production of the building or enable spell casting that sends things like warrior villagers, fireballs, or monsters at enemy cities. Overall, KingMania features just enough strategy in the upgrades and general map layouts to make it an interesting title. There are several strategies you can employ, evidenced by your choices in upgrades and which buildings to invade first. The relatively simplistic game mechanics mean that almost anyone can learn and enjoy the game. KingMania might not have the strategic variety seen in other RTS games, but it’s still simple fun. The user interface is a bit cumbersome and controlling a large empire requires a lot of clicking, but KingMania provides small doses of strategy goodness.



IN CLOSING

KingMania is a good fast-paced strategy game that is easy to plan and offers some variety through the upgrades you can purchase. The controls are straightforward and simple to handle, although the pop-up indicators do sometimes get in the way. The graphics are simplistic but effective. The single player campaign features the same objective each mission (take over all of the enemy strongholds) with increasing difficulty, so it gets kind of old after a while. Thankfully, KingMania has integrated multiplayer support that will extend the life of the game. Although KingMania becomes a matter of simply capturing buildings by force and tons of friendly units, you can tailor your strategy somewhat through the upgrades you choose. A single game takes around ten minutes to complete, so you won’t get bogged down in a single contest for very long. Strategy fans will find some enjoyment KingMania as the basic game is good, although the title lacks some strategic variety to keep people interested for the long haul.

Hornet Leader Review

Hornet Leader, developed by Dan Verssen Games and Storm Cloud Creations and published by Matrix Games.

The Good: Easy to learn with simple mechanics, variable strategy, fast pace, false intelligence creates uncertainty

The Not So Good: No tutorial, single-player only, frugal graphics and sound at a fixed resolution, cumbersome interface with response lag, repetitive missions, can’t exit or save the game mid-mission

What say you? This strategy game has limited features and lacks flashy graphics, but it’s still fun: 6/8



MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

For those of us without any friends, playing card games is an impossible activity (except for Solitaire, of course). Luckily, computers can now substitute for real human companionship and serve as an adequate foe. Thus, we are starting to see a lot of card games make their way onto the PC. One of these was personal favorite Down In Flames, and now comes Hornet Leader, based off a card game from the same author. In Hornet Leader, you lead a swarm of angry bees in a revolt against their human captors. Or you command a group of fighter pilots. Either way, I’m sure it will be fun!



GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Hornet Leader features graphics that are, how you say, old. Hornet Leader is based off a card game, but that doesn’t mean it has to feature outdated visuals. The background of the game map is a stark black, which doesn’t seem like a very realistic theater of operations. The icons used in the game are generally small and you need to scour the manual to figure out what all the numbers mean. The explosions consist of a magic green cloud of dust. Hornet Leader is played at a fixed 1280x1024 resolution; while I commend the use of a common higher resolution, some laptop owners will not be able to play. The sound is equally uninspired: some annoying firing sounds, repetitive explosions, and sporadic and jarring audio clues. Those expecting cutting-edge 3-D graphics and surround sound will be sorely disappointed, and Hornet Leader is even bare-bones by wargame standards. But as long as the gameplay is good, it doesn’t matter how it looks, right? Right?



ET AL.

Hornet Leader features four single-player only campaigns from Libya in 1986 to present-day North Korea. There isn’t much difference between each of the scenarios so they all play very similarly. The game does not have a tutorial, but thankfully the mechanics are relatively easy to learn and there are help button present on all of the screens with detailed information. Each of the scenarios comes with eighteen targets that will appear in a semi-random fashion; you can typically choose between two or three targets, and each will grant different benefits and levels of difficulty. You can choose different campaign lengths, from three day skirmishes to ten day wars. Hornet Leader has six difficulty levels which award bonuses for or against you; I found playing on the balanced “average” setting is tough enough, so Hornet Leader should never get too easy for experienced players. For each campaign, you can select twelve pilots from a larger list; they have varying specialties, such as air-to-air skill, and you must pick a variety of overall skill levels. Pilots can gain experience by successfully completing missions that will increase their stats. Choosing a variety of pilots with different strengths seems to be the best course of action. Although each campaign uses the same pilots (kind of weird considering the game spans almost 20 years), there are enough to choose from to make some hard decisions come about.



A lot of the strategy involved with Hornet Leader comes about even before you technically start the mission. Each mission limits you to a specified number of pilots, and the game gives you a rough estimate on how many enemies you will run into. You will have to balance strengths, pilots needing experience, and overall difficulty when choosing an appropriate roster. The missions are repetitive: blow up a ground or air object and encounter resistance along the way. Luckily, the arrangement and type of enemies changes and requires you to plan for all possible situations. Before you lift off, you will need to air your planes. You can choose between air-to-air missiles, pods (used for passive defense, although the manual neglects this information), iron bombs, anti-radiation missiles (for radar), air-to-ground missiles, and smart bombs. Each mission has a weight limit (tied to how far away the target is, to simulate fuel load) so you have to plan accordingly. Each weapon differs in range, firing altitude, and rolls required on a 10-sided die for a hit. Really sweet weapons require a special cost. There is a good variety of weapons and Hornet Leader offers a multitude of arming strategies: long range or short range, high altitude or low altitude, bombs or missiles, air-to-air or air-to-ground, and so on. Unlike some games that come with an optimal build order or fixed units, Hornet Leader gives the player the freedom to royally screw up.



The first step in a mission is to plan your starting locations and altitudes. Before this happens, though, you can receive a random event that might completely change your chance of success. There are positive ones (like bombers softening up the target) and very negative ones (like running into a SAM site). Sometimes you are given a choice of using some of your weapons to avoid the event or just take your lumps. It should be noted that Hornet Leader crashes if you choose to use weapons you don’t have, although I think this may be fixed in a patch. In any event, you are given the choice of placing your aircraft in eight approach zones (one for each cardinal and ordinal direction) and set their starting altitude. You will want to avoid dangerous weapons and try to fly out of the range of enemy strongholds; since some weapons can only engage low altitude planes, this can be done to some extent. Each mission consists of four turns and each turn has four stages: fast pilots attack, enemy sites and bandits attack, slow pilots attack, and movement. Engaging an enemy requires selecting the shooter, clicking on the target, picking your weapon of choice, and pressing fire. The interface could have been designed better, since some objects have a very small clickable range, and Hornet Leader has large amounts of response lag after a shot is taken. I’m not sure if this is to let you see the results, but it’s annoying if you are clicking on something and the game doesn’t respond because it’s paused automatically. All of the computations in the game are done with a ten-sided die: if your roll exceeds the number on your missile, the target is destroyed. You can fire multiple missiles per turn to increase your odds, but once a pilot has fired once they cannot fire again that turn.



Defending against enemy attacks is a bit more complicated than attacking. You can choose to suppress an attack by using a precious weapon, evade an attack which will increase your odds at surviving but increasing stress, or just take it like a man and hope for the best. These are some really tough decisions: you can’t suppress all of the time, because then you will run out of weapons. You also can’t evade all of the time, because stats decrease as stress increases.



An enemy’s attack can have one of four results, depending on how high the dice roll was: nothing, a gain in stress, a loss of weapons, or complete humiliation. You can luck out for a couple of turns, but eventually poor planning will catch up to you. The random events that take place before and after combat can also mix up the action quite a bit, making a previously daunting mission easier, and vice versa. Hornet Leader has a very fast pace: a single mission takes around ten minutes or so to complete, depending on how many planes you have under your command. This makes it a little easier to understand why you are not allowed to save, or even exit, the game during a mission, but those two features are still questionable in their exclusion. Hornet Leader does feel a lot like a card game (not surprising) and the mechanics are generally good, with easy-to-understand rules and straightforward gameplay. Hornet Leader could benefit from more features, such as multiplayer (where one player could take the defender) or more dynamic graphics, but the game is still fun to play and it is a good fast-paced strategy title.



IN CLOSING

While Hornet Leader is a more limited title than Down In Flames, it still shows that Dan Verssen Games knows how to make a fast-paced engrossing card game. And the computer version of Hornet Leader isn’t too shabby either. The basic gameplay is simple enough where anyone can learn it, after they figure out what all those little numbers mean. Although each campaign is the same, the replay value is still high thanks to randomized enemies and special events during each mission. There are a lot of choices the player needs to make during each game, including the initial roster, mission setup, loadout, positioning, weapons use, countermeasures, and more. Hornet Leader gives a lot of freedom without being overly cumbersome in its design. The game does lack some of the features present in more well-rounded strategy games, but I still had fun while playing it. Hornet Leader is also difficult enough to keep people coming back well into the future. Hornet Leader is another fine card-based game that should keep strategy fans busy for a while.

1914 Shells of Fury Review

1914 Shells of Fury, developed by H2F Informationssysteme and published by Rondomedia and Strategy First.

The Good: Seemingly realistic and uniquely different from contemporary submarines, pleasant interface, quick mission generator, time acceleration

The Not So Good: Uninformative tutorials, outdated graphics, no multiplayer, static campaign missions, quick mission builder is very limited

What say you? It’s not the best game in the genre, but there is still some World War I U-boat fun to be had: 6/8



MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

Submarine games have a storied tradition on the PC. From the Silent Hunter series to the classic Jane’s titles, you don’t have to go far to find a quality simulation of action under the surface. Most of these games are set in the present day or (surprise!) World War II, where most of the hunting and/or killing focuses on technology. But what about the olden times, before fancy gadgets turned metal behemoths into blips on a screen? 1914 Shells of Fury simulates old school World War I submarine action: no sonar, just periscopes and torpedoes. Most of the subs during this time period operated above the surface until they spotted an enemy ship, and then submerged for the kill. This makes the gameplay of 1914 Shells of Fury potentially different from more current sub games.



GRAPHICS AND SOUND

1914 Shells of Fury is one of the worst contemporary naval games in terms of graphics. It’s not terribly complicated to make a nice looking ocean, believable ship models, awesome explosions, and decent underwater scenes, but 1914 Shells of Fury fails in pretty much every one of those areas. The waves stink: they are completely angular triangles that rise and fall in the ocean. The ships are equally straight and lack detail, and the explosions are unimpressive. Even underwater scenes look unrealistically murky and green. When you compare 1914 Shells of Fury to games like Ship Simulator, Virtual Sailor, and even Days of Sail (not known for its graphical prowess), it’s clear that this game needs a lot of work in the graphics department. The sound effects in 1914 Shells of Fury are a slight bit better with some OK effects, although there isn’t any voice (German or otherwise) in the game. 1914 Shells of Fury also has some subdued music that fits the stealthy atmosphere of the game well. Thankfully, simulations focus more on gameplay than graphics and sound, but it would still be nice for the world of 1914 Shells of Fury to look pretty.



ET AL.

1914 Shells of Fury features play from the German side of World War I. You can play single missions, the campaign, or a quick mission builder. The single missions include limited tutorials that cover only one thing at a time, and they don’t really teach you anything (just “do this”). There are a handful (around five) stand-alone missions that are a lot like the campaign missions: search and destroy. Although you can play from the start to the end of the war, the campaign is very linear and features the same missions each time. This is disappointing, since it would be seemingly easy to randomize the locations and enemy ships at least a little bit. The mission generator does this to some extent, as you can choose your sub, the region, year, enemy, weather, time of day, and season. However, you always spawn right next to the enemy and this removes all of the scouting involves in submarine attacks. 1914 Shells of Fury also lacks multiplayer. Obviously, there could have been a lot more done to round out the features in 1914 Shells of Fury.



Fortunately, the actual gameplay is pretty good. You can adjust the realism in the game, including the availability of batteries, fuel, oxygen, torpedo faults, convoy movement, and torpedoes. 1914 Shells of Fury follows the World War I submarine method of movement: operating mostly on the surface because there was no sonar (and battery power was limited), spotting enemy ships, and then submerging to attack using the periscope. All of this plays out in real time, so thankfully 1914 Shells of Fury includes time acceleration: up to 16X when engaging enemy ships, and 1024X if you are using the map view with no spotted enemies. The game will also automatically switch to real time speed if an enemy is spotted. This makes three day missions take about half an hour to complete, depending on how many ships you encounter. Most of the missions have you patrolling a specified area and engaging any enemy ships you see; they will follow realistic paths and zigzag to avoid torpedoes. 1914 Shells of Fury features a decent interface that allows you to do basic actions from any station, although most of the time you’ll want to switch positions on the ship.



There are ten rooms to visit on the ship. The first is a sailing view that allows you to feel the wind in your hair, virtually speaking of course. The control room features straightforward speed, depth, and compass settings, as you use the mouse to set them. The torpedo room allows you to load the four tubes, set the depth the torpedo will follow, and its speed. You can go above deck and fire the deck (for ships) or machine (for planes) guns, or have the computer do it for you. You can also equip the binoculars to spot enemy goings-on, listen to the radio, or check the mission objectives and extensive damage report (with a multitude of systems that can be destroyed) in the captain’s room. Most of your time, however, will be spend in either the map room or with the periscope. You can plot up to five waypoints on the map and set autopilot to follow them (then accelerate to ludicrous speed) or just keep an eye on enemy contacts. The periscope can be raised and scrolled to spot enemy ships. The scrolling is a bit too touchy and it takes a couple of tries to lock it on an enemy ship. Once it is centered correctly, you can have the game calculate the firing angle and follow it automatically, or choose to do these things yourself. Overall, I prefer the more basic submarine mechanics of 1914 Shells of Fury over the more modern simulations with tons of electronic equipment you must learn. I certainly think that 1914 Shells of Fury is more appropriate for beginners as it’s pretty easy to figure out what to do and you still get to blow stuff up. I can’t find anything wrong with the gameplay or any glaring features missing, so 1914 Shells of Fury is as realistic as a World War I submarine simulation can be.



IN CLOSING

Despite lacking some extra features, 1914 Shells of Fury is an entertaining and realistic submarine simulation. I actually like this simplified approach to submarines better than the technology-dependent modern subs: there’s no listening to soundings or any of that techno mumbo jumbo to worry about. It’s find the enemy, submerge, and fire. 1914 Shells of Fury would feel like a more complete product if a better mission generator and more varied missions were included, but all you are going to do is hunt and kill, so there’s not much variety inherent in that anyway. The budget price of $20 makes 1914 Shells of Fury a reasonable addition to a naval simulation library. It’s not as advanced as some other games, but neither were the subs of World War I. I feel that I got $20 worth of fun out of 1914 Shells of Fury, and the more simplified approach is sure to be welcomed by a segment of the gaming population.

Narobiyu Review

Narobiyu, developed and published by Balázs Buri.

The Good: Original gameplay, fast pace, nice graphics for the genre, cheap

The Not So Good: No multiplayer

What say you? A simple premise makes this puzzle game unique and quite addictive: 7/8



MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

I’ve been reviewing less and less puzzle games recently, mainly because they have become all the same (how many times do I need to play a match-three game?), but I’m up for a unique idea. The puzzle genre has spawned some distinctive titles, from Tetris to Lumines. Both of the aforementioned titles have very simple mechanics and highly addictive gameplay, something you look for in a quality puzzle title. Narobiyu is hoping to be one of those games, taking straightforward gameplay and elevating it to the upper pantheon of puzzle greatness.



GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The graphics and sound of Narobiyu are very reminiscent of Lumines, which is a good thing. The game has a very clean look to it, with brightly-colored blocks and dynamic backgrounds that don’t obscure the action. I like the graphical style of the game and it fits the genre well. The music is along the same lines, with an upbeat tempo appropriate for this kind of game. The graphics and the sound of Narobiyu are both pleasing on the eyes and ears.



ET AL.

Narobiyu effectively takes a straightforward, innovative idea and creates a fun, entertaining, and addictive game. Here is how the game works: you must connect two blocks of the same color by tracing the connection with your mouse (or keyboard, but the mouse makes it a lot easier). Each time you make a connection, the next connection of the same color must be exactly one block longer. Once you make three progressively longer connections of the same color, they disappear from the board. Normally, you will start out with a two block connection (two adjacent blocks), then a three (with one differently colored block in the middle), and then a four. While the blocks are being removed, you can make additional connections for bonus points. You can do a run of connections with more than one color at once, but its much easier to focus on the same color so you don’t lose track on which length you need next. If you make an incorrect connection, it turns grey and can’t be removed except with a bonus. The gameplay is simple once you learn the nuances; it took me a couple of tries to get it right (there is no tutorial) but once I did, Narobiyu was quite enjoyable. Watching the gameplay video shows how Narobiyu is played if my description didn’t make any sense (likely).



The standard game mode is the usual increasing speed mode present in most puzzle games like this, but you can also play for a short period of time in the time trial mode. I would like to see more customization options in the time trial mode (such as length and starting level), though. Narobiyu is a very fluid game and helps you out: the game pauses for several seconds if a column reaches the top to give you a chance to eliminate some blocks in specific areas. The gameplay is repetitive but it’s still fun as the difficulty slowly ramps up with additional colors and faster scrolling. Narobiyu takes a unique concept and executes it well, resulting in an engaging puzzle game.



IN CLOSING

Innovation is hard to come by these days in the puzzle genre, but Narobiyu comes up with a unique change that makes it memorable and enjoyable. You really need to play the game with a mouse, but the controls are straightforward and smooth. The graphics and sound are good for the genre and create a nice gaming atmosphere. Although the gameplay is somewhat repetitive, the difficulty ramps up fast enough to keep you interested for the duration. Plus, Narobiyu has that addictive “one more game” feel to it. Anyone remotely interested in puzzle games should definitely give Narobiyu a serious look, especially at the low, low price of $7. It is something different for the genre, and that’s to be commended.