Hack, hack and hack again
But combat is fast, furious and engaging. In early fights, the game guides you through some basic strokes and blocking manoeuvres, but after that you're on your own, left to swipe your finger frantically back and forth across the screen, tapping rapidly to push back locked weapons and pausing only to stab at the dodge or shield buttons, or the mighty bash and magic icons, which charge up as you fight.
Level headed
Tap the Spell button and you have to draw out the given symbol on screen. Careful though, a whack from your opponent will put you off.
How much of your fight is luck and how much is the judgement of an opportunity grabbed slash isn't clear, but that's probably true of real hand-to-hand combat. The action is real-time third-person, but the viewpoint is close enough that it feels almost like an FPS.
Precious little help is provided - it's left to you to spot in the opponent info panel you can pop up that the Feral Troll in front of you is impervious to swords. Switch to an axe, and you're ready to fight. No axe? Buy one from the ever-present shop with the gold you've amassed - unless you've spent it mastering the equipment you have.
Mastering weapons, rings and so forth gives you points to spend on improving your stats. But a mastered weapon conveys no experience points after a fight, so you have to judge your upgrades carefully. And, like real life, you're encouraged to upgrade whenever possible.
And what this lady can do with her finger...
Another RPG elements missing here is the notion of class or profession - you're a fighter who can do magic. But by applying the stats points you gain to either Attack or Magic, you can steer your unnamed character accordingly.
Next page: Mage hard
COMMENTS
Graphics and no gameplay
How can you give a game that has no gameplay 80%?
A bit shallow aren't you?
I suppose you think Paris Hilton is 80% too?
The review reads a little on the negative side
and then you gave it 80%! Most games would be proud with that.
Let's be realistic, folks...
... It's a £3.50 handheld game. Were you expecting Dragon Age mobile?
In all honestly, it's pretty entertaining. You can drop in for a quick 5-10 minute game and be entertained by the fluid combat and awesome graphics. The RPG mechanic is there to satisfy the need for levelling up and buying better gear.
Remember that this is only the first iteration of the first game to use the Unreal 3 engine- Multiplayer will add a new dimension; There's plenty of opportunity for updates. I wouldn't write it off yet.
you missed the memo
Epic Citadel was the proof of concept of the engine, with little more than a panning camera. they did not overlay a game logic on top of it. This is an entirely re-done system, getting a basic fighting engine up an running withing the unreal environment. AI logic for movement has to come later (if not P2P)
Keep in mind, this is the premiere game on this engine. non-rail versions of multiple games are coming soon, the engine has already been licensed "by multiple firms" for iOS development.
