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Long-time PC gamer and shorter-time freelance writer, with work at Gamezebo, The Escapist, PC Gamer, Joystiq and parts unknown. Owner of many cats, drinker of fine beers, eater of too much. A steadfast javelin in a flaccid world.
  • The Gate Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    The Gate Review

    By

    I was disappointed to discover that in spite of all the pre-release promotion, The Gate has about as much to do with real-time strategy as Family Feud, and is in fact a straight-up collectible card battle game. But as I delved into it, I was also elated to learn that it's a really, really good CCG, quite possibly the best one I've played since I broke free of my Rage of Bahamut-habit."Combines Real Time Strategy and Training mechanics," the App Store entry for The Gate promises, and for a brief while I bought into it. Passing through the Gate into a hellish underworld filled with demons and wickedness, your only hope is to fight - and by fighting, your hope is sustained. As you move ever deeper into this sulphuric underworld, you'll acquire "Disciples" who you can train, upgrade, and evolve, and who will do battle on your behalf against both computer-controlled opponents and the forces of your fellow players. This is where the RTS component comes into play, as instead of simply a static, numbers-versus-numbers contest, battles are rendered entirely in 3D and filled with impressive visual effects."You move your characters by tapping and then dragging to where you want them to go, and unleash their skills in battle by tapping on icons at the top of the screen. To heal them, simply tap your healer - everybody has one - and then drag to the character in need. It's simple and reasonably intuitive, although the lack of a zoom control makes it difficult to select a Disciple in the heat of a crowded battle.But it's also almost entirely unnecessary thanks to the "auto" function that will control the demons in your army with a good degree of competence. It may not be quite as effective as handling the situation personally, especially at higher levels, but the "fire and forget" convenience is handy; and if you don't like how things are going, you can turn it off and assume direct control of the action at any time.
  • Zombie Tycoon 2: Brainhov’s Revenge Review
    Reviews
    • PC
    Zombie Tycoon 2: Brainhov’s Revenge Review

    By

    Zombie Tycoon 2: Brainhov's Revenge is a sort-of-cute, vaguely-horrific and highly-streamlined real-time strategy game that wraps you in the lab coat of Orville Tycoon, a lab assistant who betrayed his mentor, Dr. Archibald Brainhov, stole his zombie-making formula and set off to conquer the world with hordes of subservient undead.But as you might surmise from the title, Brainhov isn't going to put up with this kind of guffola without a fight, and so it's Shamblers vs. Ferals (vs. police, the army, some mutant monsters and a whole bunch of hillbillies) in an all-out battle for supremacy."Familiarity with the original Zombie Tycoon (which, for the record, I don't have) is handy for understanding certain points about the sequel, like why Dr. Brainhov is a zombie and what Orville did to make him so angry. But if you can manage to avoid getting too hung up on the finer points of the plot - and believe me, that shouldn't be a problem - then Zombie Tycoon 2 works perfectly well on its own. Essentially, it comes down to this: There's a zombie holocaust, it's your fault, and now it's time to dig into the buffet o' brains.
  • Warlords RTS Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    Warlords RTS Review

    By

    Warlords RTS is, as the title suggests, a real-time strategy game set in Aldfarne, a fantasy kingdom overrun by orcs, ogres, goblins, and other such Tolkien-esque riff-raff. Its simplified control scheme makes a tricky thing of complex maneuvers, but RTS fans are nonetheless likely to find it a pleasant way to scratch the strategy itch when they're away from home.Warlords RTS is more than a little reminiscent of the classic Blizzard game Warcraft, back when it was known first and foremost as a real-time strategic conflict between orcs and humans. Unlike that game, however, and most others of its kind, in this one you'll personally lead your troops into battle with a "Warlord" avatar: a Ranger, a Wizard, a Warrior King, or a Huntress, each with unique skills, an RPG-style inventory of rings, amulets, armor and weapons, and the ability to wield powerful magic. As "you," the Warlords are the most powerful tool in your arsenal, but they're still far from invulnerable; fortunately, death is little more than a brief and temporary delay of four or five seconds until you're back on the field, and a ding against your final score."The game looks and sounds great, and while the story driving it is a very thin, conventional high-fantasy tale of a good kingdom overrun by the forces of darkness, the two or three lines of narrative between levels is flowery enough to be legit without tipping into the overwrought. It's all very well-polished, and new units, spells, and control options are introduced slowly, giving players plenty of time to experiment with and grasp their use.Your army will be made up of fantasy archetypes ranging from lowly swordsmen and archers to powerful mages and healers, represented by elves, dwarves, humans, and possibly even a hobbit. The number of units you can maintain at any one time is tightly restricted and can only be grown by conquering villages on the map, but even a "big" army isn't likely to number much more than 20 or so. Warlords RTS is a relatively small-scale game, a concession to the limits of touch interfaces on small screens; but the upside to that is that it's also fairly fast-paced, so you won't need to invest half your day to start and finish a battle.
  • Demon Tribe Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Demon Tribe Review

    By

    Demon Tribe is an ambitious attempt to combine collectible card battle games with MOBA-style action, and it works quite well - as long as you have the patience to figure out what's going on. I've played a lot of CCGs in my time - one of the hazards of the job - and I expected more of the same with Demon Tribe. It's not exactly a genre known for innovation and original gameplay, after all, and a quick, cursory glance offered little to suggest that this game would be any different. So it was a surprise to find that it boasts a far greater degree of complexity than I'd anticipated, and that my CCG autopilot would be of limited use.You begin Demon Tribe under rather hazy circumstances as the newly-chosen director of Omega Surveillance, a sort of secret, supernatural agency charged with monitoring the fragile border between the Waking and Dream worlds (or something like that - the introductory tutorial is pretty heavily loaded and blows by quickly); and long story short, the job of keeping our world from being overrun by demons is now in your hands.You don't defend the border directly, however. Instead, you direct a squad of agents into battle, controlling their actions in single-player "assault battles" as well as multiplayer co-operative battles and PvP brawls of up to six players. Each agent is a unique character and carries a "deck" of demon forms that they can assume during fights. This is where the CCG angle manifests: demons are "summoned" with gems that are acquired as you play and then added to your agents' repertoire. In a way, it's a bit like having multiple custom decks that can be used to handle different situations and combined for bigger battles.
  • Tic Tactics Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    Tic Tactics Review

    By

    The title gives Tic Tactics away. It's the age-old game of Tic-Tac-Toe with a tactical twist, spread out across nine separate Tic-Tac-Toe boards that collectively form one mega, meta-board. You control where your opponent moves, and your opponent controls where you move, and in spite of that rather oddball description it's actually very simple to play, and also insidiously entertaining. Understand?Probably not. Okay, imagine a Tic-Tac-Toe board - perhaps better known to some of you as X's and O's. Now imagine that each of the nine squares on the board is comprised of another, smaller Tic-Tac-Toe board. To claim one of the squares on the big board, you must win the game of Tic-Tac-Toe in that square. Win a game, claim a square, and when you've claimed three squares in a row, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, you win. Easy peasy - that's Tic Tactics."But there's a catch! Oh, isn't there always? You alternate turns with your opponent, chosen at random, from amongst your Facebook friends or in a "pass-and-play" game with a real person, and where your opponent plays determines which of the nine boards you'll make your succeeding move on. Say, for instance, he plays the upper-left square of the board in the middle - you must play on the board in the upper-left corner. On that board, you play the middle square in the bottom row, and so your opponent must now make his move on the board in the middle square of the bottom row. So it goes, back and forth, until victory (or a draw) is declared.It's simple (really, it's one of those things that's easier to do than to explain), but it encourages devious play. It's not easy keeping track of the possible consequences of every move you make, and it's sometimes preferable to pass up on an advantageous square in order to force your opponent into an even more disadvantaged position. Even if a square is won, you can still be forced to play on it, but if your opponent tries to make you play on a board that's full, you'll be allowed to make your move anywhere you like.
  • Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf Review

    By

    Joe Dever's Lone Wolf comes so terribly close to getting it right. And not just right, but perfect. When I first started playing I thought I'd discovered a new pinnacle in beautiful, exciting and interactive gamebooks. And then it all fell apart, and by the time it was over I was glad to see it done.If you like gamebooks (and probably even if you don't), the opening of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf will blow you away. It hits you right from the get-go with a gorgeous, subtly animated pen-and-ink style of illustration and a rich, urgent orchestral soundtrack. And choice! Lone Wolf is a well-established character with 28 gamebooks to his credit (the analog, dead-tree kind of gamebook, of course) but before the action begins you can customize your version of him to a surprising degree. Are you the stealthy type, or do you prefer a stand-up fight? Do you pay close attention to you surroundings with every step you take, or do you prefer to rely on intuition to see you through? You can build Lone Wolf into just about any kind of character you want, from a brain-smashing tank to a quiet, thoughtful diplomat.The game shows off a remarkable degree of interactivity once the action starts. Multiple choices need to be made (as with any gamebook), but skill in the form of manual dexterity is also vital. Picking locks, for instance, isn't simply a matter of looking at a stat and rolling some virtual dice; you'll have to use a lockpicking tool and a small dagger to work the lock open, and if you break all your tools, it's tough luck for you. 
  • Apexicon Preview
    Upcoming
    • iOS
    • PC
    Apexicon Preview

    By

    "Apexicon."What?"Apex + Lexicon = Apexicon. Simple as that," Jonathan Meyer, designer, programmer, and founder of Actos Games explained. "It's the 'height of all word banks,' basically, an artifact from which all man got the idea about how to use words. It's something of an origin story for a world, which is always a neat concept to start with. This coveted book has been lost to time, and who knows who actually has it? That's one of your goals during the story - to find out."Apexicon is also the title of a new game being developed by Meyer's indie studio that's now wending its way through Kickstarter. A "puzzle RPG with a focus on story, combat, and world-building," Apexicon challenges you to battle enemies by creating words from a Boggle-style board of jumbled letters. But it's meant to be more than just a word-search game, as the plan for the full release includes town management, NPCs, customizable characters, leveled equipment, cross-platform saves, and more."Meyer cites Puzzle Quest, Scrabble and Bookworm Adventures as inspirations for Apexicon, but said he was after something a little bit different when he began work on the game. "I knew that there were a lot of match-3 games out there, and while I enjoyed them, I hadn't seen a real take on making words out of a large board for quite some time," he said. "I knew it was perfect for mobiles, as touching the screen would be child's play. Making it on PC seemed the right thing to do as well, and the idea to swap saves between the two became a big feature focus."
  • King’s League: Odyssey Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    King’s League: Odyssey Review

    By

    The King has put forth the call for the mightiest in the realm to contest for a spot at the Round Table! The path will be difficult, but fame and glory awaits the one bold and powerful enough to seize the opportunity. From humble beginnings, you must rise through the tournaments, forge your legend across the land, and lead your party to victory in a game that's both simple to play and surprisingly complex.King's League: Odyssey is quite the thing. It starts off simply enough, with hazy shades of something from Kairosoft, requiring you to recruit a small band of knights, mages, and archers, who sally forth to complete quests, conquer villages, and take part in monthly tournaments. But before long you'll find yourself clearing out dungeons, laying siege to larger, tougher cities, upgrading your facilities, specializing your troops, and more; and yet it happens so gradually and it's all so easily accessible that you won't even notice it happening until the first time you get clobbered and realize that you need to actually think about what you're doing."The game plays out in monthly cycles, the days ticking off inexorably (unless you're in a menu) toward the tournament battle at the end of every month. You begin with a single knight and enough money to recruit one or two cohorts: another knight, a warrior, or perhaps an archer or a wizard. Each character has four ability-determining stats that must be trained as often as possible, but training is limited by points, which are awarded in very limited quantities at the beginning of every month. While training, you can also embark upon quests, which earn you gold and sometimes crystals that are used to increase your character levels, earn specialized abilities, and upgrade your facilities. But you can't be training while you're questing, so you don't want to be questing all the time - and since questing also takes time, you sometimes have to take a break to ensure that you can attend the monthly tournament.