Archive for the 'Role Playing' Category

Direct Link : Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars
Publisher : Astraware

Price : $29.95

Graphics : 9.5 Out of 10
Sound : 9 out of 10
Gameplay : 9 Out of 10
Longevity : 8.5 Out of 10
Overall : 9 Out of 10

Sometime a review can take a while to complete. This can be due to other working commitments, or one of a multitude of other reasons. Sometimes however the reason is the classic, one more go syndrome. With Broken Sword however, it’s not quite the one more go scenario, as you don’t get vanquished by your foes and have to start all over again. Here it’s the need to progress further and further into the game, of course to be able to report on all the goodness within.

First off let me say this game is gorgeous. From the absolutely amazing graphics, to the smooth animation, and wonderful sound effects and spoken dialogue. Admittedly the dialogue can at times be really cheesy, but it’s totally in keeping with the game and at times provides some light relief.

This is a game that’s relatively hungry for storage space. The game itself needs 115 megabytes, with a recommended 250 megabytes for the purpose of installation. No problem here, fortunately as I have a 4 gigabyte CF card in my Pocket PC, so this wasn’t an issue, but it’s worth noting, if you are a bit short of the necessary space.

For anyone who’s played a point and click adventure, the gameplay will be pretty familiar. After cut scenes or interaction with characters, you can click on items strewn about the scene, to find out more information or interact with the item, or click in the direction you wish to travel, i.e., through a door, or up a flight of stairs. You can also interact with a range of characters in the game, from stuffy police, to the delightfully dotty and eccentric and this interaction is vital to unlocking information and clues, to allow you to progress further in the game.

The basic storyline begins with you, George Stobbard a vacationing American, outside a café in Paris, just after an explosion in which a man is killed inside. You take it upon yourself to investigate further and start to uncover a terrifying conspiracy. The game is a remake of one previously available on the PC and Playstation, but you wouldn’t have guessed it. This isn’t a straight, let’s make money port, as there has been some amazing attention to detail and indeed gameplay. This game plays like a charm and you never feel like it’s a game that’s been mindlessly shoe horned into the Pocket PC.

As I mentioned before, I would have reviewed this earlier, but I wanted to at least get far enough into the game, to be able to give an informed opinion. Well that opinion is in and it’s all good. I’m not sure how far I’ve got in the game, but I’ve had enough “ah ha” moments, to fuel the desire to continue further. Indeed even after this review is put to bed, I feel like I’m going to have to finish this game, otherwise it will be one of those things burning away in the back of my mind.

I can’t really think of a single thing to criticise this game. Yes the price of the game is a little high at a tad under $30, but the overall experience and gameplay really pale the cost into insignificance. This really is one of those games you love to have, just to show off what a Pocket PC can do, to your friends and collegues.

Conclusion : This is just an amazing game, with that great immersive quality. In fact I’d sometimes forget that I was playing on a small Pocket PC screen, especially when wearing headphones. Certainly not a game you are going to walk straight through, but the difficult level seems to be set just about right. An absolute must for your Pocket PC games collection.

Direct Link : Warring Nations
Publisher : Inscenic

Price : $14.95

Graphics : 9.5 Out of 10
Sound : 9 out of 10
Gameplay : 10 Out of 10
Longevity : 9.5 Out of 10
Overall : 9.5 Out of 10

Set in medieval times, Warring Nations gives you the opportunity to rule and expand your empire by any means necessary.

You begin the game by selecting who you wish to play as. You can choose to play as the Franks; Germans; Italians; Normans; Saxons; Slavs and Spanish. Each nationality gives you 3 rulers to choose from, except the Saxons where you are presented with 5. The range of historical characters you can play as include Robin Hood; Richard the Lion Heart; Joan of Arc and Pope Julius II. Choosing a character isn’t just a matter of choosing a name you like. No, each character has varying skill levels for each criteria, Combat, Spy, Diplomacy, Trade and Building to which each has a value of between 0 and 4, so choose carefully.

Once your character is selected, you choose to select to play on one of three maps of different sizes, populations and opposing players and can also select from 4 different levels of difficult, Trivial, Easy, Normal and Hard. There are also additional maps you can download from the website, giving an enormous boost to the playing longevity.

You then finally need to select whether you want the resources in the game map to be random or stay with the predefined settings and lastly how many players you want to play against, between 2 and 5.

So you’re all fired up and ready to go, now the real fun begins.

For anyone who’s played Risk (the game of world domination) before, the basic gameplay will be fairly familiar. The map is split into several pieces, these are provinces and the provinces are split into further smaller lands. Build up your forces and take over freeland to build your empire. When you feel you have sufficient forces, start to attack opposing sides by either plundering money or taking control of the land and adding it to your empire. All this happens in a turn based fashion, so you make various decisions, end your turn and one by one, the opposing players do the same.

The first thing that hits you is the superb graphics, that goes for both the standard 240×320 QVGA and the 480×640 VGA versions. During the gameplay there’s many things to tweak and play with, but this almost becomes second nature, due to the thought that has been put into the user interface.

This is such an amazing game, with so many facets, it’s almost impossible to go into any great depth. Suffice to say, if you like Risk or any kind of world domination or God game, you will definitely enjoy Warring Nations.

Conclusion : This is almost the perfect game. I say almost, but just can’t part with that elusive 10 out of 10. Every game has some room for improvement, but with Warring Nations, we’re talking minor tweaks, rather than radical changes. Surely an all time classic game for the Pocket PC.

Direct Link : Aeon of Discovery
Publisher : Trisystech

Price : $9.95

Genre : Strategy/Simulation

Rating : 9 out of 10

The Pocket PC is the prefect system to handle turn based games. Aeon of Discovery is a near perfect turn based game, with the emphasis on simplicity. You choose one of four maritime powers, either England, France, Spain or Portugal and colonize the 31 territories of the new world during the 15th century. You have many obstacles in your way including 31 different native tribes, pirates, plagues and enemy raids.

While you are building up your colony, the computer controlled opponents are doing the same. You each get along in your own way, until sooner or later your paths cross and then you either form an alliance or go to war.

The idea of the game is to become the supreme ruler wiping out all other civilizations. This is easier said than done, but then you do want to be challenged, don’t you?

The first thing you need to decide on is whether you want to colonize or trade with an area that’s indicated with a country scene icon, or send some of your men and an explorer into the unknown areas. The benefits of exploring are potentially large, but then so are the dangers. Once an area is colonized, you can then decide whether you want to:

• Hospital : To treat your territory if an outbreak of the plague occurs (You only get this option if your territory is developed enough)
• Develop : Upgrade your infrastructure, which costs a set amount of money for each development point.
• Coerce : Force the natives of your colony to do your bidding. Basically this forces the natives to be your slaves, creating an income
• Gift : Gice the natives a gift to appease them
• Garrison : Fortify your land against attack
• Attack : Attack the natives of your colony
• Delegate : Hand over 75% of the territories revenue in exchange for the mayor running things for you.

During your turn you can also hire colonists, soldiers, slaves and ships, but this comes at a cost. Each colony has the means to provide money and food to sustain you.

You can also choose to enter your opponents territories and either:

• Raid : Send in explorers and soldiers to attack. If successful, this can lead to plundered loot and the control of the territory.
• Diplomat : Send in a diplomat to negotiate terms of friendliness
• Tribute : Send a monetary gift to appease your opponent

Although the gameplay is relatively simple, when compared to games like the PCs Civilization, there’s still enough to do, to keep you occupied. I started an easy game, to find my feet about 6 days ago and I’m still playing. Mind you most of the screen now shows it’s controlled by me, so I have global domination to look forward to soon. It’s early days yet to determine how effective my gameplay is, but it seems to be working. I usually take control of a territory and then heavily develop and fortify and build a hospital as soon as I can. Once I’ve done that, I wipe out all of the natives and then move onto the next territory.

As of yet, I haven’t concentrated on my fleet of ships, but it seems that I can pretty much let them run themselves on the easy level.

Finally let us not forget the taxman. Every 10 years, the King asks for his pound of flesh (levied ta) and it usually entails you having to dip into your own fortunes if you don’t have enough in the treasury, which you acquire by raiding and coercing the natives. Your personal fortunes are not taxable, but you need to do your bit to send money back to the homeland. In return the King gives you ships, solders, colonists and slaves.

Conclusion : This game is an excellent example of value for money. Not only do you get excellent game play, but you also get real depth. The graphics are a bit on the basic side, but the music is very atmospheric. My only warning is that you can get engrossed pretty quickly and it’s sometimes hard to put the Pocket PC down, but that’s a complaint I can live with