Review: Warlock's Tower

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is an unofficial motto of the United States Postal Service. Aggressive canines and inclement weather aside, mail delivery in our time is not overly perilous. Look no further than Cliff Clavin—perched on a bar stool season after season on Cheers—as proof. This has not always been so. Carrying mail for the Pony Express, for example, wasn't exactly considered a particularly safe occupation. When it comes to danger, even those skinny orphans have got nothing on Tim, a heroic mailman in the world of Warlock's Tower.

In Warlock's Tower, an indie puzzle __game with a retro style, an evil warlock and master of the dark arts has decided to destroy the world. This warlock has a beef with the world and feels shunned and belittled by its populace and in his anger, has decided to destroy nature and extinguish all life from the planet. Unlike Kim Jong Un, this isn't just bluster, the warlock really can do it. The nations of the world have opted for a pragmatic approach of appeasement. They wrote up a letter professing the world's love for the warlock and desire for a peaceful and happy coexistence with him. He's not loathed at all, and belittled…never that! The problem is the warlock never leaves the very top of his life draining tower, so getting the letter to him will prove difficult. Back to Tim, the bravest of mail carriers (or maybe lowest of seniority), who is tasked with delivering the letter and saving the world. No pressure Tim.

THE GAME

Warlock's Tower is a puzzle __game by Midipixel Studio, an indie outfit based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It has a dungeon-crawl aesthetic to it, however, as Tim makes his way up the tower and to the warlock. The game is also roguelike in form with turn-based play and a grid of squares laid over the indoor terrain. Every step Tim takes sucks the life right out of him, literally. Moving one square in the game reduces Tim's life total by one. If he runs out of life, well, Tim dies and you must restart the level—just the level though, the rougelike comparison only goes so far. Luckily, for some reason, there are life giving gems scattered all over the place in the tower. I guess it's hard to retain a good janitorial staff with the whole soul sucking, life leeching vibe going on. Grabbing a gem will add either 3 or 5 life to Tim's life total, earning a brief reprieve from the deadly ambience of the place. To get past a level and move upward and onward Tim must weave his way from gem to gem and finally to the exit.

The game has over 100 levels that span the expanse of the warlock's tower. Tim will enter through the dungeon and make his way to the factory floor and then the warlock's warehouse. From there he'll enter the warlock's library and private chambers. Like most progressive puzzlers, Warlock's Tower layers in new mechanics to keep things fresh and continually up the difficulty as you go. There are zombies that will drag their way toward Tim seeking a bite of his tasty brain as well as amorphous blobs of slime that will absorb him and leave troublesome trails of caustic, mailman-eating acid behind them. Some levels require recovering a key to advance, others make use of conveyer belts that feel a lot like moving walkways at the airport. There are levers that open gates, buttons that close pits in the floor, and levels that are submerged in near-total darkness. On some levels, you must coordinate movement between Tim and fellow mail carrier Jess (they both must survive to advance).

Many levels are easy, especially at the beginning and as new game mechanics are introduced. Then you land on a particularly challenging one, and there's plenty of those, especially as you get closer to the warlock and must face more of his tricks. There seems to be a pattern of letting you build up some momentum with a couple easier levels before crashing into a challenging one at full mental tilt. It gives the game a good flow.

Warlock's Tower really emphasizes planning ahead and picking your path through obstacles. Winging it really won't work out in the more tactically challenging levels. A helpful feature for those difficult ones is the ability to drop a flag. When Tim dies, you start over at that flag rather than the beginning. This is nice, but I found myself wishing for a basic undo button for dumb mistakes as well.

As for look and feel, Warlock's Tower has an old-school aesthetic with 8-bit graphics and a soundtrack and sound effects to match. There's a digital d-pad to move Tim from square to square which is a stylistic choice and fits the theme but takes a bit to get used to. I continually wanted to touch a square to move to it, at least at first. The retro feel is well implemented and really does make your phone feel like ye olde GameBoy.

There's also more than a little humor mixed into this game. The warlock doesn't sit quiet and still in his tower, oh no. He knows you're coming and is a bit of a smack talker. Amid his taunts and jibes he also serves as a tutor, introducing both levity and instruction into the game. Other characters appear as well, including a bardic knight from "pixels afar" who has been stuck unmoving in the tower for some time. He even shares a song of his experiences with Tim, and by extension, you.

THE VERDICT

Warlock's Tower is a fun and challenging puzzle game. The take-a-step-lose-a-life idea is clever and the game is well built around it. New tricks are thrown in regularly which add to the fun without getting tiresome and they combine to make some truly tough levels. Tricky levels lead to some clever solutions that give a big dollop of the feel-goods when you figure them out.

The retro aesthetic is fun and will be a kick for those of us who remember the GameBoy, or gaming in the 80s in general. The game offers over one-hundred levels—which will take many hours to play all the way through—and is a premium title, so none of the annoying ads or the like that often accompany games in this genre. You can play through a level in just a few minutes, making this a great option for short bursts of play. If you're a fan of tactically focused puzzle games, Warlock's Tower is well worth your time and consideration.

Review: The Astonishing Game

Back in high school I was into the progressive-metal band Dream Theater (yes, I'm old). I really liked "Images and Words" and mostly liked "Awake" and even went to one of their concerts. I lost interest in the band due to evolving musical tastes and the general fickleness of youth. I have been aware, though somewhat vaguely, that Dream Theater continues to make music, kicking out an album every couple of years.

Their latest effort released in 2016 is "The Astonishing." It's a monster of an album (or whatever you kids call them these days) at thirty-four tracks long and clocks in at a…well, an astonishing two hours and ten minutes in length. That's longer than the world's best marathon times by a good couple of tracks!

I know what you're thinking. Why am I talking about Dream Theater here on Pocket Tactics. An excellent question. The answer is that "The Astonishing" is a concept album that has been converted into a video __game by Turbo Type Games. You may remember Turbo Type as the makers of Warhammer: Arcane Magic and UHR: Warlords. They also have a weird intro to their website that's maybe worth checking out…once. The Astonishing Game is a digital board __game based on the story presented in Dream Theater's album.

THE STORY

The Astonishing Game is set in a world where the Great Northern Empire of the Americas, shortened to GNEA for your convenience, rules the land. The rich have gotten richer and the poor, well yes, poorer. The gap between the haves and have nots is huge and amid extreme oppression investment in the arts has been all but abandoned. The resistance, because naturally there is a resistance in such a hellish system of government, is the Ravenskill Rebel Militia. It is led by brothers Arhys—the militia commander—and Gabriel, who is considered the "chosen one" destined to liberate the downtrodden and lead them to victory through rebellion. The reason…his divine gift to play music.

The Astonishing Game replaces conflict, whether combat or argument, with the board game itself. The story advances through cut scenes that appear between those games. The story itself is very derivative. We have a Romeo and Juliet type romance between Gabriel and Princess Faythe—daughter of GNEA's emperor Nafaryus—who is touched by the meaning behind his music. Daddy isn't too keen on this idea and undoubtedly had better plans for his daughter than to marry some poor singer, but Fate is at work as well. There's also kidnapping, betrayals, reversed betrayals, and an unrealistically happy ending.

Quite honestly, this story isn't going to satisfy many gamers and certainly not gamers who also read and enjoy good fiction. I'm not sure if this is a simplified version of Dream Theater's album or not. Either way, I felt it got old quickly and if I hadn’t been reviewing the game would have tuned it out early. Let's move on to the game itself.

THE GAME

In The Astonishing Game you play as a hero of the Ravenskill rebels, or a sympathizer like the Princess, and face off against a GNEA figurehead. The goal of the game is to sway the will of the people to your side through influence rather than direct conflict. It’s kind of a weird tactic for an oppressive regime to employ, but we can go with it for now. The game is played on a board that very much resembles what you'd find in a game of Chess. At each end of the board are camps, which represent bases of support from which each side can bring partisans into the conflict.

You can summon units to help you in your struggle from these camps. Each side has the same units, though they are flavored differently. The rebel units are artists and musicians—vocalist, guitarist, dancer, painter, drummer, and so on. The GNEA units are named Imperial Guard, Politician, and other such monikers. Each type of unit has a movement direction—horizontal and vertical, diagonal, omnidirectional—much like chess pieces. They also have different attack vectors such as adjacent targets in front of or to either side, or ranged across the diagonal, and each does varying amounts of damage. Except it's not called damage in The Astonishing Game, the game is fought over motivation, or lack thereof. When you strike at an opponent you seek to reduce not their health but their motivation to struggle. Each unit has a different amount of motivation and when fully demotivated it doesn't die, it just leaves the game with a sullen look and defeated posture.  

Each player also has a motivation level that will range from three to seven points, depending on the game level. When reduced to zero, that player loses. You reduce an opponent's motivation by striking at and destroying their camps at the opposite end of the board. To get there you use a second resource called influence to summon units and have them move or attack. Some squares on the board are marked with a Dream Theater symbol. If you take control of those squares by having a unit stand on it for one turn, you gain an extra two influence at the start of each turn until and unless your opponent takes control from you.

Gameplay is interesting if not wholly original. Tactically you're looking to summon pieces, gain control of as many Dream Theater spaces as you can, and use your superior influence resources to demotivate your opponent's pieces and smash their camps to smithereens as quickly as possible. Experienced gamers will quickly discern the best path for doing this and it will be up to the opposing force to stop them.

There are three different ways to play The Astonishing Game: a single-player campaign, custom games, and local multiplayer. The single-player campaign is fairly short—six games each of which will take somewhere between five and twenty minutes. The AI is not particularly strong and will not reliably block your strategy to win. Many times, it failed to respond to one of my drummers—the best unit for camp crushing—destroying camp after camp until the game was over. It tightens up a bit in the last game of the campaign, but not enough to threaten a loss.

A custom game allows you to pick the board you want to use (the main variable is where the Dream Theater squares lie) and which hero/villain each player controls. There are special abilities specific to these avatars that cost influence to use and can influence the game. You can play a human, via pass-and-play action, or the AI. Multiplayer is pretty much the same thing, except there is no option to play the AI. This game would certainly work for online asynchronous play, and it is disappointing not to see it included, especially given the quality of the AI. 

THE VERDICT

The idea of a video game tied to a concept album has potential. Unfortunately, The Astonishing Game doesn’t deliver on that potential. The decision to implement it as a board game rather than a role-playing game limits many creative options. Even so, I would have liked to see a more engaging storyline or more meaningful ties between the story and the gameplay mechanics. As it stands, the game could be re-skinned as really anything else by simply changing the theme of the pieces and the cut scenes between games. It felt to me like the game is mostly about promoting the band, album, and tour. This notion is further supported by the game's offer to sign you up to win concert tickets and signed vinyl albums.

If you're a big fan of Dream Theater and know another fan you can regularly play through local multiplayer, this game might be a reasonable option for your time and money. The gameplay isn't bad and playing another person would certainly up the challenge level. The background audio is Dream Theater tracks from the album and hey, maybe you'll win some concert tickets. If you're not a Dream Theater fan but really dig digital board games, can make use of local multiplayer, and are bored of your current options The Astonishing Game will likely work for you as well. For everybody else, my recommendation is to pass on this one. There are much better options out there. 

Review: Potions Explosion

Tabletop Publisher ‘Asmodee Digital,’ has been very busy of late: acquiring a number of different publishers and developers that have ties to a number of licensed games, such as A __game of Thrones The Board Game, and tabletop behemoth Catan, which has helped the growth of tabletop gaming in recent years. They have announced their desire to get at least 20 new titles on iOS and Android in 2017. First on the list is Potion Explosion, created by Horrible Games and released back in 2015.

In some ways it acts as a physical version of Candy Crush or any number of match-3 puzzlers, with bright colored orbs that need to connect to help win the game, though it has a number of extra layers and mechanics that give it more depth than you might think at first glance. It’s a 2-4-player __game that for this digital version incorporates an offline and online mode. Offline gives you the option of playing against bots that have two difficulty settings (easy, hard) and also allows multiple people to play by passing the phone / tablet around. The game’s functional design works, though there is a certain element that feels lost compared to the physical version when playing with friends. As here, you are most likely going to be treated to the back of the device when it’s not your turn.

The aim is to collect as many points as possible by creating potions. You keep two potions on display at all tines, so if you complete one, you select a new one, and the same if you finish both in one turn. Each potion can need up to four different colored orbs, and you use the orb rack on the right to collect them. In any given turn you are allowed to select one orb, which will cause a small explosion, if the orbs either side match, a chain reaction will trigger, causing those orbs to explode and be collected as well – this will continue until the adjacent orbs either don’t match or you run out of space within that column. It sounds confusing at first, but after several playthroughs the game clicks together and opens up.

The game does a solid job of differentiating potions with icons, and at any time you can tap on any completed potion to see what it does. These vary from allowing you to collect one extra orb, to destroying up to five a column to prevent another player clearing up, to a handy potion that will let you reuse any potion you’ve completed already. There are eight altogether with any six being required for a game. There’s a good balance, though it does feel like a limited number, and it would be nice to see an expansion somewhere down the line with more variants. As it is, the eight on display give room for a decent level of forward-thinking – where you start off picking single orbs at a time, before long, you’re using a number of potions on a single go to collect another two potions for your next turn. Achieving this feels super satisfying and can turn a game around.

To the left of the potions are three beakers, you can use these to store any orbs not used on that turn. Any extra orbs left after this will be discarded; this can affect the potions you will want to select next go. You earn extra points by collecting medals, which can be attained in one of two ways: either by creating five different potions, or by creating three of the same. You can earn extra medals if you manage to get another three of another potion, but there are only a limited amount of medals.

Online mode works and functions well. Though the experience had will depend on whom you are matched with. The time for each player’s turn can be adjusted from fifteen minutes up to a week – which seems excessive. Time ticks down for each player and carries over from each turn, if a player takes too long and the timer reaches zero for them they will be forced to rush through their turns for the rest of that game. I’d like to see a five-minute time added, to really force players to think.

Graphically the game is simplistic yet pleasing on the eye. Game play takes place on one screen, but it’s a lovely looking screen! The colors are bright and bold, and the focus is clearly placed on the animation being as smooth as possible. Completing and opening up potions creates a... you guessed it, “explosion” of colors that is satisfying to watch. With such a simplistic setup, it’s not surprising that the frame rate holds up, and over the course if six hours playing time, I only encountered one crash, which did unfortunately, wipe that particular game. The only major issue that game has is overriding any music or podcast you may have on. While the game has a pleasant, Harry Potter-tinged favour to its soundtrack, no part of the experience is lost or gained by having it on. I would have at least appreciated the option to continue listening to my own music.

Potion Explosion is by no means revolutionary, but Asmodee Digital do an an excellent job of bringing across a board game into the digital space in a way that seems more appealing than the original physical version. The price tag does feel weighty, and if you plan on playing with the family, I would advise on buying the real thing. But this is an enjoyable experience, and one that comes with a recommendation for both commuting for its offline mode, and when you have your feet up on the sofa with the online mode.

News By Numbers - February 6th, 2017

Welcome this week's edition of News by Numbers, where we highlight some of the can't-miss mobile gaming news each and every week.

Mysterium: version 1.0.16

Mysterium had another update last week to address a few thing. First, they made further improvements to the tutorial and the game's help features. Second, they addressed the chat function—an extremely important aspect of the __game unless you play with friends via Skype. Chat changes ranged from better contrast in colors and italicizing Ghost messages to making it possible for the psychics to chat during the culprit phase until the ghost has sent them cards. These changes may address some of my concerns about the __game and are very welcome.

Splitter Critter: 4 bonus moons

Splitter Critters is a puzzle game based on the swipe-to-slash mechanic that just came out a couple weeks ago. You cut up the two-dimensional environment to help some hapless critters find their spaceship. The developer clearly intends to support this title, four bonus moon levels were added in version 1.1.3. If you enjoy puzzle games and want to support a developer doing right by their player base, try Splitter Critter on iOS.

iOS 11: 32-bit support

Starting with iOS 9 Apple has included a warning that 32-bit apps might slow your device down. An updated dialog message found in a beta version of iOS 10.3 now says the app will not work with future versions of iOS. This suggests Apple intends to eliminate support for 32-bit apps, perhaps as early as with iOS 11 this fall. Developers will either need to update those apps or they will stop working. A lot of earlier and still great games will cease to work as a result of this change.

Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest: 58 new cards

Back on February 2nd Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest added a whole slew of new cards from the Aether Revolt expansion. There's also some new events in store including a new coalition challenge, Valentine's Day event, a Planeswalker challenge, and a couple PvP events centered around the most recent expansions.

The Horus Heresy: Battle of Tallarn: 66 different unit types

HexWar Games and Games Workshop are partnering to bring The Horus Heresy: Battle of Tallarn to iOS. This one is all about the mother of all tank battles with 66 different units and 54 different weapons all ready to be brought to bear in three different campaigns, each featuring six missions, as well as four battle packs of six standalone missions each. That's a lot of combat. Battle of Tallarn will be turn-based action and you'll be able to play as either Imperial or Traitor forces. The game launches February 8th on Steam, but no word on whether the release to iOS will happen concurrently.

Talisman Digital Edition: 81 new adventure cards

The Firelands expansion for Talisman: Digital Edition is out now on Windows, Mac, Android and (according to the release trailer) iOS. Available via in-app purchase it offers players 81 new Adventure Cards, 19 new Spell Cards, 19 Terrain Cards, 3 Alternative Ending Cards, and 4 new characters. You'll need the base game which is pretty cheap on both iOS and Android.

Legends of Callasia: 100 backers

Legends of Callasia was one of the surprise hits of 2016. I enjoyed both the original game and its fast-following expansion. As it turns out, there's quite a story behind how the game took shape and was funded. The support of about a hundred die-hard fans ultimately made it happen after two failed Kickstarter campaigns. A third successful Kickstarter funded the expansion thanks to that same core fan base. With fans like that who needs backers…or something.

Plague Inc.: 85 million players

Plague Inc. is a strategy game where you seek to infect all of humanity with a devastating epidemic. The game's been around roughly forever and sees continued success—and a huge player base—thanks to frequent updates. Another such update is on the way, this time adding a scenario creator to the mix. This new addition will allow players to develop and modify their own scenarios for the game and share with other users. The Plague Inc. Scenario Creator is coming in the next month or so as a stand-alone app for iOS and Android. It will cost $2.99 and you'll need the base game in order to play your newly crafted scenarios.

Pokémon GO: $1B in revenue

It isn't exactly a Pocket Tactics title, but the success of Pokémon GO is relevant to the mobile-games industry at large. Sensor Tower estimates that Pokémon GO surpassed $1B in revenue at the end of January, just seven months after launch. It reached the billion-dollar milestone faster than any mobile game before it. Nintendo is hoping to replicate this success with Fire Emblem Heroes [iOS|Android] and there is little doubt large studios the world over are doing the same.

That's it for this edition of News by Numbers. If you've got a news item worth sharing send it my way on Twitter @MrVigabool and it may show up in a future edition. 

Solitairica Giveaway – Competition Closed!

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.

We’re a little but late with this one (my fault, sorry), but we’ve got some more free __game codes to giveaway this week. You may remember Nick reporting on developer Righteous Hammer and their intent to continue support of Solitairica, a fun card-game with an RPG twist. You can read our review of it here.

We’ve got iOS and Android codes to giveaway for the __game in advance of the new update due in February which introduces a new mini-boss.

This will be a random draw, and to enter you only need to do the following:

Solitairica takes the classic ‘Solitaire’ card game and twists it into something unique. What other classic card games have you seen re-invented into something else and what was unique about it?

Post below in the comments. The answer doesn't have to be a mobile game; it can be from any medium but the core elements of the game being adapted have to be clearly identifiable in the design. If you can’t think of an existing game, feel free to make up something you would find interesting, adding in a quick sentence or two as to how it would work.

The competition will close and the winners will be contacted on Monday 6^th February. Make sure you keep an eye on the forums – all winners will be messaged via PM. Any questions, you know where we are!