Good things (or is it bad things?) come in threes, so first we had Real Racing 3 repair timers getting nerfed, then today GolfStar heart regeneration got buffed, and now Gameloft is joining the party by reducing the cooldown for potion regeneration in Dungeon Hunter 4 [Free] to four hours down from eight. To back things up a bit, Dungeon Hunter 4 is the last of a long line of Gameloft dungeon crawlers. Over the years, they've gotten more and more free-to-play-y, climaxing on the release of the fourth iteration which among other free to play elements made players wait eight hours between getting additional potions.
We thought this felt particularly gross in our recent TA Plays video of the game. Eight hours seemed like a long time to us, and the general vibe on our forums was in near-complete agreement. This time around, Gameloft has been uncharacteristically active in our community, gathering feedback and actively responding to it. They even mentioned the possibility of the timers going down to two hours.
It's a really promising sign that all of these different companies are listening and responding to player feedback when it comes to balancing the timers in their free to play games, but I'm starting to feel like a broken record here in that much like with GolfStar, I wish we just had the option to buy DH4 and play it like a normal game. Either way, it's nice to see some leeway from developers when it comes to tweaking their free to play elements to be a bit more player friendly.
Hello everyone. My name is Eli, and...I can't say no to the retro aesthetic. Wow! It feels good to get that one off my chest. In all seriousness, though, the resurgence of 8 and 16-bit era visuals on iOS has done a number on my wallet over the past few years, and that's been somewhat of a double-edged sword.
On one hand, I've discovered some fantastic experiences steeped in nostalgia: everything from Velocispider [$1.99 / Free] to Mikey Shorts [$0.99 / Free]. Yet for every gem that's still on my device, there's at least three lame ducks that have suckered me in with the power of childhood fan service.
So when I discovered Pixel Licker Games' Slayin [$0.99]Â as the result of a friend's tweet - complete with an icon that looked like a cartridge and an in-game controller skin - I knew I was powerless. The only question that remained was: would it be a wonderful walk down memory lane, or end up collecting virtual dust with all the other deleted duds?
We already knew that Iron Man 3 is on the horizon later this month, but there's some additional Gameloft news that'll likely get fans of the Dungeon Hunter series super stoked: Dungeon Hunter 4 is due out this month.
What we've heard so far is that the series is taking a significant departure from Dungeon Hunter 3 [Free] with a focus far more on the single player aspect of the game. The game, however, remains a freemium title. TUAW describes that aspect of the game:
Unfortunately, despite abandoning the "arena" ideas that caused so many problems with the third game in the series, the freemium elements are still there in force. You will probably enjoy this one -- if you can avoid and ignore the bright in-app purchase buttons and currency markers that seem to litter the screen.
There's some action brewing in our forums over the game, but if you want to be alerted when Dungeon Hunter 4 is released or when we get more details on it, be sure to add it to your watch list in the TouchArcade App [Free].
There's nothing I love more than a well-executed iOS RPG but there always seems to be an issue of balance in regards to presentation. On one hand, an emphasis on exploration and side quests (as well as the grind) act as throwbacks to the roots of the genre. Meanwhile, streamlined gameplay and simplified battle system are seen as an evolution towards the current mobile scene. BoxCat'sNameless: The Hackers [$3.99 / Free] is squarely in the latter camp. Eschewing a lot of the standard tenets for an RPG, Nameless focuses primarily on grinding and cutscenes, leading to a somewhat monotonous overall experience despite its decent battle system.
Nameless follows a group of ragtag hackers as a few innocent jobs turn into the unraveling of an increasingly complex tale of worldwide control by the corporate machine. Unfortunately, the actual weaving of the tale in Nameless isn't as interesting as my synopsis makes it out to be. The story is told through anime-inspired cutscenes with a lot of the actual advancement of narrative taking place between a load of fetch quests. While the story itself should be compelling, I found the actual writing to be a bit bland.
Hot on the heels of the news that Final Fantasy Vwould be hitting later this month (in Japan at least, and possibly elsewhere), Square Enix has put the first four Final Fantasy titles on sale for a limited time.
The first two games are actually ports of the versions that were remade for the Sony PSP several years back, so they include improved visuals and some difficulty tweaks over their NES counterparts (if you're into that sort of thing). The third and fourth entries are also ports of remakes, both originally releasing on the Nintendo DS after being completely rebuilt with 3D visuals. The iOS versions of these 3D remakes include higher resolution assets and a few other improvements over the DS versions.
One thing that all of these Final Fantasy games have in common is that each one will provide you with hours upon hours of content, with epic stories to unfold and countless enemy monsters to take out. If you're craving a new adventure, whether in traditional top-down 2D or full 3D, then consider one of these Final Fantasy titles while they're on sale, and we'll bring you any more news on the impending Final Fantasy V release as we get it.
Over the last couple of weeks, we've spent a fascinatingly long time bumbling around the world of QuestLord [$1.99], looking for sick quests and even sicker items and equipment. If this isn't your first rodeo in a first-person RPG, this is going to be a hard one to get your head around. QuestLord leaves a lot of discovery up to you, and it basically lets you do whatever and go wherever. It's free-form, which is a great point of design, but also one that might be too much for some folks.
If you're having trouble, we've got your back. Recently, we talked to creator Eric Kinkead about some secrets, basics and strategy of QuestLord. He had a lot to share, and we think we've got an awesome package of tips below for newcomers.
Heads up: Dungeon Plunder [$1.99] is awesome. It's a rogue-like RPG with a slick slot machine combat mechanic that basically just visualizes all the dice-rolling going on behind the scenes in most RPGs anyway. The end result is that it's way less "clicky" than most iOS titles, but just as cerebral. You'll see what we mean.
In the game, you pick one of three different kinds of heroes and are tasked with saving a fantasy world from a fantasy villain in a fantasy land. What's interesting is that the map and quests are randomized, so every play through ends up being pretty different -- and you'll be playing a lot because death comes easily.
We're really digging this game; the look is great, the battle system works surprisingly well, and its RPG systems are compelling. Give it a look if you're on the fence. Today, we managed to make it through the first area, which is a big deal to us at least.
Slot machines and RPGs make good bedfellows, as the King Cashing series has taught us. Dungeon Plunder [$1.99] takes that combination and applies it to the roguelike, creating an interesting pairing. On one hand, the semi-random nature of slots works nicely in the otherwise randomized world. On the other hand, I like my combat to be quick, you know?
If you can get around the speed issue, Dungeon Plunder's slot-based combat is clever, just one of several smart features that make it one of the better roguelike experiences on iOS. It's even welcoming to the less hardcore among us, with a legacy system that means you make progress even when you draw the short end of the permadeath stick. It's lacking in the looks department, but that's just how roguelikes tell you they want to be taken seriously.
Not that Dungeon Plunder is particularly serious. The premise of an evil wizard hell-bent on sending the world into a new ice age is just a good excuse to send your sprite off to fight. That sprite might be a mage, a warrior or a rogue, each one as generic as the last. Frustratingly, you have to buy cosmetic IAP to unlock female sprites, but the lack of consumable purchases more than makes up for that disappointment.
One way or another, after you pick a class and sprite, a name, and a starting rune (a kind of permanent stat boost), you're off to do battle on a randomized map with all sorts of big bads and creepy crawlies. There is nothing turn-based about Dungeon Plunder. Enemies are static on the map until you bump into them, and combat is simultaneous. You spin the reels of the slot machine, then you and your enemy both take whatever damage you need to take. The one with hit points left at the end of the process wins, and the other one retires for good.
The slot-machine combat needs a bit of explanation. There are five reels, and a number of symbols that represent things like damage, healing, money and defense. You spin the reels, select as many as you'd like to hold on to, and re-spin the rest. Two or more of any symbol is a win, with more of whatever it is you matched being granted for each extra symbol.
This might sound like the results of combat are extremely random, but there's strategy at work. You need to pay attention, to focus on damage when your health is high, to keep your shields up, to manage your class's special abilities and so on. You can only control as much as the reels allow, but re-spins make the system surprisingly flexible.
So you toodle around killing orcs and brigands, wandering through random dungeons and collecting treasure. Then, nearly inevitably, you die. You get a final score and that's the end of that character. It isn't the end of the road, however. You can begin your next character with some of the last one's gold and maybe an artifact or life scrolls to heal you in a pinch. If you make it far enough you can unlock a new rune to add to all your future characters' stats. You also begin at level based on the highest one you've reached with that class so far.
Death isn't a total write-off, it's a step in Dungeon Plunder's journey. Eventually you'll make it so far that success will be a foregone conclusion—if not on this attempt, then on the next. It can get old, settling in for game after game of lengthy slot-machine combat, but there's always the thought that you might get a little further to keep you going.
Dungeon Plunder is a bit rough around the edges. Death could be telegraphed more obviously, the interface could be better laid out, and so on. All surface stuff in a pretty deep game. The most important thing is this: if you play, you will die, but you will want to pick yourself up and start all over again when you do. That's the mark of a good roguelike, that incentive to never give up, no matter how stacked the odds.
Heads up pen and paper role-playing enthusiasts or just anyone looking for a quirky new adventure: you're going to want to check out Knights of Pen & Paper [$1.99] which is currently free for the first time ever. Originally releasing this past October, Knights of Pen & Paper is more about the theme of classic pen and paper role-playing games rather than trying to be a digital recreation of it. It's literally a game about people playing a game, and it's full of self-referential humor and references to the world of video games that will bring many a smile to your face.
Knights of Pen & Paper doesn't ever take itself too seriously, and has an abundance of personality and charm throughout, which are big reasons why we enjoyed it so much in our review. There's also a challenging battle system and more quests than you can shake a stick at, all jammed into a tight little package that feels very well-suited to the mobile gaming platform. It can be a tad grindy at times and the quests aren't always the most creative, but these are minor shortcomings compared to all the things that Knights of Pen & Paper does really well.
You don't have to be a diehard role-player – in analog or digital form – to get a ton of enjoyment out of Knights of Pen & Paper, and for free it's definitely in no-brainer territory. Grab it and check it out, and don't be surprised if its charms win you over. Also be sure to hit up our forums to talk strategies and hear new information straight from the developers.
King Cashing 2 [$2.99] has a lot going for it, you might have heard. In brief, it's one of those sequels that basically doubles down on what its predecessor did so well while layering a few notable, though kinda minor, iterative tweaks on top. This time around, you've got a bunch of new characters to work with, a much more refined leveling system, and new items and weapons to use to kill dudes. What more could you want as a fan?
If you've been out of the loop, the hook of King Cashing franchise is its pairing of RPG and slot machine mechanics. In battle, you spin a three-reel slot machine to beat up bad dudes. Whatever variables, including misses, land in the center, is what will happen. As you play, though, you discover that you can sorta bypass the randomization by just leveling up and making your guys so strong that it doesn't matter.
Anyway, we've got some video of the game in action below. Definitely bang that link -- this game has more going on that you'd think:
It seems like an eternity since King Cashing [$1.99]Â came out of no where in 2011. Combining a strong slot-machine battle system with a loose RPG system, King Cashing was a little rough around the edges from a presentation standpoint but absolutely nailed its combat mechanics, making it a sleeper hit amongst our forums. That same mechanic returns excellently preserved in King Cashing 2. With a refined leveling system, new characters, a wealth of weapons and items and a story told with an excellent visual novel style, King Cashing 2 addresses every issue I had with the original, making it a game that begs to be played.
If you're unfamiliar with how an RPG with a slot-machine battle system works, I'd encourage you to check out our review of the original King Cashing. For everyone else, the same combat system that we loved before makes a return with some minor improvements. Players still participate in battles with cherries as the currency of choice for spinning the reels with the goal being to match up characters and weapons against enemies to cause damage. One new twist is the ability to eventually purchase a power-up that will a selected reel for one turn during a battle. Otherwise King Cashing 2 focuses less on innovation and more on simply adding to an already excellent system.
With only three character types and corresponding weapons, simplicity was the name of the game in the original King Cashing. King Cashing 2 looks to up the ante with a lot more variety. Players eventually unlock 7 characters, each with their own preferred weapons and critical bonuses. Weapons also continue the hit/damage trend of the previous game, meaning that the stronger the weapons is the lower its hit attribute is (meaning the less likely it'll show up on a slot reel).
Some of the new weapons and characters are also pretty unique, such as the Necromancer, a relatively weak character that converts a 'Miss' reel into a 'Human' weapon with each hit. Another interesting addition is the potion weapon class which offers a wide variety of effects ranging from damage-over-time poison to armor damage, to enemy 'bait' (which temporarily adds more enemies to the reel). There's also a wealth of new secondary bonus items which can be equipped to modify the slots even further. These new additions and options lead to a lot more different ways to play the game and go a long way towards formulating new strategies, especially as later enemies start to become resistant (and immune!) to more and more weapons.
The most impressive improvement that Productions Multimage has made in King Cashing 2 is in its visual style and narrative technique. Taking on an entirely different theme than its predecessor, King Cashing 2 employs a slick graphic novel style that does a great job of telling its tale. It also doesn't hurt that everything simply looks amazing, with the game taking full advantage of retina visuals which are pretty essential for any game attempting to emulate comic-book visuals. King Cashing 2's story, meanwhile, is infinitely better than the original, telling a tale of an undead king awoken from his slumber and searching for gold. One minor complaint is the lack of full iPhone 5 support (borders fill out the extra space on the elongated device), but the game still looks great nonetheless.
Most importantly, like its predecessor, King Cashing 2 is simply fun to play. Battles are streamlined and offer players the ability to play the game as one of chance or to focus on memorizing and individually stopping reels. Incredibly difficult enemies return as 'side quests' that offer quite a challenge. Achievements, ranking systems for each battle, and leaderboards that track how fast you complete 'issues' all return, adding some extra replayability. While the story itself is a bit short, the system in place makes it easy to add new 'Issues' with a future already being promised.
As I mentioned in the review for King Cashing, a slots-based RPG is certainly not for everyone, and there will undoubtedly be folks that can't (or won't) grasp the unique battle system. However, for folks that can, King Cashing 2 is the definitive title for the genre. Where the original at times felt like a nicely implemented tech demo, King Cashing 2 is an excellent game in its own right, improving on nearly every facet over the original and well worth checking out.
"Cautiously optimistic" could not better describe how I'm feeling about EA's upcoming Ultima Forever. As I mentioned before, Ultima Online is responsible for some of my absolute best gaming memories, and the thought of even vaguely replicating that on my phone is almost too awesome to imagine. Ultima Forever seems to be modernized quite a bit from the old UO days, featuring a quest and party system along with instanced dungeons to crawl though.
The initial setup seems to be curing the world of a nasty plague called the "Black Weep" which is spreading across the land. This time Lady British has called upon adventurers to save the world. Check out the trailer to see the game in action:
Word on the street is that Ultima creator Richard Garriott doesn't have anything to do with Ultima Forever, which may be slightly disappointing to fans of the series... But, he's busy doing things like traveling to space, so it shouldn't be all that surprising.
Ultima Forever is scheduled for a spring release, and judging how EA typically handles promoting their games with trailers and things like that I'd hazard a guess that we're going to be seeing this game sooner rather than later.
In case you didn't know, Tiny Tower and Pocket Planes creator NimbleBit has been working on a new game, as studios generally do after they wrap up super successful projects. It's called NimbleQuest, and it's probably not the game you'd figure would be the Next Big Thing from a studio that has basically mastered simulation games.
In brief, NimbleQuest is Snake, except on steroids. In the game, you control a conga line of fantasy adventurers, and, with a combination of ranged and melee attacks, you battle it out across a variety of settings against archers, skeletons, bats, and a whole lot more. Imagine if your old-school, traditional Snake snake could somehow attack incoming enemy snakes and you've got the picture. That's not quite Tiny Tower 2, right?
If you don't have the picture, we've got some moving ones below that'll definitely help you get your head around what NimbleQuest is all about. Before you hit play, we want to note that this is FOOTAGE FROM A GAME IN BETA. You'll see a few points where the video out functionality stumbles specifically, which is something we're sure will be addressed when the game is actually a thing that everyone can play. In other words, don't worry.
Anyway, NimbleQuest should be out soon, if the stability and polish of this beta are saying anything. Also, did you hear that music? That's Whitaker Trebella of Polymer [$2.99] fame. Cool tunes, bro! In fact, high-fives all around; this game is rad. Oh, and another super-sweet thing about NimbleQuest is you can actually upload game replays to the internet. Check out what people have been uploading here to get a look at folks who are way better at video games than we are.
The Sword & Poker games are ancient by today's standard, but, man, we couldn't get enough of them back in 2010. We reviewed both the first and the second game three years ago, but here's the gist of the game(s)- Imagine a game dripping with RPG trimmings, but all of your battles are played on a grid of cards where you have to make poker hands in order to attack monsters and crawl through dungeons.
It's one of those games that sounds totally crazy, but sucks you in and quickly becomes impossible to put down. It's debatable whether the first or the second is the better of the two, but here's what I recommend you do: Download the lite version of either or both games immediately, give it five minutes. If it clicks to you, grab 'em both. The Sword & Poker games have had sort of a mysterious life on the App Store, randomly disappearing then re-appearing like some kind of creepy carnival.
Keep in mind, these are every bit games from 2010. This means no iPhone 5 widescreen graphics, no multitasking support, and hell, it doesn't even seem to have retina display assets. None of this makes Sword & Poker any less fun.
I've played and enjoyed a lot of role playing games over the years, but one genre I could never quite get into was the first-person dungeon crawler. Typically very non-linear and lacking the conveniences of modern-day RPGs in terms of tutorials and guidance, new dungeon crawlers always felt like titles that only appealed to gamers that were already fans. However, QuestLord [$1.99]Â doesn't elicit that feeling of being immediately overwhelmed that I seem to encounter with other dungeon crawlers. In fact, I'd argue that QuestLord's simplicity in both scope and gameplay, while probably a turnoff to genre veterans, makes it a great title for folks looking to get into the mix.
If you've never played a dungeon crawler, QuestLord is a first-person turn-based RPG with an emphasis on exploration. Players initially make a character by choosing from one of three races, each with different stats. In addition, depending on your selection, you're placed in a different location within the world to start. Regardless of where you start, you're immediately given the role of QuestLord and told to travel the world providing assistance to the populace of the Shattered Realm.
As you might imagine, a large portion of QuestLord's content centers around the various quests assigned by the NPCs. From the first task given, the quests do a good job of encouraging exploration and placing players near other quest givers as well as providing ample award for completion. However, the actual objectives definitely lack variety and mainly revolve around killing certain enemies once you reach a location. I also wdould have liked more in terms of story narration and scope as QuestLord's writing is somewhat weak.
Based on the above, you'd think QuestLord wouldn't have much to offer but that's not really the case. The game's emphasis on simplicity goes a long way towards making what it does offer approachable. Stats are divided into three attributes which boil down to attack, defense, and spell points and can be increased with each level-up. Meanwhile, the spell system is based on discovering new spells in the world, a nice incentive to explore every map. In addition, QuestLord also features a robust item system, with plenty of slots and equipment to find. I also appreciated the game's auto-map feature which not only shows the player's location in the world, but also within each individual map (some magical items will even instantly reveal said maps for you if for some reason you don't want to explore).
This all leads to a game that's very manageable in terms of quests, world-size and objectives. Without having to worry about some of the traditionally more complicated pieces of dungeon crawlers, I found it enjoyable to simply explore the world and see what I could discover. It sounds like a small thing, but I think this, combined with the relatively easy difficulty went a long way towards making QuestLord approachable.
While it seems to be a calling card for the genre, one area that I really didn't enjoy was QuestLord's visual style. While I do realize that old-school graphics are part of the charm with most dungeon crawlers, the visuals in QuestLord are a little too classic, with retro graphics that are highly pixelated and a menu/item system and control buttons that just don't look too good. Does it detract much from the experience? Probably not, but it's still something that needs to be mentioned.
Still, I give QuestLord a lot of credit for properly introducing me to a genre that I never really could get into. With a streamlined attribute and quest system, there's not a lot of depth that is traditionally found in other titles. However, it's for this exact reason that I think it succeeds for newbies like me. Assuming you're looking to give dungeon crawlers a try, I'd definitely recommend QuestLord as an introductory taste.
Good things (or is it bad things?) come in threes, so first we had Real Racing 3 repair timers getting nerfed, then today GolfStar heart regeneration got buffed, and now Gameloft is joining the party by reducing the cooldown for potion regeneration in Dungeon Hunter 4 [Free] to four hours down from eight. To back things up a bit, Dungeon Hunter 4 is the last of a long line of Gameloft dungeon crawlers. Over the years, they've gotten more and more free-to-play-y, climaxing on the release of the fourth iteration which among other free to play elements made players wait eight hours between getting additional potions.
