I would say that it starts out kind of relaxed but the pace ramps up to semi-frantic, but not super-frantic (less than YMBAB or bejeweled blitz). It is easier to recover from a mistake than YMBAB. Very attractive, great music, etc. I am up to day 66/tower 15. I like it, it's fun, though I do have concerns about the longevity. There are only a few new wrinkles that have been introduced since the beginning. Every wave (except the bosses) is more or less the same thing. Unles im missing something, there's no real need to approach a given level with a different strategy than you would use on any other. The core gameplay is very solid, there's just not that much variety. The upgrades are nice to have, but there's not that much choice to be had aside from the order you upgrade things. I kind of wish individual levels were more distinct and you had to pick from the available upgrades to change your approach to that level, experiment with tactics, etc. so far, much like YMBAB, there isn't much feeling of progression aside from getting past the next level because enemies scale with you and the upgrades I've seen are all passive effects. Easy recommend for match-3 lovers that don't object to the real-time too strongly or people that like lane-defense games with at least a passing interest in match-3.
Just managed to go through the tutorial, am excited to say I wasn't disappointed with the music and graphics. Works great on my iPhone6 and the matching is really seamless so far. I heard people talked about "Hero Emblem" or "You must build a boat".... the price of $3.99 for a puzzle game was what put me off. But to each his own, I'm more of a price sensitive person dude, and this little gem here is reasonably priced for me. Will be back to share some thoughts of this game soon.
pretty good so far after 30mins of play time. hopefully the time limit doesn't get to hard. I like setting my phone down to do other stuff. ;-)
Two questions.... Can you intercept or block the rocks the other castle fires at you (I may have clicked on the box telling me how to by mistake). How do I select the Healer I have unlocked as it didn't appear to tell me how to do so (tried all manner of swiping but to no avail) and I have two healer related missions to perform!
You can, sort of...when you unlock the Bulwark. The Healer works automatically when you match utility tiles.
This is a different variety of match-3, and falls in a genre pretty much defined by 10000000/YMBAB. I say that right off the start because comparing this to Hero Emblems, Guardian Sword of Puzzle Quest would be doing the game a disservice. People who enjoyed YMBAB are going to absolutely love The Long Siege, and the reverse also holds true. Other than that, the amount of polish the developers have put on the game is just amazing. Everything, from the art and animation to the music and sound effects just oozes quality. Even though I had a less than enjoyable time with YMBAB I'm finding The Long Siege fairly engaging and fun. I can see myself putting a good many hours into game.
Thanks for your thoughts on the game. I'm starting to think I'm an outlier in that I love both Match-3 styles. The sane must be true of AppUnwrapper because we keep crossing paths! I actually don't know that I'll get to this one until I finish Guardian Sword (had to actually go look at the name - these games all just throw random words together from a seemingly static subset of words like naming apartment complexes!). I was very pleasantly surprised with that one but I'm that much more incentivized to finish it in order to get to this one.
I prefer turn based matching, but realtime match-3 is also fun when it is also backed up by good gameplay. My problem with YMBAB was mostly that each upgrade and new features was just a very small incremental stat boost, and I hated that the game forced you make matches while tiles were settling on higher levels. Now Adventure Time Puzzle Quest on the other hand, that's as shallow an example of the genre as one can find. Utterly dull and freemium to the hilt.
I hated YMbAB, not really a fan of the "belt" system (much prefer the chain style of Dungeon Raid) and it is always frantic trying to scan the board for matches and see what is going on above. But the game is really beautiful and still really fun. The leveling up system is a good motivator.
I like this game, although honestly, I am not really sure what is going on. I am just matching whatever I can. It kills my battery super fast and makes my phone hot, but still, I do like sliding match 3 games. The light RPG elements make it fun too. Does anyone know if this game is endless or is there an end?
There is an end. The idea is to beat the game in as few days as possible. I was confused about a few things, too, but the devs cleared them up. I started compiling them into this guide: http://www.appunwrapper.com/2015/07/23/the-long-siege-walkthrough-guide/
Game seems okay, but I HATE that after I match ot "blacks" the board as the animation/actions above happen so I can't keep matching. This slows the pace of the game down and prevents it from being enjoyable for me. That is subjective I understand that, but generally match 3 games tend to at least allow a person to keep matching as fast as they can, helps offset the fact its a match 3 game and not an action game-in my opinion.
That would make it far more frantic than it already is, which many of us do not want, and is not at all something generally seen in match-3 games. This may just not be the right type of game for you which is fine, but to give a one-star rating To a very good game for something you could have easily seen in a gameplay video is unfortunate. You might like You Must Build a Boat.
There are other match-three games that let you continue matching instead of waiting for the board to settle. But I think YMBAB is the only one that comes to mind in recent history. The way it's done here is more common, I think.
This is a poor design. The game is real time and you have to pause every time you make a match? This game is fun - but it breaks the immersion of the game play when you have to sit back and watch a realtime game because there is no interaction available. I can't wrap my head around playing a timed game when you can spend most of the match waiting to interact.
