This was a first impression originally then it turned into a half impression\half review. So, anyone that doesn’t want to read the whole thing just read the first and last paragraph.
My initial impression of the game is that it can be very fun. They have really done their own thing with a good balance between dungeon manager and RTS. I see the reference to DK games all over but it is very different but not in a bad way like Dungeons. In a very unique way and I like it. There are some random bugs and crashes to work out but I think if the developers are willing to listen to the community for feedback they can make the game much more fun.
Atmosphere is great. The way the story is presented and done I think sets a very good tone. I’m not sure all the jokes will be appreciated or the lengthy dialog will add much but that’s ok. I know a few friends that would probably find the story boring and skip it but that’s just because they have no interest in it. That’s their loss.
Graphics – This is done well and I think each minion looks unique. From the little I’ve played I feel immersed in the game and enjoy my time watching the little extras that the devs have put in. Fighting and spells could be a bit cooler though. It looks fine at the moment but it just doesn’t really impress me all that much. When I have 3 or more squads fighting mobs, it seems a bit chaotic to look at and takes a bit away from my immersion.
Sound – Sound is a little buggy but I like it overall with the exceptions of combat noise. There seems to be way too much going on for my headphones to sound clear. ( I can play BF3 with explosions and gunfire with these headphones and it sounds brilliant) I’m unsure if this is a bug or if I need to turn the channels down in the game. I have yet to mess around with the sound options just because it hasn’t bothered me enough to investigate fixing it. Music, room sounds, and unit command sounds fit the atmosphere of the game so that’s good.
Interface\controls – This is where I have the biggest problem. First the good things, I see a few threads with “bad controls” as the headline asking for a fix. I remember when gamers use to learn how to play a game when it was new not simply expect things to control the way they are use to controlling it. An option to turn off side scroll delay would be great but I really do like the WASD to control the camera. I think it fits this game well. Context menu is a huge plus for a game like this and I like the quickness of hold right click – select option – release right click. It takes a bit of playing but it’s very fast.
Now for the issues, I don’t like navigating through menus.(I don’t mean context menus) If I have a group on patrol and I’m off doing something else I want to be able to mouse over their number on the right side of the screen and see if they are hungry. I don’t want to open a menu just to forget what I’m looking at because a new alert for heroes has popped up. I like how I can right click their number and give them commands but I would like ability for them to cancel what they are doing. If I have a group on patrol and I need backup for a fight somewhere on the map, it seems they go back to patrolling once the combat is over. I would rather they clear that action completely as it can be annoying when I need to switch out units between patrols.
This would be helpful because you do have to micromanage your units to either train or eat. A better warning that your units are hungry or that they need training would be very helpful. Right now it’s a guessing game. Unless your units are in heavy combat all the time you don’t really need to worry about constantly sending them to the kitchen however if all your combat groups are wiped and you have enough resources to create all new units then micromanaging them around can be a bit tedious. Only one group can occupy a room at a time. There needs to be some type of warning. If I have 3 units and they are all hungry they need to line up or queue to the kitchen like a lunch line. Now I have to wait and guess when they are done and it seems very counter intuitive and probably the biggest issue I have with the game so far.
There needs to be a bigger difference in how resources are presented and what everything does. I was playing chp1 – 3 for an hour and couldn’t make more than one squad. I couldn’t figure out why as I thought I needed material. I thought it was a bug and started over (losing all my progress) and proceeded to still be frustrated. I then noticed that the icon was slightly different than the materials icon and it hit me. I don’t need materials I need treasure. SMACK! This could easily be fixed if there was more of a difference in icons or when I mouse over something that it immediately told me what I need to create it and if I’m missing something specific.
Raiding the Overworld; this really needs to be expanded upon. I’d like to see the combat and be able to send more than one group to a single point. This is a very unique idea and throughout the story it fits very well. There also needs to be a better way to tell which unit groups are raiding and when they come back from a successful raid. I’m paying attention to the middle of my screen most of the time and the little window for notifications at the top right doesn’t do a very good job of informing me. Maybe something in the top – Middle in big letters that give me a notice or a voice over telling me they were successful. The Devs did a lot of voice over work but it seems they stuck mainly to the scripted story and left out game play feedback. If they can add this then it would make playing the game 10x better.
Overall and as I said before, I enjoy what I have played so far. It was defiantly was worth the $20 I spent. I don’t have a problem with no AI scirm as I think it would take a lot of programming for an AI to setup a competent base. I do wish the saving\loading was a bit more conventional. I would like to have multiple saves per level rather than saving over my last save. Check point saves would help as well. I haven’t been able to make heads or tails of the multiplayer as I tried to join a game but when I hit join, the game acted like it was trying to join and didn’t. I probably have to turn my firewall off or something but there was no alert from windows or no indication from the game that it failed to connect. If the developers are willing to fix some of the control\notification issues that I see I would recommend this to my group of friends along with multiplayer working. As of right now this game deserves nothing less than 6.5 and if they improve things along the way with working multiplayer it could be a solid 8.
My initial impression of the game is that it can be very fun. They have really done their own thing with a good balance between dungeon manager and RTS. I see the reference to DK games all over but it is very different but not in a bad way like Dungeons. In a very unique way and I like it. There are some random bugs and crashes to work out but I think if the developers are willing to listen to the community for feedback they can make the game much more fun.
Atmosphere is great. The way the story is presented and done I think sets a very good tone. I’m not sure all the jokes will be appreciated or the lengthy dialog will add much but that’s ok. I know a few friends that would probably find the story boring and skip it but that’s just because they have no interest in it. That’s their loss.
Graphics – This is done well and I think each minion looks unique. From the little I’ve played I feel immersed in the game and enjoy my time watching the little extras that the devs have put in. Fighting and spells could be a bit cooler though. It looks fine at the moment but it just doesn’t really impress me all that much. When I have 3 or more squads fighting mobs, it seems a bit chaotic to look at and takes a bit away from my immersion.
Sound – Sound is a little buggy but I like it overall with the exceptions of combat noise. There seems to be way too much going on for my headphones to sound clear. ( I can play BF3 with explosions and gunfire with these headphones and it sounds brilliant) I’m unsure if this is a bug or if I need to turn the channels down in the game. I have yet to mess around with the sound options just because it hasn’t bothered me enough to investigate fixing it. Music, room sounds, and unit command sounds fit the atmosphere of the game so that’s good.
Interface\controls – This is where I have the biggest problem. First the good things, I see a few threads with “bad controls” as the headline asking for a fix. I remember when gamers use to learn how to play a game when it was new not simply expect things to control the way they are use to controlling it. An option to turn off side scroll delay would be great but I really do like the WASD to control the camera. I think it fits this game well. Context menu is a huge plus for a game like this and I like the quickness of hold right click – select option – release right click. It takes a bit of playing but it’s very fast.
Now for the issues, I don’t like navigating through menus.(I don’t mean context menus) If I have a group on patrol and I’m off doing something else I want to be able to mouse over their number on the right side of the screen and see if they are hungry. I don’t want to open a menu just to forget what I’m looking at because a new alert for heroes has popped up. I like how I can right click their number and give them commands but I would like ability for them to cancel what they are doing. If I have a group on patrol and I need backup for a fight somewhere on the map, it seems they go back to patrolling once the combat is over. I would rather they clear that action completely as it can be annoying when I need to switch out units between patrols.
This would be helpful because you do have to micromanage your units to either train or eat. A better warning that your units are hungry or that they need training would be very helpful. Right now it’s a guessing game. Unless your units are in heavy combat all the time you don’t really need to worry about constantly sending them to the kitchen however if all your combat groups are wiped and you have enough resources to create all new units then micromanaging them around can be a bit tedious. Only one group can occupy a room at a time. There needs to be some type of warning. If I have 3 units and they are all hungry they need to line up or queue to the kitchen like a lunch line. Now I have to wait and guess when they are done and it seems very counter intuitive and probably the biggest issue I have with the game so far.
There needs to be a bigger difference in how resources are presented and what everything does. I was playing chp1 – 3 for an hour and couldn’t make more than one squad. I couldn’t figure out why as I thought I needed material. I thought it was a bug and started over (losing all my progress) and proceeded to still be frustrated. I then noticed that the icon was slightly different than the materials icon and it hit me. I don’t need materials I need treasure. SMACK! This could easily be fixed if there was more of a difference in icons or when I mouse over something that it immediately told me what I need to create it and if I’m missing something specific.
Raiding the Overworld; this really needs to be expanded upon. I’d like to see the combat and be able to send more than one group to a single point. This is a very unique idea and throughout the story it fits very well. There also needs to be a better way to tell which unit groups are raiding and when they come back from a successful raid. I’m paying attention to the middle of my screen most of the time and the little window for notifications at the top right doesn’t do a very good job of informing me. Maybe something in the top – Middle in big letters that give me a notice or a voice over telling me they were successful. The Devs did a lot of voice over work but it seems they stuck mainly to the scripted story and left out game play feedback. If they can add this then it would make playing the game 10x better.
Overall and as I said before, I enjoy what I have played so far. It was defiantly was worth the $20 I spent. I don’t have a problem with no AI scirm as I think it would take a lot of programming for an AI to setup a competent base. I do wish the saving\loading was a bit more conventional. I would like to have multiple saves per level rather than saving over my last save. Check point saves would help as well. I haven’t been able to make heads or tails of the multiplayer as I tried to join a game but when I hit join, the game acted like it was trying to join and didn’t. I probably have to turn my firewall off or something but there was no alert from windows or no indication from the game that it failed to connect. If the developers are willing to fix some of the control\notification issues that I see I would recommend this to my group of friends along with multiplayer working. As of right now this game deserves nothing less than 6.5 and if they improve things along the way with working multiplayer it could be a solid 8.
