Review: Castle Conflict

[cjvitek]

Castle Conflict, by Broken Kings
$1.99, Three and a half stars

Pros:

• Entertaining battle game
• multiple difficulty levels

Cons:

• Sigh...no two player
• graphics leave something to be desired
• game could be more involved or complex

Castle Conflict is a territorial war between you and your neighboring castle. You compete with them for resources, and (hopefully) eventually bring them to their knees in submission with an arsenal of minions attacking them.

The goal is simple in this game. You use resources (trees) to build up your money which you use to buy units. Units can be used to collect more resources (wood cutter unit), steal resources from the opponent (thief), repair your health (engineer) or attack the opponent by land (foot soldier, armoured knight, mounted knight) or by air (blimp, bomber). While you are figuring our your strategy, the opponent is doing the same - collecting resources and attacking you. The trees grow in the no mans land between your castles so you are in conflict with them to collect the valuable resource.

There are three difficulty levels for the game, along with settings for game length and tree growth rate. I am not sure what the "length" setting does, since I have always won (so far) by defeating my enemy...perhaps there is an associated time limit that I have never encountered. Once you achieve victory, you get a summary of the game - how many trees you collected, enemy units killed, gold stolen, etc.

There is no way to save a score (nor is there really any sort of "score" given). It would be nice to have some sort of trophy room, score board, or something like that to compare your progress. It would also be nice to be able to "battle" in different terrains, or against different opponents (which have different strategies, perhaps maybe even fighting two oppenents at once in a three-way battle!).

I really like the concept of this game, but overall I found myself wanting more. I wanted more from the game, at a variety of levels. In terms of the game itself, I wanted more complexity - maybe different kinds of resources, maybe options for building defenses instead of just attacking, or some of the options I mentioned above. I did like the option to set difficulty levels (and the difficulty really does change) and being able to adjust the tree growth rate. These settings allow you to customize difficulty at a variety of levels.

I would also have liked to see better graphics. While the graphics aren't bad, they don't really do anything to enhance the game or make it as visually stunning as other games. Maybe I am getting spoiled, but I am starting to expect more from some games (although the price point of $1.99 certainly is not prohibitive, and given that price the graphics are what you might expect).

Sadly, the thing that I miss the most is a multiplayer option. This kind of game - direct conflict with one enemy - seems to be specifically tailored for a multiplayer option between iPhones. Hopefully this is an update that is in the works, and will be something we can see when iPhone 3.0 comes out.

All in all, this is a fun, not too complex game that left me wanting more from it. The concept is entertaining, it is easy to pick up (although the help menu leaves something to be desired). There is no multiplayer, which is a real shame, and the simplicity of the game rules and settings left me wanting more from it. At $1.99, the price isn't bad, but I hope that they continue to build improvements into the game with future updates. Three and a half out of five stars.

Rating scale:

* = No redeeming qualities or features, probably not worth it even if it is free
** = Few redeeming qualities, or is simply isn't worth the price
*** = Some good features but also some clear flaws.
**** = A solid app, worth the money if interested, a few flaws or problems or slightly overpriced
***** = Top of the line app, no problems or drawbacks.

Price is factored into the ratings. Ratings are lowered if I feel the price of the app outweighs the benefits/enjoyment/features it provides. Likewise, an app that is a good value for the money will have a higher rating.

[jbmoney13]

Only if the graphics were better, I would be all over this game. Still might give it a shot.