Score: 8
"good, but with a few serious flaws"
date: September 19, 2009
When I first played with my friend, he didn't have the patience to sit through the storyline, and now I don't have the patience to replay the entire game to read the story. It might be a good idea to include a read story mode to this game. Given the excerpts of the story that I have read, however, I have to agree with the other reviewers that the grammar is egregious. If it was intentional, I fail to see the humor in it; if you don't speak English as a first language, we forgive you, but please make note of that.
Gameplay wise, the game is quite slow. Having to upgrade everything from scratch every level is quite tedious. The mana capacity in particular is too costly/time consuming to upgrade. Furthermore, old levels aren't much easier than the first time you play them, since your starting mana is determined by the level, and not by anything else you do. It would otherwise be comical to send angel knights against the 1st level, but alas, that would take far too long to be worth any amusement.
Music and artwork is great (especially the background that varies according to the sides).
minor spoiler:
The second to last boss is quite a bit harder than the final boss... but only because the last boss doesn't move. Once you figure out how to beat the final boss, he's stupid easy.
spoiler:
The final boss heals from most forms of range attacks [abs = absorb?]. I learned that the hard way when my 80 mages healed him to 2.5x his initial hp [I should trust the reviews a bit more]. Though melee units do damage him, they also trigger his attack, which pwns the melee units, but more importantly, damages your castle by 500 every time. I am not convinced that you can spam melee units fast enough to take him down before he pwns your castle. Contrary to what several reviewers claim, you don't have to be elf to beat the last level. Dragons and angel knights will kill him in short order, The elf ultimate works, but is quite expensive. If the orc ultimate does damage him, it isn't by a lot [if he sticks around after pwning the enemy castle, then he will be too close, and will trigger the boss attack]. The human ultimate is melee and will get your castle ownd in short order. The devil also seems to damage him, but his range is a pixel too short.
At least one of the later reviews reveal how to get the 6 achievements, and hence the dragons/angel knights.
