Any who. I'm not sure why but I actually spent more time than normal with these games this week. Something just... clicked for me heh. We have a new spin on the Infinity Blade genre, Forsaken Media has decided to try out a new game genre and lastly a new take on the play style zombieville usa made famous. None of these three require an Internet connection btw.
Dawnbringer
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dawnbringer/id998936876?mt=8
Free, No Gamecenter, 416mb download.
All right so here's the Infinity Blade inspired one of the bunch. Very lightly inspired to be honest. The combat system is present but highly simplified. Swipe towards an incoming to attack to parry it. Keep swiping to do damage. There's a healing potion button and so far... that's it for the combat system. After an hour of play I can flat out give the following tip : Learn the enemy move animation and simply bash the swipe in the direction you know its coming from 99% of the time you'll parry the incoming hit and get in 5 or 6 hits before the opponent begins its next attack. Combat is very easy.
A welcome way this game diverges from the Infinity Blade franchise is open exploration. The playable areas are large, lots of things to smash, enemies appear on screen and are engaged by entering their aggression ring. The story back tracks on itself several times so your always moving around and all smash ables re spawn so memorize where the silver chests are and hit them every time you see them up, good loot.
Replayability and encouragement to log in every day comes from the arena where a monster appears for you to smash each day for increasingly solid rewards.
Missions randomly generate and want you to do random things like 'break 25 urns' or 'do x amount of parries' or 'kill x amount of y' and reward you with a variety of things. These don't seem to be on a timer and the more I complete, the more appear.
Not 100% sure if I like open world navigation atm. Reminds me of Lili. Tap to start walking, finger drag to steer, tap again to stop walking. I think I'd prefer a analog movement stick but this really isn't a bad alternative so I'll deal.
There's been some griping over on TA regarding the graphics quality. I find that funny but understand why. Watch the intro cinematic. Wow. Seriously, thats amazing to watch... and then bam your staring at this games in game graphics heh. Its not bad, not bad at ALL. But compared to the cinematic you watch just before seeing in game... and the in game looks awful in comparison. But like I said, the graphics are great, just have to get past that cinematic and your solid.
Performance wise I'm seeing occasional hiccups on my pro 12.9, usually early in combat which usually results in a missed parry.
As for rpg element, lets see. Exp earned levels you up. You earn more health and such automatically. Character improvement in this one is largely gear upgrades, which cost resources you find from smashing and killing and looting things. Timers present on gear upgrades, skippable by spending iap gold. IAP gold is awarded every time you level and I assume via iap store that I haven't actually seen yet... There's a icon I believe is for that store but its untappable.
IAP shop offers experience doublers, free gold coins for watching videos, free gold for liking things like their facebook page, twitter, youtube, all sorts of their sites (you don't have to actually like/follow etc, just click the link then top left click to return to the game when safari appears on screen). The shop itself sells gold in packs ranging from 5usd to 100usd and the entire materials shop (materials are used for upgrading equipment) use gold. For support I recommend the doubler. Watch the ad when available, like/follow/etc all their sites for the initial gold reward and then spend your gold in the materials shop.
Never spend gold to speed up timers.
My one solid gripe? No voice acting. This game needs and deserves voice acting. My one half gripe? Gamecenter Achievements please.
4.3/5.0 from me, should definitely look in to it. There's nothing here that hinders game play enjoyment.
Adventure Company
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adventure-company/id1033521131?mt=8
Free, Gamecenter Enabled, 160mb download.
Allrighty then, Forsaken Media loves trying out and blending genres of game play and this one is their leap in to hero collecting/upgrading/action/rpg style. Think marvel future fight with a more varied mission system and more forgiving iap model.
Leveling up awards talent points spent on a nice large useful roster of talents all of which are available from the first time you look at the screen, no tier structure here baby! As a bonus, you can for a nominal fee reset the talents and redistribute your points any time you want!
You will be acquiring heroes via questing, in game currency and iap gem purchase options. You can take up to five heroes with you in to any stage and the ones your not directly controlling will act on their own. Actually you don't have to do anything at all if you don't want to, keep your digits off the screen for about 10 seconds and the character you are controlling will also go auto play and go about what ever your current stages goals are.
Speaking of stage goals. They vary from kill everything, defend innocents, survive a timer, kill within a timer, loot x amount of stuff, lots of possibilities here.
Heroes have gear, they have abilities unlocked from leveling up and then have a promotion system that allows you to change their job to fill more complex and interesting roles.
There's a training room that looks to do the equivalent of granting exp, useful for the heroes you have that your not actively playing with, this way their still getting better over time.
The store sells weapons, refreshes its inventory every so often.
The iap currency is gems and comes in the form of rewards, iap pack purchases and video watching. Pretty much anything and everything that has a timer or iap tacked on to it can be bi passed with a video.
Pretty cool game, should hold my attention for awhile. 4.0/5.0.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paranormal-minis/id765620032?mt=8
.99usd, Gamecenter Enabled, 73mb download.
All right, here's the zombieville usa inspired one of the bunch. Game play is straight forward, run around a limited arena with ever increasingly difficult monsters spawning and coming after you. Kill them by any means available, smash crates, loot everything. Crates much like monsters continually re spawn. Eventually you will die and return to your hideout. You earn in game currency and experience based on your performance.
Upgrade system. Upgrade in the game involves the weapons. You can buy weapons to unlock them and can carry three of them on you at any time. You improve them via the perk screen where you buy and have up to three perks available at any time. The perks are all upgradable via in game currency. Lastly as you level up you will unlock additional characters to play as each with their own benefits to offer game play.
There are three maps currently and they are unlocked from your level ups.
Game play is simple enough, left analog stick for movement and right buttons to use weapons equipped. The game has a horizontal and vertical movement area so you can run up and down as well as left to right.
IAP options. Cash doublers, EXP doublers, A level maxer one (unlocks all weapons, maps, characters for purchase). And then the standard currency and exp pack offers.
The cash and exp doublers aren't overly necessary, if your active in play, loot, smash and kill you earn both rewards at a steady pace but those doublers are probably the best way to support the developer if your so inclined.
4.0/5.0 from me.
My game of the week... dun dun dun. Dawnbringer. A fantastic action rpg that encourages exploration, gives you plenty to do and for those willing to do a bit of grinding (a staple of rpgs) its completely access able without spending a dime (though I encourage the exp doubler).
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