Usually during the start of my reviews I’ll come up with some kind of witty remark as to how I’ve been playing a new game and it’s given me a new lease on life, unfortunately that’s not really the case when at the moment, as I’m currently in that worst period where most of the games I wanted have either already been out and been completed, or I’m stuck waiting for another 2-3 months to get my hands on the next instalment of fantasy. The good thing is that this is one of many reasons I’m always grateful for indie developers. Not only do they get the majority of my attention when it comes to these kinds of periods, but they also provide me with a bit of fun to last me for another week. Enter Siegecraft Commander.
Siegecraft Commander is the new release on the PlayStation 4 and Steam by developers, Blowfish Studios and Publishers, Level 77 PTY Ltd. For those of you who don’t know, it was released back on January 17th 2017 and is a turn-based or real-time strategy war game. It’s a very similar genre to the Command and Conquer series, but set in an alternative fantasy world involving knights and strange lizards which want to wear your skull for a hat.
The game revolves around you building up a fortress, adding elements of the fortress to make yourself stronger and progressing through the map whilst wiping out all of the enemy forces. It’s pretty conventional of a strategy war game, but there are a few twists which will add to the difficulty.
First and foremost, you can build more or less whatever you want, but in order to build it, you will first need to select the part and then fire it off into the distance using a catapult system. Where ever the rock lands, that’s where it pops up (pretty much instantly). The down side is that the catapult isn’t really that strong, and as this is a real time, it also means when you get closer to your enemy, they’ll likely destroy your outposts the second you put them down.
The second difficult thing is that all of your buildings are connected, almost like a web. As you progress through the map, more and more of your outputs will be connected. Whilst this is great, as it means you’re only really building one giant fortress, it also means that… well you’re only building one giant fortress, so the second some little sneaky lizard figures out how to get right to the start of your fortress undetected and takes down your second outpost, everything around you will come crashing down. The positive to this is that it does add an element of difficulty to an otherwise easy game, frankly you need to keep an eye on your towers at all times and make sure that you’re not left unguarded.
The story that Siegecraft Commander has to offer isn’t really huge, but in all honesty that’s probably what you’d expect from a game with this genre. That said, whilst it’s not big, it does add a nice little bonus to an otherwise pleasant experience, and although you probably shouldn’t be expecting the story to be like an episode of EastEnders (I can’t believe I just referenced that…) it will satisfy your needs as much as you need it too.
As I’m sure you can probably imagine, this is a strategy war game, so be expected to build a lot and take control of different kinds of outposts and resources. That said, the game adds quite a few handy additions which will leave you happy. Taking control of certain resources will provide you with handy little boons and new developments such as energy fields, library’s and further weapons and defences to give you the edge in battle. What’s more you’ll also be able to build up some new and tasty weapons of destruction, so moving forward will always provide you with the key to victory!
What really makes Siegecraft Commander stand out from the crowd is the emphasis on an almost RPG type of feature. As you progress, you build up ranks and you can begin to unlock some pretty nice perks based on the commander that you are playing as. These range from stronger weapons, more soldiers, more health on towers etc. I’m sure you can imagine what kind of bonuses you will get, but it adds a further addition to the game which is very much welcome in my books.
The graphics of the game are actually pretty good, and in all honesty I don’t really tend to go into indie games expecting a lot, so it’s always nice when they surpass my expectations. The game features a very strong emphasis on a cartoony, pixelated array of characters and environments and the animations and smoothness that the game manages to maintain adds to the nature of the atmosphere quite well. What’s more, each level has a different map and feel towards it, so you’ll never feel like you’re playing the same levels over and over again.
Sound wise, the game meets the curb and in all honesty I can’t really say anything bad about it at all. The background music’s not too bad, whilst sound effects are pretty decent. The character voices, whilst I’ll have to admit annoy the hell out of me, are actually pretty crystal clear and I can’t really mark the game down because the voices are annoying, I can mark it up slightly for not having character’s voices all stuttered and distorted, so all in all, pretty decent from a sound perspective.
Overall, the game has a lot of pick up and play value, and whilst it’s probably not the best game in the world to sit and play hours upon end, it really does shine at having a large number of levels that have about 10-20 minutes of play value (at least towards the beginning) so you’ll always be able to stick it on whenever you want to kill a bit of time.
From a review stand point, the game is good in terms of value, graphics and sound, lots of nice and different features that make it unique, and even the story was pretty appealing, especially considering this is a strategy war game and, well stories are pretty much non-existent in these kinds of games. Overall I’d say it gets my vote, especially considering I’m not a huge fan of the genre to begin with, but if I found it fun, then I’m sure any fans out there will surely enjoy it!
Quote: Siegecraft Commander brings a new feel on strategy war based games.
Siegecraft Commander Was reviewed on the PlayStation 4
You must be logged in to post a comment.