Kingdom Elemental
Developer: Scott Thunelius and Chronic Logic
Category: Strategy
Release Dates
Digital Download - 09/15/2007
7.0
GZ Rating
| Gameplay | 7.5 |
| Graphics | 7 |
| Sound | 7 |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Concept | 6.5 |
| Overall | 7.0 |
Kingdom Elemental Review
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It seems that most games in the fantasy vein are
all trying to be the next big thing. Bigger worlds, bigger adventures, bigger
monsters, bigger, bigger, bigger. You'd think all these RPGs had thyroid
problems with as big as they have become. And while this certainly isn't a bad
thing, the idea of being able to play a game in this genre for a few
moments is pretty much absurd. Well, the forces that be, decided to make a
title that could appeal to those players who like to game in small amounts and
those who enjoy slaying monsters all night.
OK, so Kingdom Elemental works like this, you are
given a set amount of gold, with this amount you can buy different character
types, the foot soldier, the archer, the mage, the healer and so on. After
purchasing and placing these characters on the game screen, you must
successfully defeat the baddies that come on screen. Now I am simplifying this
a bit initially, but understand that each character has innate abilities and
abilities that can be unlocked. For example, the archer can shoot regular
shots, but if you purchase the fire arrow ability, then every 40 seconds, you
can fire a very powerful fire arrow. As you win rounds, you can unlock more
abilities or new characters, eventually unlocking very powerful characters.
"Time to get out of the way."
Now to expand on the above statement a little bit
more. The beginning of the game has this sort of smarmy tutorial, the voice
over guy who is talking about the game kind of makes fun of himself and the
genre in a playful yet understandable way. The tutorial is laid out in front
of you very clearly and when you are told to do something, the tutorial will
not continue until you do it. Like I said before, each round you are given a
set amount of gold and a set amount of points in which you can unlock
character abilities (at first). Think of this almost like a board game. Each
character costs a different amount because they can do different things. You
start out the game with the soldier character and the archer character and
like 200 gold pieces, with this amount you can purchase three soldiers and one
archer or two and two, the point is, the dispersion of characters is entirely
up to you. placing the soldiers at the front of your team and archers in the
back does several strategically different things, in this case, the soldiers
can absorb more damage then an archer can, so you would want to use them as an
initial line of defense. The idea being while your soldiers go mano-a-mano
with the bad guys, your archer(s) can pick them off from a distance. As they
fight the monsters come in waves which is indicated at the top of the screen,
wave 1 of 3 and so on. Once the whole battle is won, you continue on by
getting a point (again, to unlock either new characters or abilities of
existing characters) and more gold. Since the game is somewhat tiered, you
soon find yourself buying many more characters as the monsters not only
increase as the rounds do, but new and more powerful creatures are introduced.
The whole idea is that this is one of those games
that plays out like a puzzle game (only it's not a puzzle game). Hopping on
and playing for ten minutes at a stretch is totally easy and while the game
does provide a certain amount of entertainment, I don't know if I could see
anyone playing this one for more then an hour at a time. Don't get me wrong,
there is a sort of strange addiction that does come over you as you play,
hoping to unlock some new powerful attack or cool looking character, but then
it's simply too easy to walk away and go mow the lawn or do something else. I
dunno, it's kind of weird.
The graphics aren't all that difficult to get by
on, in fact there are some interesting character models out there and even
some monsters that I simply have never seen before. The entire game takes
place on one of four different battlefields if you will. A giant chunk of
earth plucked out of the ground in a random shape and left spinning in space.
You can rotate around the battlefield as things are happening or as the game
is paused, there is even a zoom in zoom out function that does help you get a
better idea on what the devil is happening. Each character/creature on the
screen has a real time health bar that you can see become depleted or become
healed if the right character is working. Nothing terribly flashy in terms of
the eye candy, but the action does unfold at a nice pace without visual
breakdown, considering the title has very low system requirements.
Here's a tip; If you set fire to a bear and it doesn't kill it, then be
prepared to run like the wind."
The sound in the game could be described as
slightly out of date, but it does sound appropriate for the carnage and
battles that occur. The voicework is somewhat cheesy as characters fire off a
quip like "I can do that" as you instruct them to dole out some punishment. I
could understand what the folks were thinking when they were making this
title, trying not to take things too seriously while
speaking the witty lines of the various character models. One almost thinks
the developers probably had their families come in and do the voicework.
Still, while the one-liners can get repetitive, the sound is clear enough to
be a positive.
Now the game only has the four main worlds/levels,
and each one only has a few rounds to it, so the game could be considered
short, but the real challenge lies in trying to beat the levels while using
different tactics. Instead of beefing up your entire side with all soldiers
and then having them hack the bejeepers out of everything, try playing the
same round using only archers or monks (which are actually lizard-men) and
things can get really interesting and challenging for that matter. So there is
a certain amount of length found in this title, if you want to try the game on
it's hardest setting then you probably will have wanted to have beaten it on
the regular setting. The game can be tough in some places.
| Review Scoring Details for Kingdom Elemental |
Gameplay: 7.5
It's actually pretty easy to do, and the fact that
you can pause the game, and issue commands makes things a bit easier. Some
unlocked abilities must be activated while others occur automatically. The
game is user friendly to control.
Graphics: 7.0
It has graphics that take advantage of their
humble limitations. You would think that each character was just a cookie
cutter mold (all soldiers are the same) but in all actuality they each have a
mini bio and sometimes funny back-story.
Sound: 7.0
A sometimes funny, sometimes overly dramatic range
of voice work. Characters belch out canned phrases that may or may not grate
on your nerves (I didn't mind them). Action sounds and sound effects are
average, but they strangely fit with this title.
Difficulty: Medium
It's a game that has some challenge to it, but
never so much that you get frustrated with it. A few times you will run into
some scenarios that will force you to really think out your strategy.
Concept: 6.5
It's pretty much copying several games' better
parts and then making it micro sized so you can play in large or small doses.
If the game sounds familiar, that's because it is.
Multiplayer: Not available in this title.
Which is a total shame, this title would be really
an awful lot of fun to go against others with, each side picking their
respective teams and then attempting to snuff the other side out.
Overall: 7.0
The game is actually a (dare I say) cute little
title. It has it's faults, but they are easily forgiven in a title as quirky
as this one. I really wished there was a multiplayer mode, but for what it is
worth, the game is a fun little diamond in the rough.
