Recently I bought two hyped up Ipod Touch/Iphone game apps: Ravensword and Underworlds. I’m a huge Role Playing Game fan and I was quite excited to drop the 10 bucks combined for these two games . But, was it worth it?

Underworlds

Developer: Pixel Mine Inc.
Publisher: Pixel Mine
Date of Release: OCT 19 2009
Platforms: iPhone/Ipod Touch

Story/Presentation

Honestly, I could not really tell you the story as I was too busy skipping most of the dialog text in order to get on with the next quest. The few bits of information I did read included something about demons and hordes and monster taking over the world. Or something like that, and my bad ass self is the only person who is bad ass enough to take those fools down with my awesome gear along with the loot that I found.

This game is obviously a nod to the popular dungeon crawler Diablo and falls into the category of countless clones of the same game. But, is that such a bad thing?

You can see another similarity with the artwork as the placement of the HUD and overall art direction of Underworlds feels more like an add-on to Diablo and has very little to add to the genre of hack-n-slash.

Gameplay

To put it simply, this game is quite enjoyable and fun. You’ll begin the game with choosing whether you are a male or female and then your class. I chose a warrior as I wanted to make sure I could run in a room and not worry about how much of that blue liquidly-stuff I have on the right and focus on the red liquidly-stuff on the left. In case you’ve never played a hack-n-slash game, a rpg, or have no idea what the hell Diablo is, the red “stuff” is your health while the blue “stuff” is your mana.

Of course, the game also features varying special attacks you will be able to choose from as you attack more baddies and level up your character and then you WILL need to focus on both mana and health as well as focusing on what loot you need as just like Diablo you are only allowed a select few items at any given time.

Also worth mentioning is the touch screen, on aspect of the Iphone I’m not  a huge fan for, but for this game…it works.  On one side of the screen you move your character in any direction and on the other side you hit the “action” key which will either attack or open a door/chest/whatever. It works and that’s alot to say when there are many other games that just drive me UP THE WALL with their use of the touchscreen.

Overall

But…the game is fun! And will distract you for a few minutes at any given time. Whether you are waiting in the doctor’s office and need to play something for the next…hour or so…then here you go! This game is quite a little time waster for the price and while it looks too similar to Diablo, I found it didn’t bother me so much  as it’s quite a favorable nod to Diablo and gets the job done!

Pros/Cons

Pros

- Great Gameplay

- Lovely Art Direction

-Price

-Re-playbility thanks to the choices of classes and skills

Cons

-Story

-Nothing too unique

-A bit short

The Save Factor (explanation)

I really enjoyed this game and would suggest to fans of the genre to buy this game immediately! The game is well worth it at the price of $2.99 for action-rpg fans!

Ravensword

Developer: Chillingo Ltd
Publisher: Chillingo Ltd
Date of Release: Couldn’t Tell You
Platforms: iPhone/Ipod Touch

As soon as I bought this game and started it up, I was a bit stunned. Ravensword is the most graphically impressive Iphone games I’ve ever played and looks like it should be lighting my Ipod touch on fire! Sadly, this is as far as the positives go for me.

Story/Presenation

I did not get too far in the game to have a great grasp on the story, but what I did enjoy was the first mission included the most joked about aspect of many old rpgs…killing rats. Along with this is a nod to games such as Morrowind and Zelda, where exploring is a major part of the game and doing mundane quests(as well as the enjoyable “kill ‘em all” quests) for the inhabitants of this world.

The graphics, art direction, and dialog are the most positive aspects of this game. The story is a bit better than Underworlds, but at the same time it isn’t really memorable.

The story also feels more alive than Underworlds and I enjoyed trotting through the lands looking at the varying locations such as volcanic areas, snow covered fields, and the usual stunning forests. This game feels like it would be a decent Role Playing Game on the PC for around 10-15 dollars, however I did not enjoy a few other aspects to the game.

Gameplay

Yes, one of the most important part of any game is this game’s kryptonite. The controls for the touch screen are quite horrible and I’ve yet to get a grasp on it.

This also is made worse by the enemies AI. The game uses an approach similar to Underworlds with movement with a compass-like part of the screen to the left and then you press the screen to open doors and such. Since this game is a third person action/first person action you also need to use the screen for the camera.

One such instance that annoyed me to great lengths was when I tried to killed several goblins who seemed to know that the camera for this game was faulty and used it to their advantage. They would CIRCLE around me, having me try and circle along with them as they took stabs to my back. The touch screen for the Iphone(which works for other games) doesn’t seem to be that great for TP/FP camera uses, as I ended up dieing over and over until I was able to fight one-on-one with any creatures. This creates a Steep learning curve for the beginning of the game.

Horrible. Just horrible. And really ruined my first experience with the game.

Overall

While this Morrowind-esque title is lovely to look at, it really isn’t that lovely to play with. Of course, if you are a pro with the Iphone touch screen and have to real gripes with it, then I suppose you will enjoy this game, but, personally, I still enjoy my mouse and buttons.

Pros

- Lovely Graphics

-Great art direction and lively world

-Dialog and quests are enjoyable

Cons

- Gameplay, Controls are God-Awful

-Camera problems

-Wonky AI

The Save Factor(explanation)

The game has a starting price of $6.99 and I would only suggest this to those who are pros at the touch screen and have no problem practicing and perfecting their skills with the device through this game, however, from my experience the game would be a better value if it was dropped to about $3.99 as I really had a hard time getting into the game.

Josh T. Review, iPhone/iTouch, impressions