Slow Go & iPhone Gaming

The past two weeks have been non-stop work for me, which has left little time for console gaming. But it has allowed a huge amount of time for handheld gaming.

I'm down a DS and a PSP after selling them to pay off a ticket last year, so I'm left with the old iPhone/iPad. Now the selection of games on iOS devices is literally out of control - so much so that probably 90% of the games on there are trash. The remaining 10% is made up of quick, short burst gameplay - things like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope etc. Those games are fine, but I wanted something I could sink my teeth into. I'm in DS withdrawal, so I really needed something meaty. I ended up with two great games.

Chaos Rings

 

Chaos Rings is a Square-Enix RPG, developed exclusively for iOS devices. It works around the limitations and benefits of the touch screen very well making the control very smooth and easy to use, in other words, there's no "virtual buttons", it's essentially sliding and tapping wherever you like. 

The story is unique for an RPG. Four teams of two partners wake up in a large castle the leads to four different worlds. Once the omnipresent leader of this castle decides the time has come, the teams must fight to the death, leaving the winning team with the gift of immortality. You can play the story through from each of the four teams perspective, adding fantastic replay value and making for a richer story.

The somewhat traditional turn-based battle system works great, with unique characteristics. The most prominent feature is the "Pair" attack. You can choose to command both characters to attack at the same time, which deals greater damage, but then allows the enemy to attack you both at the same time, leaving you extremely vulnerable. This device plays on the risk/reward mechanic and makes things very exciting. There is also a "tide meter" which indicates who has the "lead" in the current battle. Attack first and fill the meter halfway in your favor; and when it's in your favor, your attacks are sometimes twice as potent and lead to a lot more critical hits. When the tide turns to the enemy's favor, you're attacks and defenses are weaker. 

The Ho-Hum Hub World

The only thing I really don't like about Chaos Rings is it's hub-based level structure. There's no open world to explore, no towns to visit, no side missions or quests to conquer. You finish a world, get a cutscene and are transported back to the mysterious castle. You can replay levels and choose the level of monsters you'll be fighting, but that only serves to grind up your stats. This leaves the whole world feeling a little shallow, however the designers worked with what they had and made do as best they could.

The last thing I'll mention is that on top of being a well designed RPG, it's also a well designed app. It supports multi-tasking. If you're interrupted by a call or text, the game will save your place - starting you right where you left off the next time you open the app. Even going so far as to create a quick-save of your data if you close the app entirely before saving. 

All in all, it's a fantastic game. I'm about 6 hours into my first playthrough and still haven't beaten the first storyline. It's price of $13 carries the sting of being 13x higher than most games on the app store. But think about it like this - you're getting a PSP quality RPG for $13 instead of $40. Definitely worth the price of admission.

Puzzle Agent

Puzzle Agent is a game developed by Telltale, and follows the point-and-click model of the old PC games of the 90s, but adds logic puzzles in at every turn. If you've played any of the Professor Layton games on the DS, that's essentially what you're getting.

You are Nelson Tethers and you work for the FBI's Puzzle Research Division. Receiving a call from a small Midwestern town about a messed up eraser factory, you rush into action to save the day. Only when you arrive you are "puzzled" (see what I did there) to find that no one in town is particularly cooperative and most of them would just like you to leave - but not before giving you puzzles to solve!

The graphics are unique and have almost a crayon drawing feel to them and lend the game an element of innocence over the darker themes and characters. There is full voice work for nearly every character in the game and it is all done very well. It's impressive that a strong level of effort went into making a iPhone game with good voice acting, and yet major console releases can't seem to figure it out.

The puzzles, which make up the majority of the gameplay, are hit or miss. They cover so many styles of puzzles from jigsaw to logic to just-plain-weird that the touch controls are all over the place. Some of them were fantastic and really made me think, while others required more precision than most people can muster on an iPhone, while others were so abstract that I just ended up guessing over and over until I got the answer the game wanted. Most of the time I found myself annoyed by the puzzles - rushing through them to uncover the rest of the mysterious story.

While the plot kept me going, it only did so for about 2 hours. The game is dreadfully short and ends in a gigantic cliffhanger ensuring that you'll buy Puzzle Agent 2 for another five bones. And unlike Chaos Rings, Puzzle Agent is not a well designed app. No multi-tasking, it sucks your battery dry, and it crashes quite often. There is no auto-save either so when that happens you're pretty much boned. The devs did a remarkable job in creating this series, but they need to realize what platform they're developing for. If you're shooting for AAA status on the appstore, make your game a good app, not just a fun game.

I have a harder time recommending this one. It's only $5, but it's little nitpicks are hard to ignore. If you love Professor Layton and can't wait for the next one, give Puzzle Agent a try, but all others, stay away.

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I'm leaving for Chicago tomorrow for a few days and when I get back, I'm right back in the grind, so it may be another few weeks before I finish Mario 64, but thanks for reading and I'll keep you dudes posted on any progress.

Word up.

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