Monday, May 16, 2011

Dark Seal Review

Dark Seal Review

Andreil`s Game put out an XBLIG, Dark Seal back in March 2010 and I spent some enjoyable time with it thisweekend. Let`s go over this simple to play turn based strategy game. Assimple as this plot is it, really made me think what I missed of theboard game era.

Dark Seal is played on a hexagonal board filled with hexagonalspaces.

Six evil warlocks are vying for command of the Blue Seal, andthe one who controls the most territory at the end will be the victor.To point you from doing this you get 10 waves of good guy troopsattempting to have all of the warlocks territory away as good as otherwarlocks looking to support you out of the running.

The way the game works is the more territory you own the more spellsyou`ll have at the source of your turn. The spells and your minionsare how you will get back the hero`s and blast the other warlocks.There are a few interesting rules to the game. One is that you can`t useyour minions to choose a rival warlocks land or fire a rival`s minions.They can alone be used against the heroes that travel in from the outerring. Your spells on the other hand can be used against anyone. That ishow you move at your rival warlocks.

There is an expression of noise to the stake that, I feels adds agreat deal to it. The spells you get off with in a circle are more likeif you had to pass so many cards from the top of a deck, what you getis what you get. They can be very unhelpful or incredibly helpful. Thisrandomness gives any warlock a fortune to get back from the brink. Thatis if they love what they want to do. The magic cards could be as simpleas take an empty enemy territory or spot two units in one of yourterritories. Some spell cards destroy a set amount of units from asquare, and some do that and remove the square if it is unoccupied afterthe troops are destroyed. There is a set of random ones that willrandomly switch one square you chose with a randomly picked one on theboard. This could be serious or painful for you.

The key thing to think is territory is what counts the more youown the more cards you get. So if you are missing a lot of options onyour turn you want to exert command of the majority of spaces. Thegame may look very random, in performing it a bit of times it reallyisn`t that random even with the adventure of drawing some spells that areweak. Once the last wave hits the turns will remain until the goodtroops are all gone. No new good troops will get so this is yourchance to drive back the lost territories and buy your rivals land.

Once that last good troop falls the back will stop out the work andthe winner will be the warlock that controls the seal. It`s easy totell who controls the seal since the seal changes to there color. So youalways know who is in the lead. While the computer AI acts a biterratic at points with their moves, the plot is definitely meant formultiplayer. In multiplayer up to 4 of the 6 warlocks can be players,sadly you can`t choose which warlock you wish to be.

The music isn`t actually worth noting and visually the game isn`tstunning or anything like that. What it does receive is simple game play,that classic board game with card drawing feel and a great multiplayerstrategy game that won`t get you multiple days to finish.

I present this a 3 out of 5. I believe some people will beexpecting more than what this plot is, not to observe that its trueshine is in its local multiplayer. So if you got some friends to play itwith, it`s well worth the 80 msp otherwise meet the run first.

Final Score: 3/5

DarkstarMatryx
May 16, 2011
Articles, Reviews, Video Games

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