Battle Dwarves, by Infinite
Ventures $19.99
Reviewed May 2002
If you have the strength to dig yourself
out of your Snails addiction and
want to play something similar with different scenery, then
check out Battle Dwarves. Developed by Applewood House and
published by Infinite Ventures, Battle Dwarves is a good
looking fun game that's modeled after classic games such
as Scorched Earth. But more people will know what the game
is like if I said it played just like Snails, with a medieval
twist.
You won't find funny, wacky and sometimes
racy remarks (like in Snails) here, what you WILL find is
a selection of medieval dwarf armies with soldier's names
like ThunderHeads, Torks, Boffins, and CraterMakers. But
don't let the names fool you, these Battle Dwarves don't
hit you with heavy swords, they play with bazookas, grenades,
railguns, napalm and dynamites. The collection of 20 different
weapons is almost identical to the ones in Snails with exceptions
of a few. Like, you can dig a tunnel if you get stuck behind
or underneath a structure.
In Battle Dwarves, you get to select 4
armies which can be either human or AI. And for each army,
you can select 8 different squads with their own names, colors
(there are 15 colors to choose from). There are over 20 maps
with which you can choose to start the game. The terrain
ranges from city lights to the jungle, from outer space to
farmland. Unlike Snails, you don't have to win one battle
to get to the next terrain.
The game play is the typical turn based
shooting game. Each army takes turns firing at the enemy,
and the last army with a soldier alive is the victor. The
damage is measured by the health points. Each time a soldier
gets hit, his health points will go down by a certain number.
When he looses all the health point, the soldier dies and
a tombstone taken his place. Each time a soldier kills an
enemy, he will usually be rewarded with a promotion. Higher
ranks deal more damage to the enemy and receive less damage
on each hit. There are bonus items in this game. You can
pick up health, money, treasure chests, and promotions that
enemies left behind.
There isn't a radar screen like in
Snails, but you can scroll to see your enemies off screen
by dragging the screen with your stylus. I like this feature
better because you can see the distance better when you
have a continuous view. The game displays in landscape
mode and can be flipped to fit lefties or righties. You
can set your own control buttons; sound effects (SFX) and
music volume can be changed or turned off. You can also
change the contrast and device speed according to which
Pocket PC you are using, which is a very nice touch. The
difficulty levels can be set by adjusting the AI levels,
which progress nicely and smoothly in the game.
While the title images are very sharp and
quite stylish, the terrain graphics are not as sharp as in
Snails. The movements are rather smooth at 50 fps, and explosions,
weapon shooting among other things are very smooth. But the
characters don't move very well. Music tracks are pleasing;
sound effects are sweet and abundant. The game runs nicely
from a CF card on my Jornada 568. The game itself takes up
less than 3MB of space.
All in all, this is a fun game if you're
a turn-based shooting game fan. While it has much uniqueness
in game design and style, I doubt the Snails hardcore will
switch gear to Battle Dwarves. But for the rest of the population,
you will find this game charming, fun and pretty addictive!
Playing Hints and Tips
Take time to go through all characters
in the army selection, and try out all the weapons. |
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