Underworlds: A dungeon crawler for the iphone/ipod touch
Believe it or not the iphone/ipod touch (which from this point forward I will simply refer to as iphone but just know that I mean the touch as well)is slowly growing into a formidable portable gaming device. With some of the bigger video game developers getting into the market like EA and Konami. But on aside I do not think that under the current way that things are run, i.e. Apple having to approve all applications by some mysterious and arbitrary standards, will iphone rival the Nintendo ds nor Sony's psp on the handheld market. But I digress.
With so many games on the platform varying in price point from being free to as much as $9.99. There are dozens of bad games for every decent one. One game that I was looking forward to after I heard about it was Underworlds by developer Pixel Mine. The game is a dungeon crawler much along the lines of Diablo or Dungeon Siege. The game was released on April 21st, 2009 with a price point of $4.99. Even though I was looking forward to the game the price point was too high for me. Can you believe it? $4.99 for a game and I thought it was too expensive. But a few days ago the developer decided to put the game on sale for $2.99 in anticipation of their first major update. At that price I couldn't resist being a big fan of good old fashioned dungeon crawlers.
The game has you taking on the role of a Guard for the town of McTavish and when demons begin appearing you are tasked with disposing of them. Eventually you will find the source of the demons and remedy the problem. That is basically the extent of the story. It's not in any way complex or unique. But it's passable.
The game plays like your standard dungeon crawler. You can either tap an area on the map and the character moves there or use the cumbersome d-pad. The d-pad is too small to be used effectively even for my fingers which are relatively small. However it can be removed from the options menu. Enemies are attacked by tapping the action button at which time your avatar will hit the enemy without you taking further action. Special moves, of which there are three, can be used by tapping them on the bottom of the screen after they have been obtained with skill points. The health and vitality are displayed by two skulls on either side of the screen filled with red and blue coloring respectively. The controls work relatively well. And if the screen sounds cluttered then you would be correct. There are just too many things on the screen so that when I tap to move almost 50% of the screen becomes covered.
The game is heavily influenced by Blizzard's Diablo franchise and it shows. The game feels very much like Diablo in the way it plays. Even to the final confrontation, which feels a lot like the confrontation with Diablo in the Chaos Sanctuary. The game clearly takes inspiration from the classic dungeon crawler. It is almost an homage.
The game has faults. Many in fact but none are really deal breakers especially at the $2.99 price point. The biggest glaring problem is that the game lasts about a whopping 2 hours and 30 minutes. It is far too short for a dungeon crawler. The next problem is that the level cap is 10 so within about the first hour you can be max level. The problem is that when you level you can put stat points into different attributes but it no matter where you put them it doesn't feel like it makes much of a difference. There is also only one character class, which really limits the replay value of this already short game. How many times can you slash at the same enemies with the same character? I've beaten the game once and really feel no burning desire to ever play it again. You cannot even use your character to play through the game a second time (although that is supposed to be addressed in the new update, which is just on the horizon) That is not to say it's a bad game. Also there are some points in the game when I feel like I'm just spamming potions. It feels more like a watch the red bar and tap when it's almost empty game rather than a dungeon crawler. I'm not going to lie to you and say the game does not have many shortcomings. But keep in mind the price and the platform.
Judged by on it's own merits Underworlds is not a terrible game. I had fun while I was playing it. And there really isn't anything else like it on the iphone. So in a sense it is a pioneer blazing new ground. But in my opinion it lacks one of the most important things for an iphone game, replayability. But the beauty of this platform is that the developer is constantly able to update their games and get those updates to the consumer free of charge. So no game is ever a "final" version as long as the developer wants to improve it. So it really wouldn't be fair for me to give this game a number rating considering that it always has the potential to improve itself. On that note I will simply say that if you are a fan of dungeon crawlers you will like this game (on the first play through at least). But even if you buy it and don't like it the $3 isn't libel to break you financially and that really is the beauty of this platform.
With so many games on the platform varying in price point from being free to as much as $9.99. There are dozens of bad games for every decent one. One game that I was looking forward to after I heard about it was Underworlds by developer Pixel Mine. The game is a dungeon crawler much along the lines of Diablo or Dungeon Siege. The game was released on April 21st, 2009 with a price point of $4.99. Even though I was looking forward to the game the price point was too high for me. Can you believe it? $4.99 for a game and I thought it was too expensive. But a few days ago the developer decided to put the game on sale for $2.99 in anticipation of their first major update. At that price I couldn't resist being a big fan of good old fashioned dungeon crawlers.
The game has you taking on the role of a Guard for the town of McTavish and when demons begin appearing you are tasked with disposing of them. Eventually you will find the source of the demons and remedy the problem. That is basically the extent of the story. It's not in any way complex or unique. But it's passable.
The game plays like your standard dungeon crawler. You can either tap an area on the map and the character moves there or use the cumbersome d-pad. The d-pad is too small to be used effectively even for my fingers which are relatively small. However it can be removed from the options menu. Enemies are attacked by tapping the action button at which time your avatar will hit the enemy without you taking further action. Special moves, of which there are three, can be used by tapping them on the bottom of the screen after they have been obtained with skill points. The health and vitality are displayed by two skulls on either side of the screen filled with red and blue coloring respectively. The controls work relatively well. And if the screen sounds cluttered then you would be correct. There are just too many things on the screen so that when I tap to move almost 50% of the screen becomes covered.
The game is heavily influenced by Blizzard's Diablo franchise and it shows. The game feels very much like Diablo in the way it plays. Even to the final confrontation, which feels a lot like the confrontation with Diablo in the Chaos Sanctuary. The game clearly takes inspiration from the classic dungeon crawler. It is almost an homage.
The game has faults. Many in fact but none are really deal breakers especially at the $2.99 price point. The biggest glaring problem is that the game lasts about a whopping 2 hours and 30 minutes. It is far too short for a dungeon crawler. The next problem is that the level cap is 10 so within about the first hour you can be max level. The problem is that when you level you can put stat points into different attributes but it no matter where you put them it doesn't feel like it makes much of a difference. There is also only one character class, which really limits the replay value of this already short game. How many times can you slash at the same enemies with the same character? I've beaten the game once and really feel no burning desire to ever play it again. You cannot even use your character to play through the game a second time (although that is supposed to be addressed in the new update, which is just on the horizon) That is not to say it's a bad game. Also there are some points in the game when I feel like I'm just spamming potions. It feels more like a watch the red bar and tap when it's almost empty game rather than a dungeon crawler. I'm not going to lie to you and say the game does not have many shortcomings. But keep in mind the price and the platform.
Judged by on it's own merits Underworlds is not a terrible game. I had fun while I was playing it. And there really isn't anything else like it on the iphone. So in a sense it is a pioneer blazing new ground. But in my opinion it lacks one of the most important things for an iphone game, replayability. But the beauty of this platform is that the developer is constantly able to update their games and get those updates to the consumer free of charge. So no game is ever a "final" version as long as the developer wants to improve it. So it really wouldn't be fair for me to give this game a number rating considering that it always has the potential to improve itself. On that note I will simply say that if you are a fan of dungeon crawlers you will like this game (on the first play through at least). But even if you buy it and don't like it the $3 isn't libel to break you financially and that really is the beauty of this platform.
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