AndreaGriffin

Shad'O is a very nice tower defense game developed by a French gaming company. I'm about halfway through the game right now and I've found it to be very enjoyable. Controlling the friends of the young boy William, you need to fight back the darkness which has enveloped his memories. Graphically, this game is wonderful. The maps are dark, a little creepy, and at the same time accessible to younger players. The towers have a cartoony, quilted, stuffed animal look to them which fits very well into the overall theme. The gameplay is nice enough; the gimmick in this tower defense is that you can only build in areas from which the darkness has been driven, which limits your initial tower placement and makes tower placement very important. You can spread your towers out to try to reach more advantageous areas of the map, or clump them together for a more focused result. The spells available in the game are also interesting and varied; there are a few attack spells, spells to protect your towers, spells to heal your memories at the expense of your towers, etc. Overall, the spells are balanced and they are all useful. Shad'O also includes some "puzzle" maps, which have their own set of rules. One map, for example, has towers pre-built throughout the map, but you can only activate one at a time - leading a series of hectic yet strategic decisions on which tower should be active at any given time. These special maps aren't necessary to complete the game, but finishing them does give you small advantages on all maps. Unfortunately, aside from the darkness mechanic, this game has very little to offer mechanically that other tower defense games don't already have. Also, even on fairly powerful machines, you may experience some slowdowns. For some reason it is very demanding on one's video card and CPU. Still, it is very fun, well produced, and well worth your time.

This is an excellent game. True to the old style dungeon crawls of old, this game has interesting puzzles, dangerous enemies, and deadly traps. Best played without a FAQ or walkthrough - you may bang your head against a wall for an hour trying to figure out a puzzle, but when you do it's absolutely glorious. The end of the game was well worth the time and effort; the final enemy comes at you from left field and is both comical and terrifying. There is some amount of replay value, but the true replay value will come in the future: The company will be releasing, for free, an editor so that players can craft their own dungeons.

I made the mistake of purchasing this game before checking out any reviews. This was compounded by the fact that I bought a 4-pack, since the game has online coop. Who doesn't love online coop? Well, this game has made me regret that decision. Graphically it is fine, and the dinosaurs look cool, but that's where the good stops. Game breaking bugs, uninspired game play, and a myriad of drama-bombs involving the developer should be more than enough to keep you away.

This game has no redeeming qualities. This is nothing but a series of cut scenes - full of emo drama and adults acting like 5 year olds - stitched together with terrible minigames called "Surgery". This includes dialing a phone. Yes, you need to dial a phone in time as one of the mini games, and this too is considered "Surgery".

This game comes to you from the land of Ardania, the setting of the game Majesty and its sequel Majesty II. You'll recognize the voice acting. Gameplay-wise, the game plays very much like other Tower Defense games: You build towers along a grid, trying to stop the bad guys from reaching your fortress. Unlike most other TD games, however, you also go on the offensive: You build your own waves of critters and send them back through the map toward the other guy. While this is nice in theory and could make for a fantastic game, it just wasn't executed particularly well. You're susceptible to "zerg rush" tactics in multiplayer, the unit selection feels tactically unimportant (you'll use the same few units constantly), and the standard campaign doesn't have enough interesting challenges for an experienced TD player (although there are some challenge modes). An experienced Tower Defense gamer can expect 6-8 hours from the campaign. It's quite easy. One disappointment in particular is that you don't seem to be able to play the other 2 races/factions in campaign mode, which would go a long way to adding replayability to the very short campaign. Even after a patch applied the day after the release, the controls feel sluggish and unresponsive (although the patch fixed the most glaring errors). Graphically the game is nice and the sound is appropriate. Even the multiplayer experience has some issues. You cannot type messages to other players, everyone is booted back to the main menu once a game is over instead of returning to a lobby, and the AI always gangs up on Player 1 from the very beginning, never changing tactics or trying to surprise other players. Still, there IS an AI to play against, and in a game where tactical decisions need to be made it's interesting and welcome to have an AI at all. Game modes include free-for-all, 2v2, and 2v2 survival. The AI can be used in any of the modes. So, for your friends that can't handle playing against another player lest they (gasp) lose, there's options for their tender feelings. I don't know if there is a technical issue, but I was unable to find any open multiplayer games online. I was only able to get people into my game by inviting them directly via Steam. If you're a fan of TD games then Defenders of Ardania should be in your library; if you only have a passing interest in the genre, you may want to consider alternatives.

As a long time player of Magic: The Gathering (I have been playing since the Revised edition), I have had a lot of experience with the game itself. I hoped that it would have been given a nice translation into software - unfortunately, this was not the case. Those unfamiliar with M:tG will find that the introductory materials, reminders, and hints sprinkled throughout the game will teach the basics in easy-to-learn steps. It shouldn't overwhelm the average player. Visually, the game is nice though occasionally excessive with the cards flying around. You are provided with different decks of cards as you progress through the game, each with a theme, and you can unlock additional cards for each deck. The decks all play very differently and have a unique character. Aside from matches, there are also challenges which require creativity and a deep knowledge of the rules to complete. Not only are they intereting but they can teach a player new ways of thinking about a specific card or mechanic. This is, however, the end of the good news. The rest is pretty terrible. Where to start? The user interface is a disaster. This software should be used as an example of how NOT to design a UI. Example issues: * The main menu is a horizontal scrolling list; you can only advance one option at a time. Quitting the game, for example, takes 7 clicks (5 to get to the option, 1 to select it, 1 more to confirm). * Enchantments and Equipment attached to a card are nigh impossible to select and view individually. * Buttons are sometimes unresponsive - especially in multiplayer - which means you will miss windows of opportunity because of the short timers. * ArchEnemy games place character portraits badly, covering up crucial areas of the playing field. You will not be able to see, much less select, certain grave yards for example. * The playing field is "viewed" at a large distance - meaning that the cards themselves end up being very, very small. The player will waste a large amount of time zooming in and out between cards to see what each is. * When being asked to make a decision with a dialog window, you are unable to view the current game state. This can make it very difficult to make good decisions. * The Deck Customization screen is a disaster. You can only see a few cards from the deck at once, making it impossible to see the deck at a glance or easily find a specific card to remove or add. This is just scratching the surface. To whomever designed this atrocity: Shame on you. You should feel bad. Speaking of deck customization, it is very limited. You can NOT create your own deck from scratch. While this does enforce the flavor of the stock decks, it really cuts down on what makes MtG fun and personal. You can only add and remove cards from the pre-made decks. As far as decks go, some are far more powerful than others. They are simply not balanced very well. Additionally, they are designed to produce extremely quick ending games. Many games are over by turn five or six. While this may be a turn-on for hardcore tournament types, it is a terrible experience for the casual player. Because the decks are so very munchkin in their builds, winning and losing has far less to do with your deck customization skills or strategy and a lot more to do with simple luck. Any game that depends so much on luck ends up being very frustrating. The game uses timers. Lots of timers. And if you don't complete an action within a timer's period (1.5 seconds), then you're out of luck. This becomes absolutely infuriating when the UI itself is unresponsive and, especially, during multiplayer games. A player with a not-so-good connection will find that he may not see the timers at all, or have such a small window that he simply won't have a chance to pause the action. Some of the text is confusing. For example, a window may appear asking you to select a certain number of targets for a spell's effect. This window will have a Continue button. Clicking Continue does not mean, "Continue to select your targets." It means, "I am done selecting targets." Forget about tapping your own land. This is done for you. Expect to be in situations where you will want to cast card X, then card Y, but be unable to cast card Y because the auto-selection of land screwed you. Multiplayer is very strange. Aside from the aforementioned timer issues, players will sometimes find themselves playing cards they never selected, unable to participate in combats, and even having a complete desync with the host to the point where the host and client will see two separate games. A two-headed giant game with 2 players and 2 AI opponents will use approximately 15Kb/s in bandwidth. This is a very, very large amount for a game that needs to send little more than send events and card IDs around. Summary: If you enjoy an exercise in frustration and rage, or are a die-hard MtG fan, by all means buy this game. Otherwise, run - don't walk - as far as you can.