[iOS] Rune Raiders

[rittchard]

Releasing tomorrow, looks interesting.  Should be $1.99 universal.

http://www.retro64.com/

[wonderpug]

Thanks for the heads up.  Hard to tell exactly how the gameplay works from the trailer but it looks like a neat concept.

[Xmann]

Ya I might be interested in that as well. Let us know how it goes.

[rittchard]

OK, so here are some initial thoughts.  This game is an interesting mix of other "tactics" type games but is in many ways more puzzle-like in implementation.  Mix in a little Battleheart and D&D for good measure. 

Anyway, this is how it plays.  There are 15 missions to get through as well as a Survival mode, and 3 difficulties.  Each mission starts you off with a choice of who to bring with you in your party, and you unlock more choices as you go along.  They try to throw in a lot of humor to the characters; it's hit or miss whether you'll like it or not.  Personally I found it more amusing than that other recent game (Warrior ??) but certainly not laugh out loud funny.  You can also use money to upgrade units, which allows you to choose from a set of upgrade skills (more damage, further range, more defense, etc).  Party of 6 looks to be the max.

Once you get into the mission, it plays out on a 6 x 8 grid.  Each of your party is represented by a square icon with their image on it.  You can position the party as you wish, tanky in front, ranged in back, healer in the middle, etc etc.  Once you start moving though, you can only move forward, left and right, but not back.  Kind of an interesting format.  As you scroll forward you start to encounter enemies.  All attacks are automatic, so you have to learn each guy's range and attack style (AoE, etc) to optimize how you make it.  One early tip:  range appears to offer a huge advantage.  Some enemies will move torward you, others won't.  Once you kill something, it drops some gold to pick up.  Every now and again an "ugrade arrow" will drop that you can use to upgrade one of the characters.  Often enough the best strategy is to allow the enemies to move slowly toward you while you stay put and pick them off at range.  My guess is that strategy won't last forever though, we'll see.

Pretty neat game all in all, for me it was a no-brainer at $2.  It will be interesting to see how well the game is balanced as I keep going.

[Harkonis]

Ninja seems like a very weak unit overall 

[wonderpug]

I've only dabbled with him but he seems to be one shotting everything he attacks. With the perk that lets him reposition without it counting as a move, you can selectively move him behind enemy lines for quick assassinations... omg like a ninja

edit: never mind, I don't get what counts as a move. Sometimes I can move a ninja without the enemies taking a turn, sometimes I can't. I don't understand the rules yet.

[Xmann]

is there multiplayer?

[Misguided]

I got an upgrade for the cleric and now she doesn't want to heal anybody.

[wonderpug]

I got an upgrade for the cleric and now she doesn't want to heal anybody.

Did it change her "attack" pattern to a weird shape? Are you moving forward rather than spending a turn staying in the same spot?

[Misguided]

It added the diagonals. Now her area is a square shape around her. Think I tried being on a diagonal and orthogonal.

[rittchard]

It added the diagonals. Now her area is a square shape around her. Think I tried being on a diagonal and orthogonal.

It should auto heal anyone in the blue highlighted boxes.  There's also a perk to heal more than one which is also nice.

I think a turn counts as when you hit any of the bottom buttons (left, right, forward or stay).  Positioning is when you touch someone and you get the red squares to show where they can be re-positioned to.  I don't know if/how they decide when that is allowed to occur, though I'd imagine it would be before the start of the "turn."

I haven't had much luck with ninja either, but I didn't know about the reposition thing.  So far best unit seems to be the centaur dude.  He's got range, AoE and doesn't get one-shotted.

[Cragmyre]

I'm definitely interested in this, how do you guys think the replay-ability will be?

[Misguided]

I'm definitely interested in this, how do you guys think the replay-ability will be?

I know some folks on TA have said it needs more levels, but the dev definitely wants to produce more content.

[wonderpug]

The missions finish up fairly fast--especially since you can just buy your way to the finish line through repeated resurrections if you're not doing well--but I'm guessing the real teeth of the game is going to be in the survival mode.  At least, I hope that's where the teeth are.  I'm a little disappointed at how quick and easy it was to upgrade every single character to full, and how it was just a linear "unlock everything" style instead of giving you decisions on how to evolve their skills.

[Misguided]

On sale for a buck, btw.

It is a neat concept. I'd like to see them do more with it.

[Gratch]

On sale for a buck, btw.

It is a neat concept. I'd like to see them do more with it.

Same here.  Very cool idea, but I was disappointed that there were only 15 levels available.

[wonderpug]

The survival mode doesn't even work for me.  When my last guy dies, the game crashes and I lose all my progress.

Also, I didn't care for the game mechanic introduced late in the missions where the little death guys float down from the top of the screen.  It just doesn't make sense to introduce real time enemies against turn based gameplay.  My ability to dodge the bad guys was sometimes hindered by the length of my attack animations, which is just sillypants.

Still, a neat concept, and it passes my "might I have spent 4-8 quarters on this in an arcade?" test.