Posted June 03, 2009
Note: I have played much of the adventure at this point and am writing this review off of my experience with that and the tutorial.
Graphics (3/5): What's there is good, but I'm left wanting more. I want moving details on these buildings - rather than seeing a static forge attached to the blacksmith, I imagine seeing a man come out and work it - little details like that make any game a whole lot better, and the lack there-of in Celtic Kings disappoints because the rest is so promising. In addition, the terrain doesn't change much and, while that may be realistic (not sure), it's not very pleasing to the eye. That said, animations are beautiful and the game looks wonderful besides the lack of any animation to buildings.
Sound (2/5): I'm a student studying and learning sound design for films, and this game just plain disappoints in the sound department. Vocalizations are strange, awkward, and often become annoying. The music, while good for a while, becomes repetitive and stays repetitive (from what I've heard in the adventure there is one track of music for this entire game). Combat sounds serve their purpose, but are also extremely limited in variety.
Gameplay (2/5) : Units run out of food too quickly. Way too quickly. In addition, they move too slowly. Sure, you could turn game speed up. And then everything looks like it's fast-forwarded. Your old druid looks like a robot trying its darnedest to walk as fast as it can without running. For the animations to look good and function correctly, you basically have to play the game at default (very slow) speed. It becomes tedious (especially in a game that tends to encourage so much exploration but often leaves that exploration unrewarded for long minutes). Often, unit type and description don't seem to make much sense. For example, today I sent a mixed group of spearmen and axemen into a group of teuton raiders. Not a single axeman died, but they cut through the spearmen (which, even in the in-game description, are supposed to counter cavalry) like an obese child through chocolate cake. I was excited about the Druid unit, but for all its cool abilities, it's is also about as tough as I am - it crumples after a few hits from some horsemen, and I've yet to find a mass that can block a unit's beeline toward the weak old magic man. This makes investment in it and its abilities costly and risky, and overall too much of a trouble to bother with - there is no reason to use them unless they're contrived for the adventure objectives.
Summary: The 2d is beautiful, but will also leave you wishing that it were more-so. It's a tease that doesn't ultimately deliver. The sound is mediocre to bad. The gameplay can be summarized as tedious. It's a fun game to look at but not very great to play, and with its limited palates and unit variety, it probably won't last you very long.
Graphics (3/5): What's there is good, but I'm left wanting more. I want moving details on these buildings - rather than seeing a static forge attached to the blacksmith, I imagine seeing a man come out and work it - little details like that make any game a whole lot better, and the lack there-of in Celtic Kings disappoints because the rest is so promising. In addition, the terrain doesn't change much and, while that may be realistic (not sure), it's not very pleasing to the eye. That said, animations are beautiful and the game looks wonderful besides the lack of any animation to buildings.
Sound (2/5): I'm a student studying and learning sound design for films, and this game just plain disappoints in the sound department. Vocalizations are strange, awkward, and often become annoying. The music, while good for a while, becomes repetitive and stays repetitive (from what I've heard in the adventure there is one track of music for this entire game). Combat sounds serve their purpose, but are also extremely limited in variety.
Gameplay (2/5) : Units run out of food too quickly. Way too quickly. In addition, they move too slowly. Sure, you could turn game speed up. And then everything looks like it's fast-forwarded. Your old druid looks like a robot trying its darnedest to walk as fast as it can without running. For the animations to look good and function correctly, you basically have to play the game at default (very slow) speed. It becomes tedious (especially in a game that tends to encourage so much exploration but often leaves that exploration unrewarded for long minutes). Often, unit type and description don't seem to make much sense. For example, today I sent a mixed group of spearmen and axemen into a group of teuton raiders. Not a single axeman died, but they cut through the spearmen (which, even in the in-game description, are supposed to counter cavalry) like an obese child through chocolate cake. I was excited about the Druid unit, but for all its cool abilities, it's is also about as tough as I am - it crumples after a few hits from some horsemen, and I've yet to find a mass that can block a unit's beeline toward the weak old magic man. This makes investment in it and its abilities costly and risky, and overall too much of a trouble to bother with - there is no reason to use them unless they're contrived for the adventure objectives.
Summary: The 2d is beautiful, but will also leave you wishing that it were more-so. It's a tease that doesn't ultimately deliver. The sound is mediocre to bad. The gameplay can be summarized as tedious. It's a fun game to look at but not very great to play, and with its limited palates and unit variety, it probably won't last you very long.