Braveland Pirate

This review is written from the perspective of someone who's played the previous two games. The first game is set in Medieval times, you're a farmer turned warrior who avenges his ravaged village. Archers and swordsmen abound with a few goblins in the mix. Next game, Braveland Wizard - you're a young sorceress in medieval times off to do your trials- they kept the same units from the first game, then added a bunch on top of it to fit the wizardly theme. Everything sounds good. Then we get to Braveland pirate. You're a crew of pirates, armed with muskets, cutlasses and pistols off to find lost treasure - and again, they add a few new units, mix up the progression, and reuse everything from the first game. The problem is, it doesn't work. Warrior and Wizards might be able to recycle enemies with ease, but a pirate game is a different era and a different setting. An enemy boss might say he's releasing his "dogs" on his tropical fortress, but if the art is a Wolf, and the game tag is a Wolf, then it's a wolf. Remember all those pirate movies where they shoot guns at people wielding great swords and plate armor? No? Neither do I. I don't mind if they re-use enemies, but they need to at least RESKIN them to fit the theme. The new units are sometimes interesting, but- many of the battles don't allow you to use them in interesting ways. Many of your units are super slow in the first half of the game, and you'll fight tons of high initiative, high movement enemies that will consistently go into your second line and cut up your more vulnerable units. You cannot even re-organize your formation in an attempt to better screen them, the melee guys are consistenly on the bottom and the weak ranged units on the top. At the end of the day, the theme just doesn't work and the battles are often frustrating. For a new player, it's a lot of content- but even for a game on mobile, it feels like they phoned it in.

This was the best of the Bravelands series. It plays the longest, it's the most challenging and for most people, likely the most engaging. The story is simple and the strategy part is simplistic with enjoyable cartoon stacks (the cooks rock, keep your cooks, they're lifesavers). It's just plain fun. Nothing fancy but the artwork is whimsical and the music, endearing.

Although it's a bit repetitive, the game is quite fun to play. Simple but sleek design, not complicated mechanics and neither too short, nor too long gameplay. The low budget can be seen in the graphics and "cinematics" but if you don't expect too much you will have 10-12 hours of fun. It's definitely worth to buy when the price is discounted.

Pleasantly fun and simple. Don't look for deep strategy or tactical advantage. The obstacles on the dinky battlefields are there just to restrict your movement and have no effect on ranged attacks. Pay attention to which of your troop types have the best attacks and defense versus which opponents and the game will be relatively easy. It took me a couple afternoons to work my way through the game to the end on the medium difficulty.