by Natalie Castle

Created on: June 13, 2008   Last Updated: June 13, 2011

The Battle of Tiles

Overall Rating: 3/5

Graphics: 3/5

Sound: 2/5

Creativity: 4/5

Innovation: 4/5

This game reminds me a lot of the old board game Stratego, only more a little more appealing for a younger generation. Its a turn based game giving you variable choices for moving forward across a board. You can move them individually or as a group, position them as you desire, and watch as they bump into or The board itself has simple yet dare I say cute "foliage" icons to represent the battle field. As your troops travel across the "battlefield" you come against enemies. Slime monsters, zombies, goblins, mages, and even priests! The cool part is that you can buy the enemies like they are mercenaries. So if you see a priest snag em and he'll heal you instead of the enemy. A great game for strategists, or military gamers. For hard-core action/adventure gamers not so much. Such gamers would easily get bored.

At the start of the game I wasn't sure what to expect. It seemed simple, potentially boring and I wasn't looking forward to clicking the play button. The graphics were cheap looking as if thrown together in an old 80's pixilated game. The music was very repetitive and also somewhat of a turn-off. But as you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, I opted to give it a shot.
I hesitantly clicked on the "start" button and was brought to yet again a disappointing new game selection page.

By now I'm a bit more curious thinking that maybe they are pulling for the older generations wanting to revel in the games of the early eighties. So yet again, I make the click. Start.

Great, another choice. Not that choices are bad, especially when it comes to difficulty levels. I always start off on the easiest levels to get a feel for the game. The choices are amusing for some reason: Very Hard, Hard, Normal, Easy, Very Easy. So from there I get the option for tutorials, which is good because there wasn't a section to teach you how to play the game. The game itself actually made me smile. Simple yet attractive, easy yet gripping. You can move your tiles, or "troops" individually or as a group. You start off with five fighters, three knights, two archers, two elite archers, and Arthur (I'm wondering if he is supposed to be King Arthur). Progress across the field is tracked by a slider bar at the bottom of the screen just above the controls. It took the tutorials a while to get to anything useful, like buying the enemies by double clicking their tiles. Now, on to BATTOL! At first all you battle is slime, then skeletons, followed by fire wizards.

By the time I get to the fire wizards I'm getting bored and annoyed that this is lasting so long. So I look down at the tracking bar and realize I'm not even an eighth of the way through. After pressing on the goblins come, each new enemy is a bit better than the previous. Standard game progression. Finishing the level leaves you with a sense of accomplishment.

Final review: The levels are long, there is no story line, and it is very tedious. However, it is good for strategizing, and learning where to put what kind of enforcer. I wouldn't purchase the game, but I would download it and play the trial out.

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