Games
64
what we’ve
been playing
AtrulyvastRPGwithafocusoncombat
Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
You can spend ages just kitting out your
characters with weapons and armourFollowing the Enhance
Edition of classic RPG
Baldur’s Gate, it’s now
turn of Icewind Dale. A tweaked
update of Black Isle’s classic PC
game of 2000, it doesn’t offer a
that much brand new content:
some extra classes, equipment
and spells. Still, it does include t
Heart Winter expansion pack an
it is a vast game, as you might
suspect from the hefty 2.63GB
download. So, while the price
might seem a little high, you do
get a whole lot of adventuring fo
your money.
Set in the Forgotten Realms an
based on a modifi ed version of th
AD&D ruleset, this is a hardcore,
combat-heavy RPG – with less
emphasis on exploration and
character interaction. While some brief
tutorial videos run you through the
basics of the gameplay and user
interface, it still throws you into the
deep end somewhat and RPG novices
may well be bemused at fi rst. Even if
you take the shortcut of using a preset
party of six characters rather than
generating your own, you’ll need to
spend quite some time kitting them
out with weapons, armour and items- from a large selection in the shop –
before you do any actual adventuring.
The redesigned user interface
works well, including a ‘Quickloot bar’
to aid item pick-up. The isometric
graphics are impressively detailed,
featuring the ability to zoom in. Text
for menus and character
conversations is pretty small,
though, and may prove hard to read
on smaller phone screens.
Venturing out of Easthaven town,
you get your fi rst taste of real-time
combat with a band of orcs. Battles
are quite tactical, requiring careful
positioning of characters and the useof their various abilities, and you may
want to pause the action regularly to
ponder your next move. If you fi nd it
too tough, you can always dial back
the diffi culty level – even to the point
of making your playable character
invincible. There’s also the option of
playing co-operatively with another
player online.» Price £6.99/$9.99 + IAPs
» Designed for Phone and tablet
» Requires Android^ 3.0»PriceFree + IAPs
» Designed for Phone and tablet
» Requires Android 2.3You’ll keep coming back
Rovio’s retro-style game
maydriveyou‘planecrazy’
with its uncompromising
difficulty.The control method is very
simple: tapping the screen applies
thrust to your plane, but also causes
itsnosetopitchupwards.Keepyour
finger pressed and it’ll even loop the
loop. Precision timing is required to
manoeuvre past obstacles in each
level and we lost count of how many
timeswecrashed,aghostplane
showing the location of each failure.
Landing at regular checkpoints helps,
but you’ll need to spend a coin or
watch an advert to activate them.While collectable, coins – plus nuts
for temporary plane modifications
–areoftenplacedintrickypositions,
so you may well resort to buying
some via in-app purchase. Even so,
the game is playable without that
expense and be warned: it’s utterlyThe ghosts of planes show where you’ve crashed previously
compulsive and will keep drawing you
back for more hair-tearing anguish!RETRY
Radiant
£1.49/ $1.99
Retro space invaders shooter
complete with old-school theme tune
and graphics, Radiant is always playable
and diffi cult to put down. Also available in
a HD version ideal for tablets.Stickman Tennis
Free + IAPs
One of the better arcade sports
titles for Android, Stickman Tennis offers
solid controls and a feeling of achievement
when you win matches. Not a sim but
good fun nevertheless!»twitter
@lgrobotRecommend a game...The real-time combat can be paused to
enable you to ponder your tactics