Saying that Medieval by Brisk Mobile is a tower defense game feels wrong; it’s not just another TD game. Medieval incorporates elements of both defensive and offensive strategy, so defending is not even half way to victory. The ultimate objective is to either destroy the enemy castle or capture their flag and bring it home.
Brisk Mobile chose the path of realism over fantasy (i.e., weird creatures – no, real knights – yes), a choice I welcome because I happen to be a big fan of King Arthur and his knights. As the game loads you will be delighted to discover that the interface is as iPhone-esque as it gets – clean, responsive, and intuitive. Hitting “more games” quits the game and takes you to iTunes – I hate that. The next natural choice is to see what Brisk included under “help.” I’m not sure that having an all text tutorial is the right way to go (some people really hate reading), but the developer is clear and concise enough which amounts to a painless experience. To start a game you simply hit “play,” choose one of the four save slots (progress is saved automatically when you quit), and pick one of the three levels of difficulty.
As you start the game, the graphics go from polished to stunning; the colors are vibrant and the level of detail is impressive. As you go through the levels the scenery will change, and I must reiterate – it is beautifully rendered. At first, the ultra-medieval soundtrack is quite lively, but it gets old rather fast (something to work on!). Luckily for us there’s no music during war, and the sound effects are very diverse. The sound effects actually play into the overall realism quite well.
During gameplay you would want to thank Brisk Mobile for the ease of navigation. At the top left of the screen you can either go to the main menu, restart the current level, go to the shop, or pause the game. In the shop you can buy 8 different upgrades for your cross bow (main weapon that you operate manually), and 5 possible upgrades to your castle – those will recruit various army units for later deployment. If that’s not enough, the upgrades are upgradeable themselves; and trust me, you will not rest until you have tried and seen it all. The description of each upgrade is short and clear, so you never feel lost. Controlling your cross bow sums up to a well balanced experience. It is intuitive enough to let you hit the ground running, and original enough to keep you intrigued. I fell in love with the physics, the shooting trajectory, and the extent of control at your disposal. With your index finger alone you are in charge of highly refined angle and speed adjustment (up/down and forward/back), this makes the shooting experience Brisk (pun) and enjoyable. You start with zero gold, and you get paid for each kill or hit of the enemy castle; accurate or long distance shots (head shot for example) are rewarded with more gold. The idea is that by the time you can afford your first upgrade you will be able to use the more powerful weapons efficiently. Switching firepower is incredibly easy – all the weapons and army units are neatly arranged at the bottom of the screen (Mac-OS-X-like).
There’s room for improvement. For example, after having shot a weapon that requires a recharge, I would like to switch to my standard arrows automatically (I may want a different weapon, but still). Also, Brisk may want to include voices to compliment their already impressive set of sound effects (the whole realism thing, right?). Lastly, it would be nice to start with some cash, at least at the easy level. Brisk Mobile showed great attentiveness, so the next update will start you off with some capital (and perhaps other features as well).
If you ignore my warning and hit “more games” at the main menu, you will realize that brisk mobile offers at least one of each kind of game you can find at the app store. There are games that are good enough to buy after you played the lite version, games that would not sell if they had a lite version, and games that will sell no matter what because they are that good. Medieval is in the last category. I don’t believe in perfect ratings, but with not a single deal-breaker and a developer who promises to keep improving the game, it would be a travesty to deduct a whole dimple for just few downfalls.
Guest review by Emil Frank
Medieval gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating:
