Age of Tribes, a Lemmings-inspired game from Fancy Factory, is now available from the app store.
Age of Tribes Pros:
- Nice animations and great particle effects
- Musical accompaniment varies according to the era in which you are playing
- Plus+ network with 44 achievements
Age of Tribes Cons:
- Lots of frustration making sure lines are drawn perfectly
- 22 levels can be completed fairly quickly
As the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-line-drawing benevolent leader of an all-trusting, all-following, all-climbing-up-crumbling-ramps group of natives, it is your duty to direct your crew to the exit door as quickly as possible by creating ramps between platforms, allowing them to avoid the dangerous pitfalls and escape unscathed. To accomplish this task, simply drag your finger from the platform that the natives are currently pacing to another platform. Releasing your finger places a temporary ramp which allows the group to move off of their current platform. This ramp immediately begins deteriorating and will be completely gone within a matter of seconds. If tribe members are on the ramp when it disappears, they fall straight down from wherever they are. Many platforms have items through which the natives cannot pass, effectively blocking them in until you draw an escape path. Other platforms are open-ended, requiring you to either draw an artificial barrier to keep them enclosed or drawing an escape path before they walk off of the edge to their demise. Each level requires you to rescue a minimum number of natives in order to access the next level. There are 2 tutorial levels and 20 regular levels, consisting of 5 levels in each of 4 regions.
Graphically, the game has a fun, cartoonish look and feel to it, with nice animations and great particle effects on the deteriorating ramps. The levels use bright colors and the environments are fairly detailed. Your group of followers includes Vikings, Egyptians, and other recognizable individuals. The soundtrack varies by region, playing music based upon the era in which you are playing. Sound effects are decent, too. The controls are much easier to use since the recent update. Gone are the lousy joypad buttons. Now, the upper right corner contains a Switch Mode button to toggle between action mode and view mode. Now, while in view mode, you can pan around the level by swiping your finger on the screen. During this time, all other action is stopped, so you no longer have to split focus between navigating the puzzle and drawing artificial barriers to corral you tribe and keep them from dropping off of a platform. You can still draw or erase lines (up to 8 concurrent) in either mode, but characters will only move, and lines will only deteriorate, in action mode. There are buttons at the screen bottom for drawing, erasing, and panning. Simply tap the appropriate icon to bring up the desired feature. It’s very easy to move from one action to another. Zoom in and zoom out buttons are still available to get a closer look at the action or to see the big picture easier.
One of our biggest gripes still seems to persist. If a line does not begin below a platform’s surface, the group often will not get on board, but act as though they have hit a barrier. If a line is drawn over a character, he will get stuck and glitch out a bit. It seems to be a crapshoot whether a vertical line will cause an individual to turn around or continue to walk into the barrier until it disappears. It seems that the interaction between the group and the drawn lines could still use some tweaking, leading to much frustration in its current state.
There is also a timer that tracks how long it takes you to complete each level. Your final time can be uploaded to the Plus+ network, which tracks global leaderboards to compare your best times with those of other players. There is also an achievement system with 44 awards for things like fast game play and rescuing all members of your group. These features help to create good replay value, as the 22 levels can be completed fairly quickly. Age of Tribes is available for $1.99, though it doesn’t appear to have caught on very quickly, as there are very few scores on the Plus+ leaderboards. As it stands, the update has improved the user experience, but the game is still plagued with troubling issues that require much patience, resulting in a solid 3-Dimple rating with potential to improve.
