‘Ancients: Death Watch’ was originally a shareware title for DOS in 1991 that served as an extended demo and proof of concept for its paid sequel, ‘Ancients II: Approaching Evil’ in 1994. Developed by Farr-Ware, a three-man team consisting of programmer Mark Lewis, and graphic art duo Jason Struck and Matthew McEwan, both were published by Epic MegaGames.
It’s taken a surprising amount of time to get a game that exemplifies what most people would have expected from a Harry Potter title. The pitch practically writes itself in fact; take the setting of Hogwarts school for Witchcraft and Wizardry and allow players to create their own avatar and enjoy a mixture of school sim and original adventure. Set it within a period where enough recognisable faces from the popular novel series are around but not while Harry, Ron or Hermione are in attendance to avoid breaking canon.
On the surface, The Huntsman looks like a shameless advertising scheme for the release of the film ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ a sequel to ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ and a dark take on the popular fairy tale. We’ve seen companies such as BioWare turn these advertising stunts into legitimately entertaining slices of RPG goodness in the past however, can Desert Owl Games manage the same?
For those who crave something a little more old-school in their mobile RPG experience, the Gurk series provides a decidedly retro experience inspired by the likes of older ‘Ultima’ titles and replicates the trappings of a Commodore 64 game.
The creation of Three Brothers Games, Tower in the Sky would at first appear to be a relatively simply take on the lane-defence genre wrapped up in a few RPG trappings. Scratch the surface however and you quickly discover that it’s really an immeasurably deep game built around a softer, more approachable style than most WRPGs offer.
There aren’t many games on mobile that perfectly marry the concept of a dungeon crawl with party management and world exploration. Warhammer Quest, from Rodeo Games is a perfect example of this done right, with gamers treated to the kind of title you can drop in and out of for short room-by-room exploration sessions or settle into a meatier period of dungeon crawling.
The first and possibly the most expansive game on Edgebee’s service is an ode to the likes of ‘Wizardry’ and ‘Eye of the beholder’ that uses a first person viewpoint to explore an MMORPG themed world.
Many people dislike the sequel to Dragon Age Origins, feeling that it was rushed out to capitalise on the popularity of the original. I won’t argue that it leaves something to be desired in terms of variety of locations to explore, but I will admit that I’ve probably played it more times to completion than its predecessor.
Bioware have made a name for themselves in the Western RPG genre by producing some of the best and most complex titles around. ‘Knights of the Old Republic’ and ‘Baldur’s Gate’ were huge, making RPG fans out of many people who had never even touched a game before, but they were based on the worlds and systems of others. Dragon Age Origins is what happened when Bioware turned its creative talents to an original IP within a fantasy setting.
Sometimes reviews come too late. Deep Realms was a Facebook exclusive Social RPG that is now no longer available to play. The game has vanished and even the official Facebook page has been taken down. It’s a crying shame too because for a while there this was the pinnacle of RPGs on that medium.
