It’s not often that a game can truly appeal to gamers of multiple skill levels. But I think that Medieval, the castle defense game from Brisk Mobile, is one of those games.
Set the difficulty to easy and it’s challenging but winnable, a good incentive for casual gamers to keep playing. Increase the difficulty and it requires a whole new set of strategy and skill. Medieval has three difficulty settings, 6 troop styles which include unique war machines, and 8 different weapons all with additional upgrades. This combination of settings, weapons and difficulty ensures that Medieval has enough tricks to keep serious gamers strategizing for quite some time.
When it comes to gameplay, Medieval is a typical castle defense game — waves of enemies will attack your castle towers using the usual weapons (arrows, catapults, fire), you defend your castle using a similar array of weapons, along the way you’ll earn gold to upgrade your weapons and cause greater mayhem and destruction to your enemies.
What really sets Medieval apart from the crowd are the graphics. The app has 5 beautiful backdrops with nice details — clouds float by as your flag waves realistically in the wind.
As nice as this game is, the controls take a little getting used to. I had trouble aiming during the first few rounds. This did get better with practice, but I did even better when I just plain stopped used the single arrows and switch to the multiple arrow weapons. It’s hard to tell if this is a flaw in my skills or the game. Either way, it’s easily overcome by using different tools.
Another thing I like about Medieval is the variety of weapons you can use to destroy the enemy. Arrows, flaming arrows, boulders and later soldiers with calvary, catapults and axes. This many choices necessitates a sophisticated control plan. Medieval uses a row of buttons along the bottom which allows users to switch among their weapons. The problem is that with this many weapons the buttons are small and it’s easy to choose the wrong one. Again, it’s an annoyance that can be overcome with practice.
It may sounds like Medieval requires a lot of practice, but it doesn’t. The app is easy to pick up and play in short bursts. All your levels will be saved and if you’re interrupted with a call, you can resume your game. It’s a nice touch that I wish more developers would make standard.
Watch a video demo for Medieval on the iPhone:
