Game on - Hamilton's Great Adventure

Today's game is Hamilton's Great Adventure, made by the people at Fatshark, available on Steam and the Playstation Network.

In a Nutshell
Hamilton's Great Adventure follows a daring explorer as he explores ruins filled with traps, treasure and puzzles. it's not a complicated game to understand, but it does get tricky.

Story
Hamilton's Great Adventure tells the tale of Ernest Hamilton, or rather, Ernest Hamilton tells his tale to his granddaughter. Though superfluous, it is a simple tale of adventure. Hamilton is a world renowned explorer of ruins who is hunting an artifact of considerable power for a machine built by his professor friend. As you complete levels and trot around the globe, you learn more and more about the characters and their story. it's charmingly told and adds flair to the whole affair.

Gameplay
The basic gameplay in Hamilton's Great Adventure is simple, You move Hamilton via the keyboard and control his trusty bird Sidekick Sasha with the mouse. You go through mazes filled with traps, collapsing floors and treasure in the search of the golden key which unlocks the gate at the end. It's a game that is reliant not on your reflexes but on your aptitude to puzzle out mazes, and with the variety of traps peppered throughout the levels, you'll certainly find puzzles that will tickle your brain cells. It starts off rather easy but the later puzzles get rather tricky and the large number of bonus maps will certainly grab you if you enjoy puzzles and mazes.

The game is separated in 4 areas, each with 11 levels, the last one being this game's idea of boss fights (But they're more really just somewhat trickier levels). As you collect treasure throughout the levels, you unlock bonus levels which, as I mentioned before, get really tricky. The main replay value comes from the fact you need to aim for all the treasure to obtain a Gold rank on a level and the scoring mechanics which can help rank you on the leaderboards based on speed or score.

As you defeat the guardians, you'll obtain artifacts which I found rather... useless, sadly. They also use a mechanic that is not quite as great as the rest of the game. To use the artifacts, you need to have Sasha collect magic dust which peppers the landscape, meaning you must click everywhere as you solve puzzles just to use artifacts that are not all that useful unless you want to get a very good time. There is only one artifact you need to use to get past a type of trap, which is a shame. The artifacts could've been better used. That said, it's probably the one flaw i can think of with this game, the poorly implemented artifacts.

All in all, this game is quite fun, it's easy to learn but gets rather tricky as it goes. A level creator would certainly have been a great addition, as it would've allowed a community effort making new levels.

Presentation
The game uses a very nice artstyle for the portraits and illustrations for the story sequences and journal entries. it's sepia-toned and old timey, reminding us of that period where the world was still full of mysteries and ruins. it certainly goes for that Indiana Jones feel with cartoonish glee and succeeds at making the game look unique. Each tile comes in different flavors for each of the different regions you explore and these regions all have their own feel and theme which works well to distinguish them and makes you feel as if you're traveling with Hamilton to the four corners of the Globe. The music is charming and light, and helps with the atmosphere without being particularly noticeable or catchy. It did not really leave an impression on me.

Verdict
Hamilton's Great Adventure is quite a fun and charming puzzle game. if you like mazes and having to think things through, you will probably enjoy Hamilton's Great Adventure. I give it a score of Tricky and Fun. The only real flaws are the poorly implemented artifacts and lack of a level creator.

Game On: Warlock: Master of the Arcane

Today's game is Warlock: Master of the Arcane by the folks over at Ino-Co Plus and published by Paradox interactive. It is available on PC via Steam.

In a Nutshell
In Warlock: Master of the arcane, you play as one of many powerful wizards whose goal is to be the most powerful one in the land. To do so, you need to Explore the land, Expand your empire, Exploit the resources and Exterminate your enemies. Oh, and you have spells and magic and such.

Story
This being a 4X Strategy game, the real story is your own. But, that being said, there is a sort of premise that can be inferred, as this is loosely a sequel to the Majesty games. Basically, there was a period of time called The Troubles during which powerful warlocks vied for power. And that's where you come in and forge ahead. The world is richly detailed, every unit having a colorful story to be found in its information window. it is entirely charming.

Gameplay
In this game, you start at the very beginning, generating an entire set of worlds, plural, inhabited by monsters, kingdoms and a few extremely powerful, if a bit maniacal wizards. Each game is unique, which is always a selling point for the genre, and helps make the game especially addictive. The game feature 3 races, Humans, the Undead and the Beastmen. Your race only decides what your capital city will be, as you can easily capture cities from other races and gain access, in that city, to their units and buildings, which includes the settlers that allow you to start more of the race's cities. Additionally, multiple resources allow you to gain  access to a new type of unit, from donkey knights to minotaurs.

Of course, the world of Ardania is not without peril. The world is peppered liberally with neutral cities and monster lairs, which generate a steady stream of hostile creatures until you move one of your units over it and claim a bounty. You also will receive quests throughout the game, asking you to build certain buildings or deal with threats that range from rival cities to elite troops aligned with one of Ardania's many Gods. On top of all that, you have multiple worlds. Indeed, throughout the land are gates leading to other worlds, usually filled with powerful creatures and a source of trouble as those often get through the gate and into Ardania, the main world.

As you grow your empire, you research spells, and are given a set of 5 randomly generated spells. Each spell you research gets replaced by a new spell, which means there is no traditional "tech tree" in this game and you very well may learn spells in a different order each time. It's not a particularly great way to handle research, but it does mean every game truly is different, since you can't really predict which spells you'll have access to. Spells each have a cost in Mana, and a casting time, which adds a strategic edge to casting spells, as you often need to choose whether you cast a few quick spells or monopolize a few turns to cast a big, powerful one.

A weak point in the game is the Diplomacy, which is reduced to asking for tribute in Gold or Mana, declaring war, non-aggression or Alliances. You can't trade resources, units, cities or spells, which would certainly add a degree of diplomatic flair to the game. Another missing feature is Multiplayer, which is kind of a shame, this would probably be quite fun with friends, playing by e-mail, perhaps. It might be an antiquated idea, but this kind of game is always fun with friends.

A detail that personally annoyed me a bit was how you use the left click to select and move and the right click to deselect and get more information. Sometimes it leads to mis-clicking and it would be nice if you could change it. There are also a few bugs, such as towns being sometimes un-renameable on some turns and saves being un-nameable on others. It's a bit weird and it does show a bit of a lack of polish.

Still, this is a game that plays rather well, is quite addictive and has quite a nice number of units to play with. If this is the sort of thing that you like, you'll probably find something you like here, alongside a few interesting new twists in the spellcasting and multiple worlds.

Presentation
The game looks rather nice. The environments are lush and varied, from deserts, to forests, to plains to tundras. The models have a nice style to them and fit well on the backdrop of the game. Each unit has a few colorful voice clips which identify the units as well as add a bit of flair and personality to them. The music doesn't get in the way, but isn't particularly noticeable. Then again, this sort of game works better with unobtrusive ambient music over music that's too grandiose.

All in all, the presentation fits the gameplay and gives the game a lot of personality, from the unit's stories to their voice clips.

Verdict
Warlock: Master of the Arcane is an interesting game that adds a few new and interesting twists to an old genre, and does it with a lot of flair and personality. It ends up being very addictive, monopolizing hours where you tell yourself "just one more turn" over and over again. it might be rough around the edges at some places, but overall, it is an Addictively Fun Game. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a Strategy itch to scratch and would like to inject more magic in their 4X games.