Gamer reviews for Iron Knights
Hack-and-slash spree with Iron Knights
It is very true that the hack-and-slash genre of games has become more and more popular. A genre popularized by the titles: Dungeons and Dragons, Diablo, and Devil May Cry seems to be favored by tons of players everywhere, for a very good reason – the gameplay is straightforward, exhilarating and very fulfilling. Now if you are a fan of this distinct genre of third-person, melee-weapon-wielding-beat-‘em-up games, then Iron Knights might be a promising way to go. Such affirmation to this is the 1,000,000-5,000,000 number of downloads from Google Play alone. Iron Knights is developed by Entwell and published by Actoz Soft in 2014 and is free to download for both Android and iOS platform.
Upon installation, execution of the application will direct you to where you can actually download the game. During download, a short cinematic prelude will toss you into the heart of the story, the Amross Empire. It narrates how the empire once flourished before the army of chaos was unleashed by the Lord of Hell - Maggedron, who was initially summoned by the traitor in the empire, Bishop Balmostat. The conflict continued for years, before the empire finally fell. After which, the story focuses on the main protagonist—you the player. At the time when all hope is lost and despair remains, the Goddess of War appears before your very eyes. Lending you the power to fight evil and rebuild the empire. Hence, putting you in the limelight of being the hero in the story.
The game basically sports a hack-and-slash genre and yet also works with a card-collecting-game (CCG) aspect. The combination of mechanics of these separate genres promotes a wider array for the application of strategy in the game and in a way, this gives it more complexity. The result includes, weapon and equipment customization, party customization, fusion of characters and items and a skill tree configuration.
The story is divided into several “Acts”. Each Act employs several stages as you fight your way to progress. A stage, usually has three or more sections. You have to clear the enemy mobs for the first few sections and fight a boss battle on the last one. Each stage has its own grading criteria. Depending on how you are able to meet these set of criteria, you will be awarded with a respective amount of stars for clearing the stage (1-star for poor performance and 3-stars being the highest evaluation) and a corresponding reward item.
The game also introduces you to a movement penalty system. This gauge/energy bar, resembles your energy or move points. A maximum of 10 points can be accumulated with a corresponding wait time of 8 minutes per energy point. Every progress you wish to execute in the map requires two energy points in order to take action to battle. And at the very last stage of every Act, you will be facing a main boss of some sort. Several daily quests and tournaments can also be accomplished in order to gain reward items that could replenish your energy points, reward you with a card, or a hefty bunch of gold.
Iron Knights has a decent blend of game elements to keep its players engaged. One of which is the aesthetics. The graphics featured in the game is really impressive. From the flashy characters and skills, nicely-themed world, visuals and artwork – everything is highly detailed in comparison to other games available out there. The music score is quite engaging as well, in the battle mode for example, the sound-effects of your skills exemplify the weight of your slashes when you attack. Even the minute addition of the risky-situation-feel sound effect when you reach the boss section gives it small but effective nice detail.
Also, the game mechanics could be confusing at first, so the tutorial section of the game would really be handy for beginners. This section will also dwell on arranging your party members, equipments, upgrades, fusion of cards, and your skills and passive abilities. While on it, the game will also showcase a hint of strengthening factors available when you visit the in-app purchase section. And since you need internet access all the time for you to play, expect a few in-app-purchase advertisements every now and then.
In-app-purchases are in the form of gems, these gems are sold in packages that differ in quantity. Gems will generally allow you skip through the limiting factors of the game. You could spend gems to buy energy potions, elixirs to multiply experience points, exchange for gold, and to acquire powerful weapons and equipments. Though gems are undeniably the most valuable items in the game, it is nice that they are still obtainable without actually buying them with real money but by means of rewards to quests and several more ways.
To summarize all that, Iron Knights is an action-packed hack-and-slash RPG that is somewhat well rounded on all corners. This is simply because it incorporates appealing visuals, music, and game play. It may have the nasty advertisement pop-ups and a few grind and wait times but that is easily compensated by a lot of pros and the game is certainly worth a try.
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