Castle Conflict Review: Summon Your Forces

App Name:	Castle Conflict
Platforms:	iPhone, iPod Touch
Publisher(s):	Broken Kings Inc.
Genre(s):	Tower Defense

My brother and I compete in everything. From ping pong to ice hockey, we’re at each others throats (of course, in a friendly, brotherly love kind of way). So when we discovered Castle Conflict, it was bad news. Within an hour, we had gained experience on the campaign battlefield, culled our armies, and were ready to clash via Bluetooth or wifi connection. The rest is history, but only until I get a chance to gather my forces and attempt to take the title of victor back. He doesn’t deserve it.

I admit, the subject material of Castle Conflict was quite unfamiliar to me. I’ve never been one for castles, medieval lore, or magic. But this game makes you embrace those things quickly, and with good reason. It puts you in charge of an army campaigning to overtake an expansive land dotted with enemy fortresses. Along the way there are upgrades available, as well as a horde of new units that can be purchased and used in battle. Once you conquer the first land, your army boards a ship and heads to Egypt to do battle in the desserts, where there are many new enemies to fight and even more available units appropriate to the locale.

The gameplay is simple: use your woodcutting forces to gather wood and bring it back to your castle, which will be on the left side of the screen, opposite of the opponent’s fortress. Should the gathering units arrive back safely (never a given), you’ll be rewarded with gold points, which can be saved or spent depending on your strategy. There are plenty of exciting reasons to spend the gold, among them are archers, wizards, attack dogs, Zeppelins, and cannons, to name just a few. You can only buy units you’ve unlocked, and unlocking units requires that you defeat castles and earn “tech points.”

The action unfolds in a straightforward manner. You dispatch a unit by tapping its icon near the top of the screen. This sends it marching out of your castle and to the right, where it will either attempt to do damage to the opponent or retrieve resources. Your enemy takes the same approach, and the result is a busy battlefield between the two castles (land and sky included).

The campaign is fun on it’s own, but I suspect that many will use it as a way to train for multiplayer battles. There’s nothing better than sending five Zeppelins toward your brother’s castle and just watching him cower. Plus, the further you get in the campaign, the more power you can bring to the multiplayer battle, giving both players reason to play the campaign, not just the multi.

This game delivers in every way. It has that secret ingredient of some iPhone games, the one that can keep you sitting still for longer than you thought possible. My only caveats are the dated graphics and open-ended finish, which is bittersweet. Because, on one hand, the developers leave it open for future updates, but on the other, the game ends with no special battle or particularly satisfying conclusion.

Castle Conflict is a castle defense game with a twist, the twist being that there is nothing fancy or extraordinary being attempted. It’s back to the basics.

The developers used the space of the iPhone screen extremely well, and they’ve developed a simple, intuitive experience that is great fun in solo mode or multiplayer. I recommend it whole-heartedly, even if you’re not a nerd who wears a cape and carries a wooden sword around everywhere you go, though I can’t guarantee that it won’t make you become one.

Our Rating:  4/5

Castle Conflict is available in the App Store for $2.99 at the time of this review.  (App Store Link)

About the Author

Devin Wieland

 

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