After getting 24 scenarios into the first campaign, on the easiest level, I found that I had not managed my resources well along the way, and that I had to start over from the beginning. This makes the campaigns endlessly vexing. In addition, some scenarios change whether you can hire new types of units. The roleplaying element comes in in trying to get survive each scenario, while not suffering too many casualties on your higher level units, while at the same time trying to promote other units to higher levels. ![]() When you start another scenario in a campaign, you can recall your units from previous campaigns, which as the game progresses is more and more important. After gaining enough experience, they turn into a different type of unit. Everytime you win a battle, your units gain experience. However, the RPG element does not only come up during the cut scenes. The plots are somewhat melodramatic, but do manage to keep the game interesting(especially for those science fiction geeks who recognize the references to Final Fantasy and The Lord of the Rings). The RPG element comes from the fact that none of the scenarios takes place in isolation, but takes place in huge campaigns, with complicated sword and sorcery style plots taking part in the realm of Wesnoth. Although the intricacies of that get quite involving, it is a process seen in many other games. ![]() As in many turn based strategies, the idea is to find the best terrain and time, and mix of units to attack your enemies with. There is, of course, enemies to fight you, and you must choose when and where to fight them. Each map has a separate goal, which is often a straightforward attempt to defeat all enemy forces, or the enemy leader although the goal can be to move a unit to a certain part of the map, or to find an object. In the game, you must manuever a variety of fantasy type units: elves, trolls, gryphon, merman and dozens of others, through a map. The game is a turn based strategy, mixed with a role playing game, and is very good at both. The only thing not up to today's standards are the graphics, although they are good for a turn based strategy, and for a game that fits in a ten megabye download. The rules of the game, and the way they are implemented are as good, or better, than most commercial games. One of the most heartening examples of this is a discussion among developers of one scenario that many (including myself) found very hard and annoying, ending with the comment "I was the one who thought up this level, and I can't even stand it anymore". People are free to develop their own scenarios for the game, as well as make suggestions about new units or concepts. ![]() After spending more time with the game and the Wesnoth community, I found that the ethic of free software makes a big impact on gameplay. When I originally wrote this writeup, I said that the fact that the game was GPL was incidental to the game play. Recently, a team of international developers has put together what may be the first great GPL game, and what also may join the Turn Based Strategy pantheon along with Civilization, Heroes of Might and Magic and Masters of Orion. But very few people install Linux for the great games that have been developed for it. It's stable and it's free, and it has an entire social ethos behind it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |