Review of Wrath Unleashed - Xbox

Customer Ratings:

This game is a well thought out turn based strategy with fighting game like combat elements. It's a very fun game playing with others, and a good game playing alone. Combat isn't as deep as a fighting game, but it has plenty of strategy and ways to exploit the enemy. Being able to customize your army is also an added bonus. My only regret is that a second game hasn't been made.

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I really like this game, the scantly clad story was lame and the A.I. leaves much to be desired, but (as far as I know) there is really no other game out there like this one. Plus the game market is pretty slim on strategy games to begin with.

I'm a big fan of chess, so the battlegrid style game play really appealed to me. The creatures are cool and combat can be fun but it has some broken mechanics (like the ability to one-button smash kill with little hope to break free). There are many different maps to play as well as a main campaign.

My biggest issue is the game A.I. on hard is horribly dumb on the battlefield and then terribly hard to defeat in combat. This game works best if you have someone else to play against. The simple creature vs. creature combat can be fun as well. My kids have fun fighting with their unicorns and fire golems. Overall a fun game, but it would be nice to see someone else pick up the idea and do it a little better.

It plays like this: Each player builds an army of light, medium and heavy units each with different strengths and weakness both in combat and moving on the game board. The units range from unicorns to fire golems to giant demons and all are cool and fun to fight with.

Each player takes turns moving units on the battlegrid towards capture points like temples (which makes the unit who captured it immune to magic both good and bad as well as heals them), meanwhile each territory has an element that makes certain types of creatures stronger.

You can move one unit per turn or cast one spell. The spells range from healing and damage to teleport and change land (to your element type) When you move a creature to an opponent creature's space combat ensues. The combat is in a full range 3d battle ground according to the element the fight takes place on. These battlegrounds have traps and mana recharge points.

The combat has light/heavy attacks, light/heavy magic, shields and other special abilities depending on creature type. Combat can be very fun or very frustrating depending on your skill and that of the opponent. A weak creature can destroy a very strong one if you good enough in combat.

Creatures don't heal to full life after combat, so you have to watch how you use your forces. The game ends when you capture enough temples or defeat the enemy demi-god / god depending on settings. God characters are powerful and used like queens in chess (powerful and able to easily defeat enemies, but potentially game breaking if lost).

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Love this game from my childhood, great to be in possession of a copy again!

Just wish the AI didn't cheat so much, but I still love everything about this one, except for how short it is!

Honest reviews on Wrath Unleashed - Xbox

I have played the original Archon since the Atari days (1980s) and have longed for a 2003 remake of this game. In fact I've played the sequel to the original (Adept) and the 1994 remake (Dark Legions). So I was hoping that Wrath Unleashed will not disappoint devoted fans. Well, I am happy to say, it does not!

But before I explain why, here is a bit of info for those who don't know the original Archon game. Archon is a combination strategy/action game. The game consists of a strategy portion that is played on a chessboard where creatures are moved on squares to try and capture the N key locations on the board. A number of options further enriches the strategy portion of the game (such as letting you teleport your creatures, heal them, invoke elementals). When 2 opposing creatures occupy the same square they must fight it out.

Ok, now on to the 2003 remake of the game: I recently played the demo version of WU on the Xbox. It is as you'd expect for a 2003 port of the original game. Everything is in 3D. Everything is beautifully rendered. When characters move across the chess board, they animate beautifully. The chessboard is drawn in 3Dbut also provides you with a 2D map. Apart from moving pieces around you can also invoke magical abilitiessuch as heal characters, teleport them, invoke elementals to do your fighting (as in the original game).

In the fighting mode of the game, the motion capture is wonderful. The artwork is gorgeousthough a bit on the colorful side (the images on the Lucasart's web site is exactly as the demo appeared). The environment itself, as in the original game, plays a role in the combat as in the original game. You can get impaled by a bunch of spikes or struck by lightning if you stand in the wrong spot for too long. You can also break obstacles in the environment during combat.

Each creature gets 2 melee attacks and 2 magical attacks, and 1 blocking move. EAch creature also gets a health bar and a mana bar which replenishes over time (as in the original).

The multiplayer mode will be where this game shines, especially now that 4 players can play together.

This game will be an excellent addition to any nostalgic Archon fan's game collection. It will also appeal to gamers who like fighting games but want to also engage in a bit of strategy. Don't worry if you aren't into heavy strategy, the strategy elements in WU (and Archon) are simple yet provide incredible richness to the game.

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The game can be quite frustrating if you start in campain 4, and work your way towards 1. The game is designed to go the other way around. So have pacience. This game has a healthy balance of ideas, strategy, ability and luck. For ideas, there are 4 player alignments: they are light vs. dark; and order vs. caos. You can be light order (jedi-like), dark caos (sith-like), light caos (strenght-like) and dark order (ploting-like). For strategy, each area has bonuses for each creature alinment (water/fire/earth/wind), so if you fight a Magma Giant (fire) with an Frost Dragon (water) in the ocean, the giant will most probably loose. For skill: terrific players can kill the most powerfull creature (God) with a patheticly weak creature (unicorn). For luck, in multiplayer maps, killing the God (army head) usually kills the army (player looses), so if you spot a God, who just came under attack by 2 player, now is you chance since he is most probably weak! In team campains, most of the time your ally is PATHETIC, yet some extraordinary times, he's terrific. By now, you get the picture, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!! What else could you expect from LucasArts, my young padawan?