I’d play Locke’s Quest.
The entire wall-placing mechanic does play in to the overall build strategy in several ways. For example, turrets have better defense if surrounded by wall units, and the defense value of 3 square wall pieces > 2 square > 1. So if you have gap to cover that’s, say, 12 squares long, you could squeeze in 4 turrets (assuming you have the cash) but the intervening walls would probably be just 1 square. Perhaps then just 2 turrets and some 3-square walls would end up lasting longer and thus be more effective. The player must decide, and its much more than how the wall is facing.
Also, when you’re repairing walls in the midst of battle, you repair a 3-square in the same time it takes to repair a 1-square, so that’s something you’ll want to figure in. And if you build a single-square wall way in front of your actual fort, the enemy will attack that on the way in, giving your turrets on the fort more time to fire away.
And when you factor in traps, there’s a lot more building strategy. If you have a small, one square gap in a wall, the enemy will tend to want to funnel through it rather than bash the wall. So you put an acid trap in that gap so they are weakened, then hide Lock just behind it so he can hit them almost one at a time as they come in. (This only works a short time – the ones that bunch up tend to start going at the walls then of course).
I suppose its possible the same strategic decisions could be in play with a different build mechanic, like just drawing a wall with the stylus. Me, I like the ‘feel’ of plunking down a chunk of wall and seeing it fit right into what I’ve already built.
/quote I didn’t realize DS’s could die. I thought that only happened to Sony and Microsoft hardware. What happened? /quote
It was an epic tale of tragedy and loss. Essentially, it just conked out. The screen flickers briefly when I power it on, then the system shuts down again and falls silent. I rather expect it is somehow related to the largish crack in the upper corner of the bottom half of the unit. I don’t know of any one shock to the system or anything like that- I never dropped it to my knowledge. It was a launch unit DS Lite, though, so I imagine it’s getting on in years by the standards of modern hardware.
I’m really bummed out, because I was looking forward to more Locke’s Quest and some Dragon Quest fun this weekend.
I will have to soothe myself as best I can by topping the heal boards in Warhammer Online. My Archmage is simply ArchMAZING! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Mark, it’s possible that’s the battery.
Do you mean that the battery may have failed? Is there a way to get a replacement?
Thanks, Tylertoo! I really appreciate it.
And sorry for derailing the thread, everybody.
So what are people’s thoughts on this now? I’ve got a gift card that needs to be used at Gamestop in the next few days.
I think I was the resident voice of skepticism, but I broke down and bought the game. I’m on day 35 or 40 or so, and it’s a lot of fun.
I still personally think the game ultimately would have been better if they didn’t have the wall-facing mechanic built into the game, as there is an awful lot of awkwardness that stems from that and it has relatively little positive effect on the game.
But even keeping that in mind, I totally give this a thumbs up. I think it’s a totally underrated game that unfortunately appears to be being missed by most people.
Oh, and in other DS tower defense news… NinjaTown comes out the end of this month. I’m pretty excited.
I was the resident voice of fanboyism, and I put it away last week about half-way through, not because I tired of it but that CivRev DS beckoned.
I think its a great handheld game, in that the missions total 4 or 5 minutes each, 2 or 3 for the build mode, and 2 for the battle mode. Easy to jump into and out of. And when I lose a battle, I enjoy going back to square one and change my build strategies.
I have come to be annoyed that the build mode is timed. I wish I had unlimited time to tweak my fortification and plant traps; I feel like some of the strategy is lost when you have to rush during the build. Its not that I don’t have enough time to mount an adequate defense, but I would enjoy fiddling with the build more if the clock wasn’t ticking.
And if only the cut scenes were skippable.
Still, all in all, a great effort. I will go back to it, but even now I feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth.
Note: if you have a Wii, a Lock’s Quest downloadable demo is on the Nintendo channel (this week anyway). I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure how representative it is, but it could help fence-sitters.
I assume it’s the same downloadable demo that was at the dev’s PAX kiosk. If so, it’s pretty representative. I think you get to go through the first 5 ‘days’. Each day is a timed round, and I believe there are 100 ‘days’ in the full game.