Hero Academy v1.2.2

Updated: Early April 2012

Hero Academy is a game I have had an opportunity to play, primarily with Brad Cummings of BGG as my opponent (we chat a lot about upcoming games and sometimes compare notes about games we review). He’s also one of my principal opponents for online multiplayer (where we sometimes test out aspects of the game). That aside, I have yet to review this game properly because it only has an option for asynchronous multiplayer, with no AI opponents. Gabe has advised that eventually there will be one in an upcoming release. For now, this update included a new purchase-able team known as the Tribe!, additional fields of play and playfield features (such as Barbed Crystals and Magic Resist squares).

I will be reviewing this game properly once it has an AI opponent.

Elder Sign: Omens v1.2

Updated: Early April 2012

About a month ago, Elder Sign: Omens gave an update with some new content. These updates includes a new campaign featuring Yig, Cthulu itself as a purchase-able Ancient One (a very-hard option), other investigators that are unlockable; as well as new adventures and gameplay options.

Cabals v1.09

Updated: 27 April 2012

This update introduced a number of new cards, which includes the Changeling Trick (Danann), the Faberge Egg (Bearclaw), Escalating Inflation (Vril), and the Disciple of the Third Eye (Zahir).

It also included a bunch of minor fixes, relating to active effect indicators, an error with the Obsessed Monk, multitouch issues, and consistent capitalisation on the cards.

Ascension v1.2

Updated: 11 May 2012

This update includes the long awaited Storm of Souls expansion as an in-game purchase along with an in-app purchase for a promo pack with several new high value cards. My favourite is the Rat King, which covers all the visible cards in the middle with rat tokens that must be defeated before you can get to the card underneath.

There is also a number of small tweaks that makes the game better, and by far I think the option to adjust the honour pool is one of the best. This lets you decide how long a game you wish to play. Additionally is the option to restore in-app purchases through the app itself, which can be invaluable.

Imperial v1.3

Updated: 13 May 2012

One of the more interesting examples of an indy attempt to produce a game. While people have been put off from the entry cost, it is still a solid entry. The developers are promising the release of online multiplayer eventually, but this update includes a few little tweaks, including the ability to fund countries from your treasury directly. For me, I was most excited by the inclusion of a title page.

Forbidden Island v1.1

Updated: 14 May 2012

This update introduces a new feature, which is alternative configurations of the island tiles to produce unique island shapes. The update allows you to have the Treasure Island configuration for free (the configuration is like a large X), but then lets you buy ten more different island shapes. It is immediately apparent from these configurations that they will challenge even the more experienced players as they must be extremely clever about getting about the island.

It also features a bunch of improvements, which includes better Facebook and Twitter integration, saved games show the difficulty setting and Island shape in the Resume screen, a correction to the Explorer’s movement options when using the Navigator’s ability: he can now move diagonally, improved launch time when starting a game, corrected some grammar errors in the Tutorial, and cleaned up memory leaks.

And in Other News…

The developers of Shadow Era, Wulven Game Studios, have announced that they will be turning their wooden puppet into a real boy! They’re offering people to get in on a kickstarter-like project, which is already well past the target goal!

Note this is an incomplete list but it will be updated on a frequent basis.

Released and being reviewed

Scotland Yard

Overdue

Hacienda

Status: promised for end of March 2012 (moved back from mid-March, now in beta testing)
Developers: Cube Your Mind

From the website: “Hazienda HD is iPad adaptation of the famous “Hazienda” by Wolfgang Kramer. Original “Hazienda” is great family strategy game and we believe that thanks to mobile version it will bring fun and enjoyment to many players.”

Civil War – Battle for Gettysburg

Status: promised for April

Cities and Knights Expansion

Status: promised for April 2012 (moved back from February, now in beta testing)
Developers: USM

USM have this to say:

As the final phase of the beta is still running, we’d like to give you an update on the current development status of the next Catan expansion. However, first of all we’d like to thank all beta applicants for their interest – and all those who made it into the beta – for the valuable input we’ve already received!

Right now our focus is fine-tuning the computer opponents (AI): “Cities and Knights” introduces numerous new rules and elements that will add both depth and variety to the game. We want to make sure that the AI makes use of all these possibilities, but we’ll also tune the different AI opponents to difficulty levels that will suit both beginners and advanced Catan players. So far the testers’ feedback has been a great help, but we’ll certainly need some more time to polish the expansion for release. We’ll let you know as soon as our testing is complete!

Previously I reported hints that the Cities and Knights expansion might be on the horizon for the popular city-building game Catan, and of course since then we have confirmation that a Cities & Knights expansion for iOS is in being developed. Cities and Knights is particularly exciting because it builds on one of the existing gateway games that enables people into more complex strategy games. Add Cities and Knights and you suddenly have a much more in depth strategy. In Cities and Knights, players have to also watch out for outside barbarian invasions, soldiers (now knights) are much more versatile and strategic, and the cities are more involved (creating walls and building metropoli) – all of these create new and interesting uses for your resources. More, there is now a ‘tech tree’ that comes from the commodities that can be traded for.

Upcoming

Through the Ages

Status: promised for May 2012

Age of Industry

Status: promised for May 2012

Agricola

Status: promised for Spring 2012 (moved back from Spring to Summer and back again)

Agricola is coming to iPad! In Uwe Rosenberg’s game, set during Europe’s recovery from the plague, players send their family members out to plow fields, sow crops and build fences. Add rooms to your farmhouse and expand your family! Many hands make light work, and give you extra actions each turn. But, each season the Harvest comes along and every family member must be fed! By developing and improving your farm, the civilized world is revitalized. Providing an intuitive interface and beautiful presentation, Agricola for iOS lets you play this Spiel des Jahres-winning game wherever you are.

Summoner Wars

Status: promised for before June 2012

In July, we learned that Incinerator Studios had partnered up with Plaid Hat Studios to bring to us Summoner Wars, and it’s apparently nearly here. With Incinerator Studios having been behind the conversion of Ascension Wars, we can probably expect an excellent result.

Summoner Wars provides the strategy of deck construction card games with the tactics of miniature war games. Summoner Wars for iOS brings this excellent blend of card-play and board position play to life on iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone. Developed with Plaid Hat Games, Summoner Wars for iOS let’s you fight for the future of Itharia, anytime and anywhere!

Le Harve

Status: promised for mid-June 2012 (pushed back from March)

In Le Havre, a player’s turn consists of two parts: First, distribute newly supplied goods onto the offer spaces; then take an action. As an action, players may choose either to take all goods of one type from an offer space or to use one of the available buildings. Building actions allow players to upgrade goods, sell them or use them to build their own buildings and ships. Buildings are both an investment opportunity and a revenue stream, as players must pay an entry fee to use buildings that they do not own. Ships, on the other hand, are primarily used to provide the food that is needed to feed the workers.

After every seven turns, the round ends: players’ cattle and grain may multiply through a Harvest, and players must feed their workers. After a fixed number of rounds, each player may carry out one final action, and then the game ends. Players add the value of their buildings and ships to their cash reserves. The player who has amassed the largest fortune is the winner.

Magic: the Gathering; Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

Status: promised for Summer 2012 (go figure)

For more info, go here.

Red November

This was due out January 2012, and pushed back to 2nd Quarter 2012. Initially reports from gamezebo suggest that this has become vapourware. However, later reports are still promising the release of the game.

A Brief History of the World

Status: promised for July 2012 (however it is clear that Codito are focusing on Le Harve first and foremost, so this will undoubtedly be worked on after that game’s release).

El Grande

Status: promised for October 2012

Eclipse

Status: promised for 2012

Eclipse was one of a few games announced for next year part of the Big Daddy Creation’s roadmap, from their news blurb:

“Eclipse places you in control of vast interstellar civilizations, competing for success. You will explore new star systems, research technologies and build spaceships to wage war with. You may design your own starships: each player has four ship types that they can build and design as they will. Eclipse has seven different species for you to choose from (with different characteristics and abilities). Customized star systems and the dynamic technology tree ensure that each session of Eclipse is unique! Based on the board game from Touko Tahkokallio and Lautapelit.fi.”

Stronghold

Status: promised for 2012

Also part of the Big Daddy Creation’s roadmap, from their news blurb:

“Stronghold is a strategy game telling the story of a siege. Players take opposite sides, one has to defend the stronghold, the other has to break into the castle as soon as possible. The defender has a small amount of soldiers manning the walls, while the invader has an infinite legion of them! The invaders build war machines, equip their soldiers, train them and use black magic rituals to achieve victory. Meanwhile, defenders repair walls, build cannons, train soldiers and do everything they can to hold the castle as long as possible. Based on the board game from Ignacy Trzewiczek and Portal Publishing.”

Zombiaki

Status: promised for 2012

Also part of the Big Daddy Creation’s roadmap:

“Zombiaki is a 2-players game. It lets you feel emotions of desperate fight between zombies and humans. Objective of the zombies is to eat the people, but people want to save their own lives, which is possible if they survive until the sunrise. Game with humor and strategy. Based on the card game from Ignacy Trzewiczek and Portal Publishing.”

IN DEVELOPMENT

7 Wonders

Alien Frontiers

Cadwallon: City of Thieves

Dominant Species

Dominion

Developer: Funsockets

Kingsburg HD

Navegador

Olympos

Pandemic

Rivals of Catan

Shogun

Thunderstone

You can play a facebook version of this game here: http://apps.facebook.com/thunderstone/

Troyes

RUMOURED

Puerto Rico Expansions

I made an enquiry with the developers about the potential implementation of its hard to find and rare expansions. To quote Chris Ewington, President of Codito “As for Puerto Rico, we are very glad you (and many others! are happy with our implementation and we will continue to work to improve it and add new features. We also hope that the expansions will be available in the future, but we are still working out some of those details with Ravensburger. (It’s highly likely that they will be available eventually, but we aren’t sure about when that will happen yet.)”

Pandemic

Currently in development, no further information.

Suspended

Vapourware

Race for the Galaxy

Status: promised for early 2012

When it first came out, Race for the Galaxy was billed as the game with the steepest learning curve. What they actually meant was the game in common use with the steepest curve, but even then that claim is spurious and subjective. In any case, the subtle implication is that Race for the Galaxy does have a steep learning curve (probably on par with or easier than Ghost Stories).

Race for the Galaxy is a race to build the pre-eminent galactic civilisations by through different worlds with various different goods and development that represent technical and social advancements. The balance is one of resource management and role placement across a bunch of different phases, very similar to Puerto Rico.

The game, in terms of the story’s chronology, is set in the chaos after defeat of the Fallen God Samael.

Gameplay

The gameplay works on the same principles and structures of the original game set, so the real question is what gets introduced that is different from what you’re already familiar with. Firstly, Storm of Souls introduces the concept of ‘destroyed‘ as distinct from banishment. In common parlance, destruction means you discard the card, and banishment removes it from your deck. Destruction is primarily applied to constructs and other cards that remain in play.

Storm of Souls introduces area effects, that is a card will be drawn that outlines an effect that affects all players. Specifically, there is one for each of the four different factions, being Arha Rising (Enlightened), Ogo Rising (Lifebound), Hadron Rising (Mechana), and Void Rising (guess) and each reflects the theme and style of that faction. There is also one monster area effect called Cult Rising. Each will have a continuing effect and each will have a contingent effect that is triggered upon the banishment of a trophy monster (see below). For example the continuing effect of the Arha Rising allows you, whenever you discard a number of cards, to recover one of them back into your hand.

This brings us to the second major mechanic, being trophy monsters. When you defeat a trophy monster, it will be held in your tableau much like a construct. At certain points, you can banish your trophy monster, which will trigger its secondary effect, and any contingent effects of the area effect card. To facilitate this, a new permanent monster is introduced alongside the cultist, being the fanatic, which is a slightly more difficult monster that can be banished solely for the purpose of creating a nominal trophy monster to trigger.

Implementation

I will not comment about the general implementation of the game, because aside from a few minor tweaks from the original game it is much the same. Of course, considering that this game is a multi-award winning game it probably more suggests there is not that much to improve on. They have introduced a new background music for the Storm of Souls, and you can set the game theme to represent any one of the current three versions of the game. The artwork, though not universally liked, is consistent with previous iterations of the game (undoubtedly the same artist), and this I commend.

Something that is noticably missing is the option to integrate the Chronicles of the Godslayer and Storm of Souls. The physical game can be combined with the original to suit a game with players of up to four to six players (thereby being an expansion). For this option to be taken to its logical conclusion, the makers would have to allow an option for six players. Undoubtedly, this would be undesirable for most people who are wanting to play the game with the quick delivery the iPad offers. Nevertheless, you’d imagine that this would be an option for a four player game, but this does not seem to be the case. However, you can combine Storm of Souls with Return of the Fallen.

I will say, that some of the new mechanics aren’t as directly intuitive as the general base rules (at least I found this to be so). However, it will only take you perhaps a single game to get used to it. Additionally, I found I had to pay a bit more direct attention to the game because it’s much more easily to inadvertently end your turn or under utilise all your options in a given turn.

Verdict

9/10: Storm of Souls takes all the benefits of its precedessor and gives the existing strong entry a fresh new twist.

Gameplay

The Game of Gale is a simple strategy game for two players, each of whom is trying to lay pieces to connect one side of the board to the other, or ‘close a circuit’, as the game refers to it.

The board is designed as a grid, with colored nodes placed at points across it. Players take it in turns to connect two adjacent nodes of their own color: with the orange player trying to connect the top and bottom of the board; and the blue player aiming to do the same from left to right.

Players may place their pieces either horizontally or vertically, choosing to try and make their own connection; or block their opponent’s. A blocked path forces the player to rethink their tactics; or to resort to trying to make a more convoluted connection than planned.

There’s a slight advantage given to the player who goes first, as – after the first piece is laid – gameplay revolves around blocking the opposing player’s path. This isn’t enough to make the game unbalanced, however; and either player has a good chance of making their designated connection and winning the game.

Implementation

The Game of Gale has little in the way of bells and whistles. Graphics and music are early 80s retro; and although the option to play against another human or the computer is present, there are no variable difficulty settins. In fact, the AI proves to be relatively easy to beat, making The Game of Gale best when played against another real person.

Verdict

As a free (ad-supported) title, you’re not taking a risk by downloading The Game of Gale. Although it’s unlikely to be a game you spend a great deal of time with, it can be a good introduction for youngsters to abstract gaming, before moving on to the more advanced abstract titles like Blokus.

Score: 5/10

I’m going to say from the outset that I’m probably not the best person for this review. My predilections for strategy is often served with a healthy does of escapism. This game seems to be a fairly straight up war strategy board game, and though I love indulging strategic thinking, that indulgence stops when the aesthetic or format doesn’t lure me in. I haven’t played a game to completion, partly from frustration and because I just wasn’t hooked. If you love your hard core war strategy games, then this is may be the game for you, but not for me – so take this review with a big dose of your millage may vary. Also, not to be confused with the strategy game of the same name.

Gameplay

As you have probably guessed, Winds of War revolves around the conquest of territories, each originally owned by one of the European powers. This is achieved by a careful balance of economic building (oil and grain), and military expansion and conquest. There are land territories and ocean territories, you control an army, a navy, and an airforce.

During each turn you get a number of actions that can be divided between economic and military actions. That is either building up your economic output to make money to buy weapons for conquest. The basic nature of the game is easy enough to figure out. More resources means more money, more money means more weapons, and more weapons means conquest. This is about where I find I am lost, and while I can tell there is a learning curve there I haven’t been able to figure out the nuances of the game to implement them.

Implementation

My explanation of gameplay is comparatively short, and most of my commentary is going to be on what makes the gameplay difficult to access from my point of view. If I am simply just missing some obvious piece of information I’d like to know.

For example, yes there are two resources (grain and oil) and they both relate to economic output. However, I don’t really understand whether there is a difference between them, and why I might preference one over the other. I am assuming that more grain will support more soldiers in the field and more oil will support the various planes, tanks, and ships, but I don’t really know by how much or how to take that into my calculations. I know they vaguely give me more money, but how is just obscure to me.

Similarly, I know how to buy munitions and I know how to pit them against each other, but I don’t know what the significance of infantry versus the three different types of tanks are. Are some anti-personnel, some anti-tank? Do the more expensive ones have higher attack (I assume so, but can’t be certain). Yes, there is a bonus in attacks relevant to the type of commander you have there, but this is randomised across the board so my ability to actively implement their use in my active strategy. Over time my inability to predict how the game would work, and how the strategy could be anticipated lead to mounting frustration on my part and thus the lack of completion. Lastly, the ‘names’ for the various munitions are code tags like Amx, Leo, and the ships are just number-letter combos. They don’t really serve to differentiate them from each other in my head. Maybe if I was a war aficionado they would be more meaningful to me, but for now they are obscure.

Unfortunately, the in-game rules and ‘tutorial’ are not that helpful either. The rules are three pages of textwalls, of which one is the tutorial. I have read the tutorial and I still don’t feel as though I have been successfully navigated through this maze. Additionally, these textwalls also have the unfortunate disadvantage of coming across as written by someone for whom English is a second language. There are odd grammatical stylings, a few syntaxical or grammatical errors. I think this is the major limitation, because the rules are type to explain some fairly technical and complicated rules, but the language is very minimal and parsimonious. This game could be vastly improved, in my opinion, by an interactive tutorial and in game quick references. Being able to highlight a piece or thing in the game and get a few bites of it would remove a number of these obstacles.

Verdict

3/10: I honestly think that this game was pushed out of development far to soon. It has a number of pressing issues that will make it rather inaccessible to a large number of people, and if the developers want to have a game that they are proud to put their name on they will really need to polish it up. As of August 2011, the itunes website promises an update to do with better AI, but I think that the next update would be better served by going over their rules pages again, and breaking it up a lot more. They should use pictures (if nothing else) as visual aids to explain the game, and give insights into winning strategies.

Skyline is more of a puzzle game than a genuine board game. It’s one of the many brood given birth by the Tethyan Knizia.

Gameplay

You have a grid of varying sizes. You have a range of buildings and possibly parks with a number of stories from one to four. You are to arrange these buildings in a certain way so that no column or row has more than one building of the same height, and so that certain numerical signifiers on the edge of that grid match up with that configuration.

These numerical signifiers indicate a position on the edge of the grid, or from a position in the middle where there is a point of view that can only see a certain number of buildings in the relevant direction. Buildings of higher heights block buildings of lower heights. The puzzle is to match these up.

The game starts off fairly simple, with small grid configurations, and fewer variables. With each successful grid, you are shuttled to the next with an increasing order of complexity and requirements. By the time you’ve completed the apprenticeship you have been incrementally introduced to the games complexities and are ready for the game experience in total.

Implementation

Rather than revising my litany against Knizia at this point, I’ll simply point out that I made a long statement about quality over quantity. Whether this is substantiated by market forces is not for me to conjecture about but maybe it says something about the market expectations that such a strategy can produce reasonable returns. That being said, this game seems to be somewhere on par with the standard I’ve expected from Knizia. It’s quick, cheap and I lost interest in about ten minutes of play. In fact it took me the better part of the month to write this review because there’s nothing really to add to Knizia games that I haven’t already commented on in one form or another. I think maybe in the future I should draft some kind of generic Knizia review response and simply cut and paste for each Knizia review. After all why should I be putting major effort into reviewing these games when so little real investment has gone into them in the first place? DEVELOPERS BE WARE OF THE KNIZIA FRANCHISE, DON’T SELL YOUR GAME FOR A QUICK BRAND NAME!

That being said, this game clearly sits on the outside edge of what could be defined as a board game and setting a good pace into the territory of puzzle gaming. At least it’s not repeating the horrible mistake of Tiny Token Empires, where it sets itself up to be one type of game but is ultimately an entirely different kind. I think it’s a shame because there are clearly signs of good development. The animations are smooth, the user interface is intuitive, but the Knizia games are amongst the first that made me feel like playing a game was a chore, not a past-time.

Verdict

3/10: Ultimately, what I’m saying is that the game only just passes the muster and I will no longer be reviewing a Knizia game just because it has game-like features. I will only be reviewing Knizia games that are based on a real physical board game, or could legitimately be accepted as a board game in the Eurogamer/strategy gamer circuit.

Gameplay

You play one of nine Norse gods attempting to fend off the forces of Ragnarok, including Odin, Frey, Freya, Thor, Tyr, Heimdall, Frigg, Baldor, and Vidar (the last three unlockable within the game). Asgard, the home of the Norse gods is under seige from a host of antagonistic powers, and you must marhsall the forces of Asgard, Midgard and coordinate events and activities across the nine worlds. All of this takes place around the eponymous Yggdrasil.

The focus of the game takes place on Asgard, which is broken up into eight vertical columns. All the enemies start on the far left of this columnal section, and will be progressed further and further rightwards as the game goes on. Each turn a card is drawn that will push one of those enemies a space right, and activate its power. You win if you manage to exhaust the deck of antagonist movement and you lose if enough of their forces penetrate one of three thresholds. If you have five enemies past the gates of Asgard, three enemies in the halls of Valhalla, or one enemy in the House of Odin at the end of a turn, you lose.

Your enemies include Surt the lord of fire jotunn, who summons fire jotunns into Midgard; Nidhogg a dragon that nibbled the roots of Yggdrasil, who drags other enemies along with him; Loki the half-giant trickster god, who summons the help of the frost jotunn; Jormungand the giant sea serpent that coils the world, which causes islands to sink and pushes back the valkyrie; Hel the goddess of death and the underworld, who steals away the Einherjar (the fallen slain vikings) to the underworld; and Fenrir the wolf that will devour the sun at Ragnarok, whose ferocity causes you to lose a number of turns.

In a single turn, each god has three moves, and must coordinate with other gods. Each action can be used once on each of the nine worlds, with their various effects. Mostly, you will be using a combination of Midgard to collect Einherjar through the Valkyrie, and then throwing those forces against one of the antagonistic gods in Asgard. Each character can only select each of the worlds once during their turn.

The antagonist gods each have a strength that increases the further right they traverse. Your goal is to beat them in combat with a force that is either equal to or greater than theirs. Your combat strength is one for every Einherjar you commit to the fight, one to three if you have a relevant artefact weapon for that god, one to three based on the roll of a die, and perhaps some of the Aelfar that you can commit after the die roll. It is important to note that any Einherjar and Aelfar that you commit are lost whether you win or not. Success pushes the enemy deity back one slot.

This is where the nine worlds come in. There are a variety of different resources that are crucial to manage for your success. Selecting Alfheim (home of the elves) gives you an Aelfar; selecting Vanaheim gives you the aid of the Vanir (which are a range of misellaneous instant effects of increasing power); Nidavellir (home of the dwarves) gives you access to weaopn artefacts, each keyed to one of the six enemy deities; Svartheim (kingdom of darkness) allows you to swap resources between your gods; Jotunheim (home of the frost jotunn) lets you combat the various frost giants; Muspelheim (kingdom of fire) lets you remove fire jotunn from Midgard; and Helheim (the underworld) lets you return fallen or used Einherjar back to an island on Midgard.

There are other particular rules, but the above should give you a sufficient overview of the game that you can go in with some insight.

Implementation

This is a game that works quite well for the iPad. You have one main board, which readily fits onto the user interface of the iPad, and all the extraneous parts of the game are represented with icons similar to the tokens from the actual board game. All of the information you need to play the game is at your fingertips with a few small exceptions. For example, I found that there is no direct information in the user interface that tells you what each of your Gods has (in terms of Einherjar, artefacts, and similar), or what the order is. Without this information at hand, it becomes nigh impossible to adequately co-ordinate from move to move. I discovered something of a work around, in using the Realm of Darkness to see at a glance who has what, but this option becomes blocked from time to time in the game, so you can’t depend on it.

At this point, the game has a text base tutorial, which is enough to familiarise yourself with the basics of the game, but not enough to really know what’s going on or why you might be making certain actions over other actions. Fortunately, I found it took maybe only a little trial and error in one game before I was confident, and perhaps about three games before I found myself consistently winning half of them (albeit with the built in cheat). However, the developer has promised a video tutorial in the next update which is due for release next week. The written rules seem to have been mostly lifted from the physical game, because there are numerous references to things that only make sense if you’re referring to a physical game. Not enough that you can’t make sense of it, but it’s there.

Edit: quick update, Stéphane has advised that while playing, you can place your finger on the current god, which will reveal the order of play for the gods. Similarly you can place your finger (in cheat mode) on the upcoming deck of antagonist gods and frost jotunn, which will reveal how many of each type are still remaining.

Verdict

8/10: This is clearly going to rank up there amongst the best games. I think it needs a few more refinements before it gets a nine or a ten, but definitely a game worth your time and money.

Gameplay

Somewhere, a crime has been committed. One of the nineteen unlikely suspects is guilty: is it the bare-chested Tarzan Wild? Brigit Bordot the disco queen? Henry the mild-mannered janitor (not really)?…Could be…

Over a number of scenarios such as a poisoning at a dinner party or a hacking crime in cyberspace, you must question the suspects and use their answers to deduce the perpetrator of the crime. From answers to questions about the suspect’s location, hair colour, choice of food, level of skill at computers, etc, you use a process of elimination to narrow your search until – hopefully – you point your accusing finger at the correct culprit.

As you progress with your investigation, you receive answers which are precise (‘the killer was a man’) to the vague (‘I sat at table A, B or C’). You automatically keep notes in your casebook, and can place the suspects in their admitted locations at the bottom of the game screen, which can help you narrow down your choices as to who to question next.

Eventually, you will have enough information to allow you to accuse a suspect. Do this in as few moves as possible, with as few questions asked as you can, and you rack up the points and unlock later, harder scenarios. Accuse the wrong guy or gal and you suffer a hefty penalty, encouraging you to put in the work to make sure you’re as sure of your accusation as possible.

On later levels, additional factors are brought into play, making it harder to pinpoint the guilty party. You will find yourself referring to the character overview screen frequently, which is automatically updated with all the answers and provided alibis you’ve received so far. Studying this can help point you in the right direction if you find yourself going round in circles, and it can be satisfying to make the sudden logical leap required to close in on your adversary.

Implementation

iLogic Crimes is well-presented, with a clear and (luckily for it) logical layout. Everything you need to proceed with your crime-busting is only a click away, and the game’s design is fluid and intuitive.

Graphically, it looks a little dated. The characters are static 3D renders who look as though they have walked stiffly out of the 90s; and although the scenario backgrounds are attractive and colourful, they too are static and unchanging throughout the game.

Music is best turned down or turned off, with a similarly dated synth muzak feel that few are likely to love.

One potential flaw is the ability to ‘cheat’ the game, by simply accusing each of the suspects in turn until you hit the guilty party. That said, unless you luck out in your guesses early on, the game will penalise you points-wise; and you don’t get the cerebral satisfaction of working things out on your own, like checking the back of a puzzle book for the answer.

The ability to slide the characters into place and the various ways of taking notes – whether automatically or, via being able to place ticks and crosses on the characters, manually – is well implemented and makes keeping track of things easy.

And the multiple scenarios on offer, with increasing difficulty levels and a near-infinite variety of combinations make iLogic Crimes good value in the lastability department.

Verdict

iLogic Crimes, whilst being guilty of being a little rough round the edges and looking rather dated, deserves a get out of jail free card for presenting an original and entertaining brainteaser that truly does test your powers of logic.

Score: 7/10

c-o-n-f-i-g-u-r-e HD from Cogent Logic is a 2-player game which comes across like a mashup of Scrabble, poker and dominoes. Played on a board almost identical to the world’s leading word game, the tiles contain numbers instead of letters, and your goal is to rack up the points by placing sequences – or runs – of consecutive numbers. After getting your head round the concept – which can take a good few attempts – it presents a refreshing and original challenge.

Gameplay

c-o-n-f-i-g-u-r-e is a game for two players played on a board divided into squares. Some squares contain symbols, which – like Scrabble – give extra points for the tile or sequence you place upon them. Players are dealt a hand of numbered tiles, and take it in turns to place runs on the board, aiming to be the player with the highest score when no tiles are left to play.

The rules governing runs are quite complex. A tile can only be played next to another if it has an identical value; or if it differs by exactly one. Runs can be played horizontally, vertically or diagonally; and runs can be of any length between one and six numbers. Sixes in your hand can be turned into nines by touching them to flip them over; and any tile can be used as a blank or wildcard, again by tapping on it to turn it over.

On your first few attempts, these rules are likely to cause some mistakes on your part as you try to figure out why you can’t place a certain number on your desired square. Eventually however it all clicks: it’s usually the diagonals you have to be aware of, especially if you’re used to the strict horizontal and vertical lines of Scrabble.

Implementation

As with many two-player tile placing games, there’s not much to get wrong with an iPad implementation and configure is no exception. The mechanics are intuitive and fluid, and there is enough information on screen showing scores and tiles remaining to let you see all you need to.

Graphics are basic, but get the job done; and there is no sound or music, giving configure a slightly budget feel. Games can be played against the iPad (on three levels of difficulty); or against another human player using the same device. Note that unlike many games, both players can see each others hands – it may have been nice to at least have the option to hide your hand from your opponent, in case an eagle-eyed player spots an opportunity to thwart you that they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to deduce.

Verdict

configure HD gains points for presenting an original game, even if it does get its inspiration from elsewhere. And once you get your head round the way the numbers on the board must relate to each other, it presents a challenging and quick slice of number-crunching fun.

Score: 6/10