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RPG Sorcery PDA Reviewed
5. Awesome. Very few flaws. Very appealing. (Overall: Must have.)
4. Strong effort. Pleasing. (Overall: Good purchase.)
3. Good. Flaws and good qualities cancel each other. (Overall: If this is your genre, buy it, otherwise get it as a gift.)
2. Mediocre, or worse. Too many flaws. (Overall: Risky buy.)
1. Awful. (Overall: Don't bother.)
General/Story - 5 The game seemed slow at first running from my storage card but I had six other apps running, and when I closed them the game ran smoothly so no points off there. The game starts out with a unique and detailed storyline (if you bother to go through it and worth it for genre fans. Also, I recommend downloading the player's guide from the website for quick review before playing). Anyway, you're basically following in the footsteps of an adventurer named Falcon--yep, that's right, you're not Falcon (as the game title would have you believe). After setting up your ability scores, the first character you play in Sorcery is a Warrior-young and eager for adventure-willing to follow a caravan into the desert in search of the Orb of Power from a castle in the long-forgotten city.
As chance would have it you end up alone outside of the dark castle you revived from a statue of the dark lord's avatar, with a spell from a wizard named Firlor. The first element of the game acts as a trainer so there's little mystery there after you get through the castle (thanks to Lynn from Sorcery staff for hints), but it gets better then nonetheless. As far as tracking and saving, the game does that automatically for you-you can quit at any time and continue where you left off. You can also restore a game if things gets hairy and there's a nice automatic journal to keep track of important events and completed quests. I love the fertile storyline and it's not overwhelming as taken in bits and pieces (I'm still trying to help Guntok from the Cliffs Town Inn to get his father's axe back from Goblins). I'm still playing the Warrior character so I can't comment specifically on the Dwarf (male), Elf (male), Sorceress (female), and Cleric (female) characters.
Gameplay: (4) I've read it before somewhere so I can't take credit for the analogy, but the game does remind me a lot of Heroes of M&M crossed with the original Myst. It is sort of turn-based, but you don't have to wait for the game to make moves -- so it's seamless. I understand the PC version will have more of a 3D effect but obviously to fit it on the PPC it's an animated 2D setting with movie animation movement and a battle interface with 3D creatures. Performing feats, actions, and spells are point-and-click (from an abridged menu) and every room has its own animations and sound effects. You can perform an action on an object or from the interface which executes an action on the entire area. You can also click on objects to get a closer look and if the area-to-area movement animations get dreary, you can click on the directionals for a fast Myst-zip-like transition. There are scores of secrets, puzzles, and the overall gameplay allows you free reign almost like playing D&D, but with more obvious outcomes. What's also unique in this game is that performing feats such as searching or hurdling through a door require a feat ability roll--right with your ability bonuses brought up from your character sheet. But you don't manually perform counter rolls such as for surviving a trap, the game does that automatically and even shows you the roll count in the interface next to your character.
That brings me to the character. Like in Doom, when you get hacked up by a zombie or crashed on from a boulder trap, your character gets all bloody and disheveled. At times your sword or axe even breaks. But this is played from a first-person perspective so I'm referring to the image of your character down on the bottom interface. I like the battle interface, you can control different attack movements like slash, stab, and hack, and cast spells, or even retreat (later on this is helpful). There's also a useful monster bio window with background, abilities, and even tips--but this is based on what you know at the time of playing. The detail changes as you gain more wisdom and experience points.
Graphics: (5) The graphics are undoubtedly the best I've seen on the Pocket PC and when even compared to some lousy PC games. The images are quite crisp and very detailed. At times the animations seem just a little out of place but strangely when tested on my new Xscale PPC they're better placed. Go figure. A lot of work went into the story and graphic design -- some apparently compiled into the game and some pre-loaded as you play.
Sound: (3) There's nothing wrong with the game sounds but there's also nothing new there. Each area seems to have a different background sound and it's obvious they went with mono wave formats to save space. One good thing, in my opinion, is the lack of background music. I absolutely HATE the same, boring background music in games so Hurrah! for that. Also the sounds sound (pardon the pun) the same on my newer PPC so it's the same average-quality throughout.
Overall Score: (4.25) Strong effort. Pleasing. Good purchase.
Slashdot welcomes reader features -- many thanks to shiroi_kami for this one.
Wow!! Finaly its out.. I'm going to be even less productive at work. I love technology
I can't comment specifically on the Dwarf (male)
Ah, but you just think he's male. You never know with dwarves...
there goes all that increased productivity my iPac was supposed to give me.
On the "Itchy & Scratchy" CD-ROM, is there a way to get out of the dungeon without using the wizard key?
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
'nough said.
A Winshit CE palmtop doesn't have the option of just recompiling desktop software.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
any chance this would work on a zaurus?
the sounds sound (pardon the pun) the
Not a pun, just poor writing.
I would suggest putting the whole title of the game up. I didn't get the Falcon comment until I looked up the game. Some screenshots would have been nice.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
Is there any incentive to get a PDA for gaming, as opposed to a $60 GBA?
I'm serious, what is the state of game quality on modern PDAs? Is it analgous to PCs vs Consoles, IMO the PC 'scene' suffers from too many crappy games.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Actually, the latest version of Nethack has ports for Windows CE, which you can find right here. Hmmm... I think a bathroom break is coming on. Gotta smack me some grid bugs!
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
"Anyway, you're basically following in the footsteps of an adventurer named Falcon--yep, that's right, you're not Falcon (as the game title would have you believe)."
How does the name Sorcery lead to think of the name Falcon?
If you look at the site it says this is Part I: Falcon's Quest of the game Sorcery. I find following links helpful on occasion ;-)
It is not enough to succeed, others must fail. - Gore Vidal
A review almost identical to Slashdot's user review can be had here:
r ea did=2272
http://www.pocketgamer.org/showthread.php?s=&th
With screenshots.
I had an iPAQ, they are fine little handheld computers. But as game machines, they leave a lot to be desired.
The "button problem" (no two buttons useable at once) make most gaming marginal at best (RPGs may be an exception). Plus, the button/D-pad layaout was all wrong for games.
They also cost too much for game machines. I was always afraid my sons were going to break it, so rarely let them play with it.
I won't even go into the fact that they run an EEE-VIL OS.
I own a GP32 now. It's not as fast (133MHZ ARM), but the controls rock (much better than a GBA) and it only cost ~$160USD. It runs lots of emulators (soon GBA too) and is fairly simple to code for. It uses SMC cards for storage.
Excuse me, I need to go hide in a toilet stall and play Doom now...
Seriously, I've never known anyone who use a PDA not constantly be in a struggle to free up memory and space for productivity, and now you have games like this. Either you use a PDA for work, and don't have the resources for this kind of thing, or you use your PDA for portable gaming - in which case, just buy a fucking Gamboy. Where the hell are all these supre PDAs coming from that you can load up with work, games, music, porn, and viruses? Hell, one guy I work with has more accessories stuck to his IPAQ that it looks more like a brick than a portable anything. Just get a fucking laptop at that point, you've lost the point of having something that small once you increase the size 4 times over. If you want a portable computer, get a laptop. If you want minimal funtionality in a portable device, get a PDA. If you want a miniature computer, tough shit they don't really make those fucking things yet. There are more and better games for the new Gameboys, and those new ones look really sharp. nintendo at least has focus and doesn't try to install MS Word on the Gameboy. They know what the device is supposed to me, and they sell it as that. Get a fucking clue, you cum drop losers.
That is ALL Slashdot is. Without people submitting stories you would cease to exist.
How long will it be before someone decides they *are* a sorcerer and starts pretending their pen is a wand, and in order to heal their sick grandmother shoves it up her arse when she's seizing, because the medicine they give her to stop long seizures is administered anally (Dilantin)?
It'd probably take me longer than it took you, since I'd have to dig up six feet of dirt first.
Step right up, everyone's a winner!
Take a swing, hit the bell, win a prize.
The game's main site features icons for several languages. The Korean icon features the flags of both North and South Korea.
Now I know this has nothing to do with the game, but somehow the probability of this site being accessed by a North Korean RPG fan strikes me as slightly lower than the possibility of it being accessed by an Afghani teen using a Babbage's Analytical Engine built from spare AK-47 parts and pigeons.
For inmates of the People's Republic of Korea, it is probably even illegal to know there is such a thing as the Internet.
If you do not like Barry Bonds, that doesn't make you a geek, it makes you a loser.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to go peer-to-peer with Slashdot readers.
Keep on karma whoring;
whoring whoring whoring,
raw hide!
"I love the fertile storyline and it's not overwhelming as taken in bits and pieces (I'm still trying to help Guntok from the Cliffs Town Inn to get his father's axe back from Goblins)."
Uhm, this story sounds as crappy as every other generic RPG storyline out there. Help person A recover item B, repeat. Once you've helped enough people (re: got enough xp/loot) overthrow the dark overlord and avenge your family member's death.
Seriously, if you want to make the case that the game has a strong storyline, please show an example of a strong storyline. That example would be an example of a *weak* storyline.
This game is AWESOME!
awesome! review the first game and get a free copy of the second!
...and "Learn to Sew with Barney" would earn a "5"...
:p
That should be "Learn to Sew with Barney for Linux version 9.02 revision 3, beta. (or v9.02r3B for short)"
Yeah...
Microsoft gives away everything you need for PocketPC development (except, of course, a Windows PC) - including the embedded tools version of Visual Studio and a software PocketPC emulator. I'm tempted to port Nethack myself just to piss you off.
They're partnered with a company called ebluetech, who claims to only do pocketPC development (ie: no palm dev) BUT on the front page of the SorceryPDA site, before you click 'enter' the ebluetech banner CLEARLY shows a Palmpilot!
Yeah, I suppose I could have clicked the link. However this was a review. Posting a comment after just reading the review and not playing the actual game isn't the same as posting a comment after reading a summary of an article and not reading the actual article.
:p
And seeing as my lame-ass comment somehow got modded up to 4, a few other folks may have made the same mis-step. It wasn't entirely clear from the review (other than the one remark I commented on) if this game had a name at all.
YMMV, so there.
Is this the promised end? Or image of that horror? KING LEAR
I clicked for the german page. It's hilarious. Like some non-german speaking guy was pulling a leg on the german language. They should have used babelfish. It would have done a better job. :-)
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I wrote more natural dialogue when I was in 6th grade. It has the standard shitty "random letter generator" "fantasy" names (I don't think this deserves being called fantasy). The plot seemed to be (I couldn't read all of it, it was too painful) "get artifact from bad guys". Wow, that's never been done before, besides every rpg ever made in the history of ever. Seriously, it gets a 1. Quake has a better plot.
1. You used leetspeak; I did not.
/. was designed as a political soapbox for geeks like ourselves? Have you ever concidered that we trash windows because it sucks!?
2. I use the sn "sheenmaster" on IRC.
3. I have been using the same sn for years.
4. IIRC=="If I Recall Correctly", you did not.
5. As for the "political soapbox" comment, have you ever concidered that
6. I use Linux to write applications and games, as well as insult windows on slashdot. 7. I was just saying the nethack still kicks ass, so does fortune and the BSD games.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
THIS should be the topic!
The obvious incentive for PDA games is that they are an add-on to your other PDA functions. But these days I find myself using my Visor Neo to play Bejewelled (which is the only shareware game I've ever shelled out money for) more and more frequently. Infact, I think I play on it the most; however it still fills a vital role as my calendar/phone center/note taker/organizer/etc.
There are indeed a lot of crappy games for PDAs as well as PC's- but all my experience is with the shareware stuff.
Infact, Popcap/astraware (creators of my beloved bejewelled) have a PDA game pack- so I picked it up. And its across the board. Some of the games are fun and fast on my Visor Neo, but some are bad PC ports. E.g.- Atomica. I loved atomica on my pc, and can't stand it on my PDA (so I deleted it).
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Sheri was kind enough to send me a copy of the review for my site too. It incorporates a slight update to the score requested by Sheri, a selection of accompanying screenshots, and further discussion on the game. You can read it here...
:-)
If you're interested in finding more Pocket PC games (and there are plenty of cool ones out there!), PocketGamer.org is a good place to start!
___________
PocketGamer.org - For Gamers on the Go..
But then again, you all know about palms when boy are bored...
You'd see that the Japanese language and Korean flags aren't links. That makes it a bit of a moot point :)
Too bad more webdesigners don't just leave image borders turned on. It saves a lot of pointless clicking by most people.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
iPaq mah boy, iPaq
as in Compaq
who's logo looked much better on a Formula 1 car than HP's ever does
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
the screenshots are from an 800x600 screen grab
how well does that translate to a 240x320 screen?
also what's the battery life like. I can only play PDA Everquest for maybe 2 hours before all the juice is gone.
I've thought it might be good to use wireless iPaqs to play a multi user game in a city but that's about as far as I got 8)
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter