Review: Demon's Rise 2: Lords of Chaos

[admin]

Demon's Rise 2: Lords of Chaos is a turn-based role-playing game set in a dark fantasy setting.

http://www.pockettactics.com/reviews/re ... -of-chaos/

[Wavelightgames]

Thanks for the detailed and in-depth review, Nick.

[Buttsauce]

Great review. The game is awesome!

[robthomasson]

Question please ...

Can you leave the app during a battle and return to finish it later? So ... is there a save option (auto or manual)?

I imagine so ... but wanted to be sure ... I would hate to be most of the way through a 30 to 60 minute battle and lose all progress in that battle.

[Neepneep]

I don't quite get why it wasn't a five starrer. The review doesn't really highlight any weaknesses or disappointments.

[Wavelightgames]

Question please ...

Can you leave the app during a battle and return to finish it later? So ... is there a save option (auto or manual)?

I imagine so ... but wanted to be sure ... I would hate to be most of the way through a 30 to 60 minute battle and lose all progress in that battle.

Yes, the game auto saves at the end of each turn.

[Wavelightgames]

The first patch will be aubmitted to Apple tomorrow that fixes some bugs, improves the UI and adds two new playable character classes.

[Buttsauce]

I don't quite get why it wasn't a five starrer. The review doesn't really highlight any weaknesses or disappointments.

My assumption is that the double tap being unresponsive at times would cause the a 4-star review... but to be honest, I agree with the commenter, it shouldn't have been dropped a star. I recall beta testing the first Demon's Rise game and it had tons of bugs... and it was just so good with so much potential... I would have given that 4-stars then, with tons of bugs, to be honest.

It's not often you get such a quality, intuitive, X-COM style game from such a small dev. Bugs or not, please buy this game. It is truly worth your purchase if you like X-com (who doesn't... and if you don't, I don't want to know you), and Wave Light Games is so freaking talented and involved with the community. This is really a developer who cares, is passionate about the product and the people who are playing their games.

I myself would easily grant this game 5-stars, and would beg the developer to churn out more games to play. Because really, I love it! And from my experience, they really want you to love it... and if you don't, they will make it so you do.

PLEASE NOTE: I love Pocket Tactics, all the talented reviewers... but, in a way, Nick, your review doesn't really highlight a reason for dropping the score a star.

[Wavelightgames]

Thanks gents, it's cool ... I'm stoked to get 4 out of 5 stars from Pocket Tactics.

Here's a preview of the patch that should be submitted today. There are 2 new characters (Feral Ogre and Tentaclid Overmind) as well as shiny new bronze armour for the Demon Knight. A few bug fixes and some requested UI enhancements and some balance tweaks.

Feral Ogre Select Screen by Rajpreet Dhillon, on Flickr

Demon Knigth v2 C by Rajpreet Dhillon, on Flickr

[NICKVIGDAHL]

PLEASE NOTE: I love Pocket Tactics, all the talented reviewers... but, in a way, Nick, your review doesn't really highlight a reason for dropping the score a star.

I've been asked to respond to these concerns. I have to base my reviews on the Pocket Tactics reviews policy available in "About Us" above.

Demon's Rise 2 is this:

"4 Star = Generally Recommended ??? Apps that are given this rating present themselves well and have some smart ideas. A worthy candidate for your time and/or money."

but not this:

"5 Star = Highly Recommended ??? Apps is a paragon of justice and virtue, and probably saves old ladies and cats in its spare time. Incredibly well presented and/or made, and generally your life will lack any meaning if you don't try this out."

I have to interpret the line there quite a bit, which isn't ideal, but being a "paragon of justice and virtue" should not be easy and such games should not come along often. To my mind it requires a more-or-less perfect game that greatly appeals to a super broad audience.

Demon's Rise 2 is not this type of game. People who do not like min-maxing tactical games will not think it is a 5 and may not like it much overall. There are a lot of gamers in that camp. I'll reference the mass rejection of D&D 4e and rise of Pathfinder to support this. A lot of them likely read this site, though maybe they don't comment.

There are also a few bugs and other items that detract from the game but certainly not enough to drop it below a 4. I opted to not go into detail on this stuff because A) it can be easily fixed and become irrelevant later (I know this particular developer is addressing them), B) I did not want to bog down the review with negative comments on an otherwise very good game, and C) it adds length to a review without helping do much, other than I suppose to justify my score. It sounds like I may be required to add this stuff going forward, but that has been my logic thus far.

You might not agree with this score even after my explanation and that's fine. Demon's Rise 2 is a great game and you should go buy it if my review made it sound good to you. The developer deserves your money and should certainly continue making more games.