Wartune - not exactly new but...

[wolfie2kX 528]

Welp... We've all seen the ads all over the Internet - even on the Sacred Wiki.

 

It's just celebrating it's 1st birthday. I wound up clicking on something that should have given me something entirely different and wound up on the Wartune log in. WTH.. I gave it a shot.

 

First off, if you're expecting anything even remotely like Sacred or Sacred 2 - FUGGEDABOUDIT...

 

The game is produced in Flash and as such, has all the limitations of the platform.

 

Secondly, It's confusing. The story opens when you pick your character and dump them into the game. So there you are wandering around and you come across a bear who wants to fight you. So, you expect to go in and hack and slash at the bear like you would normally?

 

Of course NOT!

 

The screen fades and you wind up in what appears to be something like one of Aegis' favorite martial arts fight games... You get one Combat Art at the start and you get new skills and skill points as you level up. Now.. The fighting still isn't the sort you'd expect from either Sacred, or any of the 3 Diablos. It's automatic, and turn based. When you invoke a CA, it's likely not for the current attack - but the next one.

 

So.. There your avatar is on the left, and the baddy is on the right. You attack by rushing to the far side of the screen, executing the CA and then retreating, back to your corner. The baddy then advances from the right side, attacks you, then retreats back to his side of the screen. This continues until he evaporates in a cloud of dust signaling that he/she or it is dead. You get the word Victory flash on your screen and you collect your rewards.

 

At this point you wind up back on the previous screen and you wind up facing down yet another bear. At this point, I am reminded of the High Elf who is asking why game developers are always out to make the local fauna extinct.

 

So far, so good, lather, rinse, repeat the process with the fight and you're back at the main screen. So you keep wandering around this rather tiny screen - until you run into this girl who is in dire need of help as she is being attacked by (what else) a bear.

 

You guessed it, you go thru the same lame fight situation as before. Once you've saved the girl, she needs to be escorted to her town - which was overrun by some bad guy (I can't remember his name - he was that lame). And of course, you get the typical fight screen. Once you've kicked him to the curb, the girl you just rescued implores you to stay in town and help out because, she suspects there be EVIL most foul on the wind and well, she's a bit fond of your skills.

 

Mind you, you can be either gender in any of the classes available - Warrior, Mage, Archer and I forget the 4th.

 

So... There you are, you've now been elected King/Queen. Your next step is to learn how to build your town and your army. So you go through the steps to do that. The next step is to go raid some gold mines and confiscate their production.

 

So you go out and conquer the gold mines. The people you have to fight are, well, miners and such. Occasionally there are multiple waves of them. Either way, you now own 2 gold mines. The only hitch with these resources - they wind up, going away. They only last for just so long and then vanish into the dust. So you will likely need to chase down more gold mines.

 

In the mean time, while you're juggling this, they throw a bit of Farmville at you. Yes, gold DOES grow on plants. You need to grow a gold crop and then you also need to grow something called Daru (something you need to upgrade your troops) and some other crop that you need for who knows what.

 

I did say the game was confusing.

 

Now then... Farming... You have this thing called the Tree of Life. It gives you stuff and you can harvest it once a day. In the mean time you need to get new neighbors. Fortunately, the system they use is in real time - so you get all kinds of friend requests and such from people you don't know. You have to visit their farms and energize their tree of life - and they come by to visit and energize your tree. When you reach the maximum capacity for the tree, you get to harvest it - but only once per day. Yay... You know, if I wanted to play Farmville, I'd be loading Farmville and not Wartune.

 

Third... The game is annoying in SO many ways and on SO many levels. First off the music. It repeats over and over and over again until you want to beat someone upside the head with a club. Fortunately, there is an Options screen where you can turn it down or even off. YAY!

 

I went to do a quest to put the hurt on somebody or other and was told I didn't have enough Stamina. OK.. Where's the stamina value stored? It's not on the stat sheet. It's no where to be found. Grrr.! At this point, it's best to just log out of the game and walk away for a bit and let that recharge.

 

Now, then, the ads for this game say it's for male gamers only. And once your male friend has gone in don't be expecting to see much of him (or words to that effect)... Welp... OK, the girls are kinda cute... If you're into 2D anime women. Is it enough to keep me submerged in a fog for hours on end?

 

Well.. I'm here writing this.. So I guess not. TBH, I probably get more of a rise from watching a Seraphim, High Elf or Dryad run around the screen and actually do some FIGHTING!

 

Fourth, the main thing that irks me to no end about this game - they do a really wonderful job of walking you through most things to help get you started. And then suddenly, you're mostly left on your own devices to figure things out. They don't do a really good job explaining what things are good for and why you need to do some things.

 

Finally... This game is clearly out to make you spend your real world cash. Yet another confusion... There are like 5 or more kinds of money in the game. First off, there's these things called Balens - they are real world money that's been put into the game. Then there's Vouchers - you earn these for completing quests, opening chests, etc... Third, there's Gold - this is good for buying upgrades on stuff like your town hall, barracks and cottages. Then there's Daru... NO idea what it means, but in addition to Gold, you need this stuff to upgrade your troops. Then there are special event vouchers - which you collect for doing event related tasks. Those can be redeemed for stuff if you collect enough of them. And then there's this thing called VIP status. For a mere $7.99 per month, you get to do certain things for free. There are silly minigames and such that let you collect stuff.

 

Oh.. and some features require Balens (read real world money) to make them work. Alchemy turns your hard earned cash into Gold. WHY would anyone do this? You can raid gold mines, you can grow the stuff, you can loot other people's castles. You can make a FORTUNE in Gold without spending any money on it.

 

And I must make a comment about the market... There's relatively NOTHING in the game you can buy in the market without spending those accursed Balens... The only items in the market that aren't are useless cards that transform you for an hour or so - and those cost vouchers. Anything cool like armor, swords, shields, and the like - cost Balens. So if you pay, you can buy the crap and win the game. Otherwise you gotta do things the hard way.

 

And I thought Farmville was bad when it came to trying to part you from your hard earned cash.

 

So would I recommend it to anyone? Nah... I'm not a mean person. I'll give it 2 stars out of 10.

Edited August 10, 2013 by wolfie2kX

[gogoblender 3,068]

I adore your review

Detail, writing and your touch dramatic, I feel like trying it especially now because you took so much time to put this together. lol and yet you only gave it two stars!

 

 

gogo

[gogoblender 3,068]

Just found the trailer

 

 

reminds me a bit of might and magic, with that turn based set up

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. like this trailer better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KKeYoBD2z0

[Ryanrocker 200]

Looks pretty interesting! Thanks for the writeup and trailers Wolfie and gogo. Really looks to me like Final Fantasy gameplay with a STOLEN hotbar from Diablo 3. I mean look at that thing! Practically identical

[gogoblender 3,068]

lol

stolen's the new "smart" Ryan!

 

gogo

[Ryanrocker 200]

Just for laughs I quickly threw together a side by side comparison and they actually aren't as similar as I originally thought

 

[wolfie2kX 528]

Yeh.. That's pretty much it. The thing the attacks remind me more of Street Fighter. or one of the similar games from the era - I'm thinking late 80's, early 90's side scrolling arcade fight games. Especially with the way the attacks are displayed. Except those old warhorse video games are more fun.

 

Some of your opponents are straight out of Warcraft III (the Taureans) - even their tents look exactly like the ones you'd meet up with in the game.

 

Of course, Orcs are common cannon fodder in any fantasy RPG out there.

 

It appears there are also Seraphim (aka Angels) in this game. Gee. Wonder where they got THAT idea from.. hmm.. I wonder..

 

NOT!

 

The bottom line - this game hasn't really got one original thing in it - LOTS of stuff "borrowed" from every other game out there.

[gogoblender 3,068]

LOTS of stuff "borrowed" from every other game out there.

 

 

"Borrowed" is the new smart, Wolfie

 

 

gogo

[wolfie2kX 528]

"Borrowed" isn't smart. There are plenty of instances where it gets you into a world of hurt.

 

Samsung vs Apple... That's a pretty big one these days..

 

At any rate, here's a sample of the "action" from those Street Fighter type games from years gone by.

 

 

The only difference - they keep at it and don't retreat after making an attack.

[Aegis 256]

Seeing the ads even here, especially with that disclaimer 'male gamers only' (not to mention seeing those hawt scantily clad girls), I made it a point to find out if there's any substance to that game in the first place by looking for reviews and articles on it. After realizing it's a turn based RPG with a horrible interface, the only thing I decided to get out of it was the girls. They be helpful in my artistic inspiration. Good or bad, haven't figured that one out yet.

[gogoblender 3,068]

Seeing the ads even here, especially with that disclaimer 'male gamers only' (not to mention seeing those hawt scantily clad girls), I made it a point to find out if there's any substance to that game in the first place by looking for reviews and articles on it. After realizing it's a turn based RPG with a horrible interface, the only thing I decided to get out of it was the girls. They be helpful in my artistic inspiration. Good or bad, haven't figured that one out yet.

I missed that disclaimer "male gamers only"....

 

how, weird and strange

 

 

gogo

[Ryanrocker 200]

Seeing the ads even here, especially with that disclaimer 'male gamers only' (not to mention seeing those hawt scantily clad girls)

Wait, those ads were for Wartune? I've seen them before and was always like "oh...well then"

[Aegis 256]

 

Seeing the ads even here, especially with that disclaimer 'male gamers only' (not to mention seeing those hawt scantily clad girls), I made it a point to find out if there's any substance to that game in the first place by looking for reviews and articles on it. After realizing it's a turn based RPG with a horrible interface, the only thing I decided to get out of it was the girls. They be helpful in my artistic inspiration. Good or bad, haven't figured that one out yet.

I missed that disclaimer "male gamers only"....

 

how, weird and strange

 

 

gogo

Perhaps it's because you were distracted by the girls? O.O

[wolfie2kX 528]

However can you miss "MALE GAMERS ONLY" on this ad - from our very own Sacred Wiki:)

 

 

But seriously... I dunno. The artistic quality of the women is meh.. Yes, they are "cute" as far as images go - but those only appear when there's dialog. And in truth, once you get past the basic levels, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of that going on. And they're STATIC images. They don't change when they are talking. and let's not forget that they only show head shots by the time you've leveled up to say level 5 or 6.

 

The image above, btw, looks to be Dinah - the girl you rescued originally and wants you as her king/queen.

 

The avatars as they're jumping back and forth on the screen don't look ANYTHING like the ones in the ad above. They kinda look like something out of Street Fighter or Tekken or one of the other dozen or so fight based video games of that era,,, Mind you, I'm not talking about recent vintage - I mean old skool graphics from when they cost you a quarter or so to play at the arcade.

 

Even Sacred 1 with it's funky pseudo 3D had better graphics than this.

 

In other words - you CAN do better..

Edited August 11, 2013 by wolfie2kX

[gogoblender 3,068]

lol omgod.. I dont see these ads at all ...all my stuff is for credit cards applications

 

gogo

[Knuckles 904]

I don't ever see any ads at all !?

[gogoblender 3,068]

Had to turn of fmy ad blocker, I had it on in FireFox

but we cna turn off add blocker per site individually.. so I turned it off now on FDM and Sacredwiki so I can get user's experience

 

 

gogo

[Aegis 256]

Heh. On tablet without an ad blocker, so I see those ads and other similar ones almost anywhere I go. =p. PC with Firefox would be different as I do block those ads. Well, as I said, if nothing else, them ads give me inspiration. Just haven't figured good or bad yet.

[CoolColJ 87]

LOLZ

[wolfie2kX 528]

OK.. I'm wondering exactly which level you have to reach to unlock the promised orgy...

[Aegis 256]

No no... It said you deserved an orgy, not that you were promised one. ;p Plus... It never mentions having an orgy with who... or what... and I don't wanna know. O.o

[wolfie2kX 528]

OK.. I've got NO idea how the mechanics of other games - like Diablo 3 or GW 2 work, but I did sorta figure out how some of the things in Wartune work..

 

Health potions can be consumed AHEAD of time - before you go into battle. In fact, it's a darn good idea to quaff one ahead of time. It may not help you in the coming battle, but it might keep you from getting nerfed later.

 

How's that?

 

You have a giant, open ended pool of hit points - starting with what you get when you start the day and then any health potions you've used. OH.. and Spamming health pots is quite easy - when you click on the health potion in your inventory, you have the option to Use, Move or Use in Bulk - so if you've got 30 small health pots, you can use all 30 of them in 1 shot. You get 10,000 hit points per minor (small) health potion so if you quaff all 30 in 1 shot, that's 300,000 points. This pool is used to restock your personal hit points AFTER the battle. The same can't be said of your troops.. They need to be restocked periodically or you will wind up fighting all by your lonesome. NOT fun when the enemy is equal to or above your level.

 

The trouble is - you can't use the hit points all at once. The amount you get per battle is limited to whatever is appropriate for that level + any mods you make toward HP, +HP gems you've got socketed in your armor and so forth. The beauty of this - there is no such thing as permadeath... But there is a death nerf.

 

Er.. Death Nerf? WTH?

 

An Example: When you go up against a World Boss in one of the World Boss events (there are 3 of them per day) you go in and attack with everyone else. But instead of showing potentially 1000's of people all attacking the beast all at once, you and your troops fight alone in your own battle instance. It kind of makes NO sense what so ever the way it's done, but it's the only way to do it fairly. Actually, that's not entirely true. Remember, this is a Flash based game. Having 1000 people attacking the monster World Boss in ONE room would create epic lag and would likely crash the server, not to mention your computer.

 

Each battle formation includes your avatar and two "instances" of troops - Each "instance" represents half of the number of troops you can have in a battle at any given time. This number can be tweaked by upgrades and when you level up. So if you have 400 troops allotted, each of the 2 others in the battle scenario represents 200 troops. You can have only 1 kind of troop with you in battle (thus far, since there is a 2nd slot that has a lock on it, I'm guessing this will eventually change). Your overall number of troops is governed by your city's cottage stat. If you've got a town that can house 4000 people, up to 4000 troops of any variety can be had. Of course, you can only have just so many troops with you when you go into battle.

 

So you go in and attack the world boss. He zaps one of your two instances of troops. BLAM, he's been 1 shotted. You attack again. BLAM, he zaps your 2nd set of troops in 1 shot. If you're lucky, you can get in 1 more attack before he blasts you to oblivion. Except it's not quite oblivion. You get to be "dead' for 30 seconds then miraculously revive and can go back and attack the big bugger again. XP and Daru are rewarded depending on how much collective damage you've done to the big brute.. Daru is this substance you need to upgrade your cannon fodder, er...troops. Each upgrade costs a progressively larger amount of the stuff.

 

Then there's the Battlefield. This is a multi-server event. You go in and try to kill anyone and everyone and collect these mysterious gems. It kind of reminds me of that old Star Trek TOS episode - the one where Llandru is running things and once every year or so he lets everyone go crazy.

 

The trouble with this sort of event, if you're a mere level 30 (when this event opens up) you're pretty much cannon fodder for players who are more advanced. I went in and pretty much got 3 shotted of existence - and got sent back to the pen for another 30 second death nerf.. After managing to collect one bucket load of this mystery gem and being killed like 5 times - mostly by the same jackarse, I bailed out of this as I really didn't see any point in finishing off this stupidity. I don't see the point of letting level 50 players pick on someone who's only level 30. I sure as heck am NOT going to put the slightest dent in the guy's armor, nor his troops.

 

So. I'm guessing this is the promised "orgy".. One of violence.. NOT the good kind..

[wolfie2kX 528]

Welp... I'm definitely starting to have a really bad feeling about this game. Their tech support is worse than useless...

 

Case in point. Earlier today, I reported a bug. When you complete a dungeon, you now are supposed to have the option of replaying the dungeon again. This is, I presume, a response to the way some of these quests you get are laid out. You have to kill X number of a certain type of baddy and you get another quest to collect Y number of some artifact or other that some other baddy is carrying. Mind you, they don't give you this quest on your first run through of that particular dungeon. At that point, you have to go after the main bad guy on that level. Fine. You get a quest anyhow to do 3 solo dungeon runs anyhow - so it all works out just fine.

 

Btw, each time you enter a dungeon and get transported there, you lose 20 stamina points which get refreshed only once a day. You can also visit a shrine and do stuff to recover some of that spent stamina, that that takes a long time - you get only a maximum of 60 points that way and it takes 2 hours to recharge.

 

So anyhow.. When you click on the Replay the Current Dungeon level, it pops up another box that asks if you want to confirm that you want to play the same area again. But before you can finish reading that and click on the YES button to confirm that you want to play it again, the whole screen fades to black and dumps you back to your city.

 

So I reported this to the numbskulls at R2 games - and these guys are complete retards.

 

The instructions are pretty clear - go to any dungeon, finish it, click on Replay, and WATCH what happens. It's not rocket science.

 

The first numbnut said that this issue is related to game play and they can't do anything to affect game play. NO kidding Sherlock.. DARN right it's about game play - but it's still a BUG. Give the player a chance to read and click. I don't really see why you have to opt into that anyhow - you've already clicked the Yes, I want to replay the level button once. Otherwise you would have clicked on the Leave Campaign button.

 

The 2nd numbnut can't read or follow simple instructions. He thinks the button popped up half way through - when I clearly said it popped up AT THE END of the level. He also wants screen shots. Exactly how I'm supposed to do that when the problem is the prompt and all evidence on the screen VANISHED into thin air, I haven't a clue.

 

The bottom line - it's a BUG. It's not about how much stamina I lost or didn't lose. It's not about game play. It's about a bug. When you pop up a YES or NO decision box, bloody well let the player MAKE UP HIS/HER MIND!

 

And here I thought Zynga's support department was a bunch of clueless nitwits... These guys make Zynga's look like Einstein...

 

Oh.. and before anyone thinks I'm being mean or nasty - no... I am being nice. Probably far too nice... For once, when I send a bug report, I'd like to see these people give me a simple acknowledgement of the problem and say a report is being sent to someone who gives a darn and can test it out to see if there's something valid in the complaint and then forward the problem to the developers for a fix.

 

But I fear I'd be expecting too much.

[Steerpike1 53]

Thanks for these reviews, Wolfie. I had a good laugh at some points. I had looked up the game website, but not got around to downloading the game, as I have enough other things to play at the moment (I have a copy of Divinity: Dragon Commander installed on my machine that I haven't even begun to look at). Don't think I'll bother downloading it at all now, despite all the scantily clad enticements.

[wolfie2kX 528]

There's nothing to download per se - it all takes place in your browser.. It's like Farmville, or any other Flash based game you'd find on say, Facebook or Google +. The only thing you need to do is sign up and in a matter of a minute or two, the game starts loading and you're up and running..

 

But at any rate, that's probably for the best. There are much better games out there.