Review: Zammoth - Another Side Of Chess

Overview The once beautiful and flourshing world of Zammoth has been struck by a catastrophic meteor, turning the continent into a dwelling for mutilated creatures. These characters do little besides wage endless wars, and now's your chance to lead one of them to victory in a turn-based strategy game. Features Zammoth is based off chess, with a difference that you have to protect a flag from being captured by enemy forces. You are allowed to move one character every turn, and each of the game's units has special properties, resembling those of their chess counterparts, that allow them to attack in certain ways. The game board is composed of many conjoined hexagon-shaped pieces, including some with obstacles such as forests and mountains that provide blockades and cover. Besides single player in 7 different maps, the game also has multiplayer via Game Center. The Good A twist on traditional chess, Zammoth requires you to develop an extensive strategy that often involves planning ahead several turns. Victory can't be achieved easily by killing off all the enemies one by one, so much of the battle plan lies in deciding the number of units to move forward towards the enemy flag and the number to stay behind to guard your flag. Obstacles on board pieces shake things up a bit and are a great improvement from chess. You can successfully use trees and rough terrain to become invinsible to enemies and to limit their travel distances. The 7 included maps add a bit of replay value, as each one requires a different type of strategy. Some of the maps are very small, while others promote the effectiveness of distance warfare. If you have a friend to play against, then multiplayer mode will feel great. The game also includes a useful info button that explains the characteristics of board pieces and enemies. Although the game is meant to display the savage lifestyles developed after the meteor strike, armies are very polished and contain bright colors that make everything look smoother. The Bad A lack of difficulty levels makes Zammoth incompatible with a large part of the gaming audience. If you're new to chess-type games, then you'll find the game too difficult, whereas turn-based strategy experts will get bored quickly. Most maps are too small as well, and on some of them, the forests become really annoying. Moving onto a forest piece makes a unit appear invisible for several turns, which can be irritating, especially on one of the maps where half of the playable tiles are covered in dense trees. Because of this, it's hard to know when you're about to be ambushed and results in losing a large chunk of your army to surprise attacks. For a game with such polished graphics, the sound and music effects fall hopelessly short. In fact, the only sounds in the game are clicks made when navigating menus and selecting units. Upon defeating an enemy or winning a battle, nothing interesting happens. You also don't have the option to customize the units used, and the game assigns everything for you based on the map selected. Although the inclusion of online multiplayer is commendable, there are little to no people online to play with. If you're looking to play a game against a random opponent, you'll be lucky if Game Center finds someone for you to battle against within 10 minutes, due largely to the fact that not many users own the game. Even if there were more people that purchased the game, the lengthy and soundless single player matches would probably discourage multiplayer games. The Verdict The developers have stated that there will be much-needed updates coming soon for a game that feels incomplete in many fields. Even if you're a hardcore chess fanatic, you might want to hold off on this one, at least until some sound and game customization are added. Zammoth should be free in its current state for $1.99, and there are many better turn-based strategy games available that provide a more immersing experience.

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