Review: Braveheart - Wield Tornadoes Of Destruction
by Felix Xiao
December 6, 2010
Overview
Before you get confused, the game has nothing to do with the 1995 Mel Gibson film. Instead, you guide Knight Richard through savage lands in a quest to find the holy grail and impress the king's daughter. This mythical object lies on the other side of many vicious beings, and it's gonna take a combination of deadly circular attacks and spectacular skills to reach it.
Features
Braveheart is a blend of hack and slash, survival, and RPG elements. In every level, you have to survive a number of waves of enemies by using one of 2 control methods. There is a story mode across 5 regions and a hunt mode in case you need to earn more money. Your character gains gold and experience during battle that can be used to level up, upgrade attributes, and buy a variety of things from city stores. The game has Game Center integration with leaderboards and 38 achievements.The Good
Your quest proves to be an extremely challenging one with a lot of intense confrontations. The 10 weapons that you can buy can be upgraded and have their strengths and weaknesses. As you move through each region of the world, the monsters change and become more resistant to your attacks, requiring you to spend your gold wisely. The game is all about making smart decisions during battles and timing your blows so that they're more effective.
Braveheart's RPG features really help to increase the fun factor of the game. Your character can level up from killing monsters, which allows you to spend skill points to improve 5 traits. While on the battlefield, some enemies drop boosts when killed. These include poison, ice, explosions, and other temporary bonuses that assist you in your quest. By filling up a meter on the side of the screen, you gain perks that further make your life as a hero a bit easier.
The game has a well done storyline that is displayed in picture slides with cartoon artwork and dialogue. Every level is equipped with blood splatter effects and a dramatic soundtrack that add a level of darkness. At the main game screen, you can press a button that will show you the storyline up to the point that you're at. Your primary flail attack requires you to draw circle-shaped patterns on the screen, which actually works quite well.
The Bad
Once you get past level 15 or so, gold suddenly becomes one of the most important things in your mission. There is simply no way to defeat monsters in later levels without an upgraded weapon, which drains about 100,000 coins out of your savings. This means that you have to replay many levels or hunt for hours on end in order to strengthen your character to progress in the story. You have the option to buy 5 million gold for only $0.99, but it just doesn't feel right that you either have to hand over more money or spend a few hours in boredom just to enjoy the game.
For a game of Braveheart's nature, you would expect to have more depth in gameplay. From the first level to the last, it's all about surviving 2 or 3 waves and nothing else. There are no objective based elements at all, making the game really repetitive. Some of the boss levels seem like they have no end and go on for about 20 minutes. Imagine drawing circles on your iPhone for 20 minutes straight. Doesn't sound too appealing does it?
While the controls for your flail are decent, the ones for the crossbow are atrocious. You can't shoot a crossbow accurately while in motion, and instead have to stop and take aim. Even when you do stand still, the controls still feel awkward and are not suitable at all for such a game. Your motion while using your flail is really distorted and doesn't feel smooth at all. The tap movement method is also not effective at all, as the game often thinks that you're trying to attack when you want to walk to a different part of the map.
