Game Review - Azkend and Azkend 2: The World BeneathScore +2/-4 (Azkend), +3/-4 (Azkend 2)
Overview
A match-3 chain game, with occasional hidden object scenes. Nice but static artwork.
+ Very good artwork in background images. More so in Akzend 2, where they more frequently show the artwork, add a bit of animation, and you can review the scenes in your journal.
- /+Azkend story was not very well reflected in the gameplay. This was corrected in Azkend 2, which had a stronger correlation. For example, the "dynamite" powerup is found after you locate four sticks of dynamite in the story, and when you match them, they explode to clear tiles.
-- Too many symbols (especially in Azkend 2, where this situation happens quite early) means you frequently encounter no-moves and reshuffles. The game starts to become more chance than skill.
+- Challenging hidden object games, but you can't go back to redo them and your degree of success appears irrelevant -- you just get pushed through to the next chapter of the story.
I found Azkend to be challenging and enjoyable to play. However, there are some serious faults in the game structure. The primary one is the clock speed, It seems to be rather random in function. It will change its speed randomly and this plays havoc with your play. I placed a stop watch the speed, to see if it was my imagination or real. I found the speed varies anywhere from 90 seconds to 120 seconds. I had 60 seconds pop up twice (but this was probably an abberration - but should not happen). The other problem with the game speed is that it does not pause or slow down when the tailsmen are invoked and you cannot continue play until they have completed their action
ReplyDeleteSome of the tailsmen perform in a random pattern, and can actually be detrimental to play. Icons get stuck in corners and nothing you do will allow you to clear them.
I have successfully completed all adventure levels and when I selected New Game, it did not clear all previous game information - all levels retained their current status rather then resetting to a null state.
Overall this game concept is very good and enjoyable (although irritating).
With that having been said I will not be buying another game, because of these hidden problems that show up beyond the representative games played here.
@Anonymous - Thank you for your comment and pointing out the clock speed issue. I myself didn't pay any attention to that. I was too busy scrambling to finish each level. (^_^)
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