Of course, as i grow older, my taste and requirements for games have also upgraded. Still, i shall post one of my favourite games of all times: "Bandit King of Ancient China"
An illustration of Bandit King of Ancient China
The word "Ancient" tells you how old this game is and thus can indicate my age. This game is a strategy, war and turn based game. It has a little bit of RPG involvement as you can choose to play a hero character of your choice.
At the Startup of the game
There are mainly 4 scenarios and 5 level of difficulties to choose from. Your task is to help Emperor Hui Zhong to execute the Evil Ministy Gao Qiu (located at province 23 at the start of the game). You cannot do this alone. Throughout you journey, you have to gather more heroes, increase your soldiers size, gain popularity and land.
4 Scenarios to choose from
The heroes number of land and generals are different in each of the scenarios . The goal remains the same although i find scenario 4 is faster to complete.
Some heroes you can choose
Different hero has different highest attribute. There are 4 main attributes to consider- body, strength, dexterity and wisdom.
Configuring attributes of your hero
Beside each attribute, you can see a randomly counter (something like a jackpot). To stop the counter from moving, you have to press space bar. Unfortunately, we cannot manually set all the attributes to its maximum amount (100). My suggestion is press space bar and hold it. After you stop the 4th counter, you will see a confirmation option.
Is this all right Yes / No?
The good news is you can select No and reroll the attributes again. Personally i have tried to select Body and Strength at 100 and Dexterity at 70 plus. As you can see, he is a strength hero and thus his dexterity and wisdom are lower. What are these attributes for?
Body- The more the merrier. Allows your hero to do more job and not get exhausted too fast. Your hero might refuse to do any job if his body gets too low.
Strength- This is important during War as the higher your strength, the more damage you can inflict to your enemy troops. If your strength is 100 and your troops skills and arms are at 100 too, then you can defeat any enemy 1v1.
Dexterity- This allows you to shoot arrows at your enemy in 2 hex distance. If your Dexterity is above 60, you can shoot arrows. If your Dexterity is above 80, you have a chance to inflict damage to your enemy's body. If your enemy body gets less than 10, he cannot do anything but to rest for that turn.
Wisdom- One of my favourite attribute. It allows hero to cast fire at the enemy (Above 60) or cast dragon magic (Above 80) which can damage the enemy body and soldiers. If you are lucky enough, your dragon can hit all the enemy and cause massive damage to them in a single turn.
Hero Lu Zhi Shen at province 6 (green)
If you decide to play Lu Zhi Shen, he is one of the few heroes who can have 100 body and 100 strength at the start of the game. You will control province 6 (green colour) and you have to administrate your province and grow your army. Remember that your task is to kill the evil Gao Qiu located at province 23 and win the game. However, you might need to conquer some of his red army first !
There are 4 seasons and 12 months per year. Each turn cost 1 month so choose your move wisely. During winter, the snow might block some land. If you are in that land, you cannot attack your enemy, neither can your enemy attack you. And of course you land will be damage unless your flood control is high enough to prevent it.
Gold- To build your army, to increase your hero loyalty, buy arms or fur
Food - Food is consume every month as maintenance of your soldiers. It is used during war too.
Metal - Used if your hero has the skill to turn metal into arms
Fur - Trading purposes. Buy low sell high to make profit or you can hunt for fur to sell.
Rate - Trading and arm purposes. The rate will determine the cost of fur and arms values.
Heroes - The number of heroes currently in your land
Men - Soldiers that you currently own. Each hero can have 100 soldiers.
Arms - The higher the arms, the more enemy soldiers you can kill.
Skill - The higher the skills, the more enemy soldiers you can kill.
Which is more important? Arms or Skills? Personally i have tried 100 skill but low arms versus enemy with 100 arms but low skill and won. However if the enemy general has 100 arms with 90 plus dexterity, he will have a very high chance to decrease your body by shooting arrow.
That can be prevented if you get into close combat and kill his soldiers fast enough. Therefore skill are more important and training is free of charge.
People - The number of heroes that are currently in your land. You can try to recruit them by visiting them downtown.
Castles - Each castle allows you to have 5 heroes per province. Minimum 2 castles each province.
Support - The loyalty of your peasants. If it gets too low, your peasants might revolt.
Flood - The defense for your land and wealth is epidemic strikes your province
Land - The amount of food collected during Jan.
Wealth - The amount of money collected during Jan.
Recruiting new generals,buying and selling in the Downtown.
A war cannot be fought alone, neither a war can last long without food and weapons. To build your empire, you need to visit downtown and recruit more generals. Certain generals require you to have a higher popularity. Popularity can be earn when you control and gain support from capture provinces. You will need a popularity of 220 to receive the imperial edict to invite Gao Qiu.
Beginning scene of the battle, you attack Wu Song from province 15
Gaining more lands and capturing more capable generals will allow you to complete this game faster. Above is an example of battle scene.
Another example of battle scene.
There are 2 castles in this enemy provinces. To win the war, you have to either capture the enemy commander or capture all the castles. Plan your strategy well and use special skills like fire or magic to win the war!
Happy Emperor
Finally, you beheaded Gao Qiu and present the gift to Emperor Hui Zhong. After you press the Enter key, you will see the final animation and the nickname of all the 108 heroes found in Bandit King of Ancient China!!!
*****************************************************
In conclusion
Bandit King of Ancient China gives you a fast and achievement kind of entertainment you need. There is a system whereby you start by controlling some small army and grow them to overcome the evil Gao Qiu. You can play with your friends or play against AI.
The outcome after each turn is unpredictable which gives you varieties. There are conflicts involvement (wartime) which is the main attraction of this game. You need to conquer more lands and recruit more heroes and this makes you feel like a ruler of a country. You will decide which strategies to adopt and corner your enemies to surrender.
Good:
- Only need keyboard 0-9 to play this game.
- Sense of achievement (Being a good guy to kill the evil Gao Qiu)
- You can swear brotherhood and control the new hero.
- Play and make ally with your friends.
- Turn based and not real time (You can go for toilet break and resume games.)
- File size is small, you can save the game in your thumb drive and play in any computer.
Bad:
- Only playable offline
- Poor graphics resolution
- Simple sound effect
- Simple animation
- Too easy after you know the shortcut to win the game (Can complete it in less than 1.5 hr)
*****************************************************
In Summary
(Bad, poor, average,good, excellent)
Graphic: Average
Sound: Poor
Storyline: Poor
Animation: Poor
User Control: Good
Entertainment level: Good
PS: This game is playable in any PC. You need to download Dosbox to play this game.
No comments:
Post a Comment