Gates of Troy vs. Legion - a critical comment
Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 1:19 pm
Dear Ian, dear forum-guys,
I played strategy games for years, including titles like euII or hearts of iron and also the mainstream stuff like shogun, rome etc.
Not expecting too much I ran across a cheap copy of "Legion", my first encounter with slitherine (i guess) so far.
The game got my interest easily, i liked the simple but still motivating style, f.e. building up a more and more experienced army, a good A.I., even the battles I found motivating enough to play 3 campaigns all the way down to victory. So I thought, I give slitherine another try and figure out a more modern game, ending up with gates of troy a couple of days ago.
First, all was nice: a bigger management system, nicer maps, more story, a nice handbook (not written for 13year old boys, but for adults, which I, being 33, appreciate), etc. A lot of elements nevertheless I easily rediscovered from legion, but that was OK, since I like that game. But then I started my first game and eventually came to the first battle-scene: What a dis-illusion!!! The troops run around like a bunch of bees, everything is in motion but it looks so ridiculous. As soon as the armies clash together, everything is just like a big heap of blinking bytes, no order any more, no atmosphere at all. I mentioned my interest in legion before to make sure, you don??t misunderstand me as a graphics fanatic. But the way these battles are shown in gates of troy is just so uninspired, that I couldn??t convince myself playing for hours to build up a decent army, just to see them looking all more or less the same and - over all - running around in a glibbering, porridgle-like style. (sorry, my english is not the best - I am german). I can get a lot of fun out of a game just by my fantasy - when the game allows, like it did in legion (oh, yeah, those 4 squads of hoplites with level 6 experience that won my heart with their withstanding power..), but this was not allowing me to have any fun out of the battles. I don??t know if this comment is of any help or if you guys out there think the same, but I hope for Legion II to be a) not overcomplicated just for the sake of pumping up the game-features.
b) having a motivating (no need for high-end graphic) battle engine.
c) please, please remember: sometimes, less is more (how many sequels of games do I know that just killed the game atmosphere by pseudo-enlargening everything? - hundreds I guess)
Apart from that: again my appreciation for legion, I still find out nice features of this so simple looking game. Tomorrow I hope to get chariots of war in my favourite store. So you see: I still have hope.
Mike
I played strategy games for years, including titles like euII or hearts of iron and also the mainstream stuff like shogun, rome etc.
Not expecting too much I ran across a cheap copy of "Legion", my first encounter with slitherine (i guess) so far.
The game got my interest easily, i liked the simple but still motivating style, f.e. building up a more and more experienced army, a good A.I., even the battles I found motivating enough to play 3 campaigns all the way down to victory. So I thought, I give slitherine another try and figure out a more modern game, ending up with gates of troy a couple of days ago.
First, all was nice: a bigger management system, nicer maps, more story, a nice handbook (not written for 13year old boys, but for adults, which I, being 33, appreciate), etc. A lot of elements nevertheless I easily rediscovered from legion, but that was OK, since I like that game. But then I started my first game and eventually came to the first battle-scene: What a dis-illusion!!! The troops run around like a bunch of bees, everything is in motion but it looks so ridiculous. As soon as the armies clash together, everything is just like a big heap of blinking bytes, no order any more, no atmosphere at all. I mentioned my interest in legion before to make sure, you don??t misunderstand me as a graphics fanatic. But the way these battles are shown in gates of troy is just so uninspired, that I couldn??t convince myself playing for hours to build up a decent army, just to see them looking all more or less the same and - over all - running around in a glibbering, porridgle-like style. (sorry, my english is not the best - I am german). I can get a lot of fun out of a game just by my fantasy - when the game allows, like it did in legion (oh, yeah, those 4 squads of hoplites with level 6 experience that won my heart with their withstanding power..), but this was not allowing me to have any fun out of the battles. I don??t know if this comment is of any help or if you guys out there think the same, but I hope for Legion II to be a) not overcomplicated just for the sake of pumping up the game-features.
b) having a motivating (no need for high-end graphic) battle engine.
c) please, please remember: sometimes, less is more (how many sequels of games do I know that just killed the game atmosphere by pseudo-enlargening everything? - hundreds I guess)
Apart from that: again my appreciation for legion, I still find out nice features of this so simple looking game. Tomorrow I hope to get chariots of war in my favourite store. So you see: I still have hope.
Mike
