Archon Classic on Steam

[jpublic]

Anyone try it? The screenshots make it look not so good.

[biosc1]

Lack of online multiplayer makes this a hard one for me to justify.

Back in the C64 days, I played a lot of it because my brother lived with me and we would battle it out.

This one looks alright...but hard to say if it would have the same "magic".

[LongStepMantis]

Anyone try it? The screenshots make it look not so good.

I picked this up from the developer's site a while back, and I'm...mixed. The game is a complete upgrade of the classic Archon, and even has some fun puzzle-like levels to play solo. It runs great, plays like you would expect, and has that Archon feel. These are all good things, and I'm a hardcore Archon fan as it was the game that launched me into PC gaming so many years ago. You can even play team games like 2 lights vs 2 darks but unfortunately, you have to keep the respective sides on the same team, no dark and light vs dark and light. It has added gameplay types like allowing the units to level up, or a rune board where units can collect items on the board to gain bonuses.

On the HUGE bad side the only multiplayer is local.

Aside from that glaringly bone-headed decision not to include network play, even LAN, it's very faithful to the series and a fun game...it just feels like it has a leg missing because some form of network multiplayer is probably the single most important thing the game should have, and doesn't. Which is a damn shame, because the rest of the game is solid.

Edit: I popped into their site and read the forums, and they are apparently working on adding LAN play at the very least, and eventually internet play. I will give them huge props for that.

[J Arcane]

Is it true there's a way to put it in retro-graphics mode?

'Cause frankly, especially with no LAN play, I'd rather play the NES mode. I just don't like the look of the new graphics.

Which is sad because I've been looking forward to this since it was announced ages ago. What the hell took so long?

[LongStepMantis]

I don't think you can change all of the graphics. When selecting your team you have the choice between Modern light and dark and Classic light and dark. The classic teams look like their original versions, blocky atari-ish graphics and all. I haven't played in a while but I don't think they actually play any different. The battle boards are similar to the original game, not Ultra. Single screen, with random boulders/mushrooms/logs that pop up and act as barriers.

I would give the game a full recommendation for any Archon fans if the network multiplayer was added. When they get that working, it will definitely be worth it, imo.

[Esquilax1138]

I have this in my Steam cart, but thanks for the heads up about no online multiplayer, I'll wait to get it then.