Mot Wakorb
11-12-2011, 10:05 PM
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http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6093/6337726217_7154f3ce6c.jpg
Title: Elder Sign: Omens
Developer/Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Platforms/Prices:
iPhone ($3.99)
iPad ($6.99)
Android Phone/Tablet ($3.99)
MacOS X ($6.99)
Reviewed Version(s): iPhone, Android Tablet (HP Touchpad w/ Cyanogenmod [Android 2.3])
Reviewer's Note: When installing on Android, the game will ask whether you're on a phone or on a tablet and proceed to install assets afterward. This way, it gives you the high-resolution packs for tablets or lower resolution for phone.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6053/6338478836_87567f898a.jpg
Fantasy Flight Games published their rather popular board game "Arkham Horror" in 2005. Since then, multiple expansions for this game have been released, making for a quite popular series of board games. The problem that many have with the game, however, is the daunting amount of time it can take to play, usually lasting around four to five hours a game.
To combat this, Fantasy Flight Games released "Elder Sign", a more distilled experience that takes most of the movement mechanics out of the game, taking away movement limitations and various checks and replacing those with a series of dice rolls and tasks to be completed with those dice rolls. It continues to use many mechanics from "Arkham Horror", such as spells, common items, locations, monsters, and other world locations. It makes for a much faster paced game that unfortunately can depend quite a bit on the luck of the dice.
This year, Fantasy Flight Games also brings that distilled experience to your mobile device on the Android and IOS platforms as well as to the Mac platform with their game "Elder Sign: Omens." The distilled experience is made better with smooth graphics, well done videos and narration, and a fantastic soundtrack that adds to the creepy atmosphere of the game.
The story behind the game follows H.P. Lovecraft's mythos: an elder god is going to awaken, threatening the world. Minions of this elder god are assisting to thwart our heroes (the investigators) from sealing off the elder god by using elder signs. The only elder god that is featured in this game is "Azathoth", which requires you to find fourteen elder signs before his doom track hits a total of twelve, awakening the god and devouring the world.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6093/6338478542_378a60e56a.jpg
Play starts with a character selection. You choose a team of four investigators, all of the characters coming again from Lovecraft's mythos. Those investigators each have a value for sanity and health, as well as various items, spells, and clues that the player can use during the game to add more glyphs (dice), reroll glyphs, or save glyphs for later use. They also have a special talent that allows various effects during the game.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6103/6338480302_11ee80324f.jpg
Once you complete your team, it is time to investigate the museum. Random locations (adventures) are generated that have tasks to complete. The tasks are completed by getting specific rolls and a value of each. For example, a task may require you to roll a total of 3 investigation results (investigation results can value 1-4 per die), a peril die, and a terror die. Once you have all three, that task is completed. The trouble with this is that areas can contain multiple tasks. Once you commit a die to a task, that die cannot be re-rolled during that adventure, reducing the amount of dice you have to use on tasks later in that adventure. This leads to one unfortunate effect: the game can depend a lot more on luck than it can skill.
Play goes as follows: roll your dice, complete your tasks if you can. If you can't complete a task in a single roll, you can re-roll if you have available clue tokens, or dump a single die and reroll the remaining dice. This can lead to a quick end to an adventure if you're not lucky with the dice. To combat this, you can use unique or common items to change a die from one type to another, add more investigation results, or add a yellow or red die which increase the chances of favorable rolls.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6110/6338479666_13d844378d.jpg
Each adventure has risks and rewards that you can reap. For example, a high-risk adventure may have a penalty of -2 sanity and -2 health, but rewards could be an elder sign or two, and possibly a common item and a unique item. That said, sometimes the rewards are quite the opposite as well, as occasionally a reward will include a monster on the board, an other world location, or advancement of the doom track.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6034/6338480254_551e9fe825.jpg
Also, as you adventure and take player turns, a clock keeps track of day and night. When midnight hits, various events happen, which can include the generation of a monster in a location, a doom token being added to the doom track, or damage to a player's health or sanity. Some locations can add to the pain of midnight, adding more effects when the clock strikes 12.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6225/6338479788_2b7d6d4a64.jpg
Upon completing a game, you are given a score as defined in the original rules of the board game. This score is posted to a scoreboard but is unfortunately local only. The game itself is local only as well, which is disappointing as this could have been a great opportunity to make this an online game that could be run in turns through a push notification system, much like "Words With Friends." Games like this fit the ability to do turn-based online play, but it is understandable that without being able to communicate your ideas and skills to other players, this could detract from the overall feeling of the game.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6115/6337727409_f610472c31.jpg
Graphically, this game is very pretty and follows the artwork from the board game of the same name. Everything is rendered beautifully on the iPhone's "Retina Display" and fits very well with the mythos within. The game is simple graphics-wise, there really aren't any sort of high-end graphical effects, just beautifully drawn scenes. The map is simple, something you might expect to see out of an old stained map with overlays for locations that you can tap to choose.
On the sound front, this game also does not disappoint. Ambient music is constantly playing within the game, giving an uneasy feeling throughout the game. It changes as different areas are explored, and never is overpowering. Sound effects are clear and fit well with the scenes you are in, from the pages flipping for the "dice roll" to the splatter sound from taking damage, everything here was calculated and fits.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6050/6337726183_c575766342.jpg
The videos that are included also fit well with the game, there being only a few videos at all. An introduction video plays before you start off on your journey into the museum, videos play optionally when you're first learning the ropes of different parts of the game, and a victory or defeat video plays when the game is completed. These videos are all well animated and once again fit the overall feel of the game, never getting too far away from the original source material.
Overall, this game is a solid experience that doesn't disappoint. It is relatively difficult to play successfully, but once you hit your stride in what abilities and items work best in-game, the game becomes easier to pick up and harder to put down. While it is really a dice game, it works well with the touch interface and requires no setup other than clicking "start game." Fantasy Flight Games provides a fun, engrossing game. While it isn't perfect, and it sometimes seems like victory conditions are more luck than skill, I definitely recommend this to anyone that enjoys the recent wave of board games that have been translated to video games.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6217/6338481010_391a73e8db.jpg
Curt says: A fun experience that is challenging and intriguing, it is a game that is easy to pick up, hard to put down, and one that should help drain the battery of your mobile device without you realizing it.
Score: (4.5 out of 5 Cogs)
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG4_5.png
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6093/6337726217_7154f3ce6c.jpg
Title: Elder Sign: Omens
Developer/Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Platforms/Prices:
iPhone ($3.99)
iPad ($6.99)
Android Phone/Tablet ($3.99)
MacOS X ($6.99)
Reviewed Version(s): iPhone, Android Tablet (HP Touchpad w/ Cyanogenmod [Android 2.3])
Reviewer's Note: When installing on Android, the game will ask whether you're on a phone or on a tablet and proceed to install assets afterward. This way, it gives you the high-resolution packs for tablets or lower resolution for phone.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6053/6338478836_87567f898a.jpg
Fantasy Flight Games published their rather popular board game "Arkham Horror" in 2005. Since then, multiple expansions for this game have been released, making for a quite popular series of board games. The problem that many have with the game, however, is the daunting amount of time it can take to play, usually lasting around four to five hours a game.
To combat this, Fantasy Flight Games released "Elder Sign", a more distilled experience that takes most of the movement mechanics out of the game, taking away movement limitations and various checks and replacing those with a series of dice rolls and tasks to be completed with those dice rolls. It continues to use many mechanics from "Arkham Horror", such as spells, common items, locations, monsters, and other world locations. It makes for a much faster paced game that unfortunately can depend quite a bit on the luck of the dice.
This year, Fantasy Flight Games also brings that distilled experience to your mobile device on the Android and IOS platforms as well as to the Mac platform with their game "Elder Sign: Omens." The distilled experience is made better with smooth graphics, well done videos and narration, and a fantastic soundtrack that adds to the creepy atmosphere of the game.
The story behind the game follows H.P. Lovecraft's mythos: an elder god is going to awaken, threatening the world. Minions of this elder god are assisting to thwart our heroes (the investigators) from sealing off the elder god by using elder signs. The only elder god that is featured in this game is "Azathoth", which requires you to find fourteen elder signs before his doom track hits a total of twelve, awakening the god and devouring the world.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6093/6338478542_378a60e56a.jpg
Play starts with a character selection. You choose a team of four investigators, all of the characters coming again from Lovecraft's mythos. Those investigators each have a value for sanity and health, as well as various items, spells, and clues that the player can use during the game to add more glyphs (dice), reroll glyphs, or save glyphs for later use. They also have a special talent that allows various effects during the game.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6103/6338480302_11ee80324f.jpg
Once you complete your team, it is time to investigate the museum. Random locations (adventures) are generated that have tasks to complete. The tasks are completed by getting specific rolls and a value of each. For example, a task may require you to roll a total of 3 investigation results (investigation results can value 1-4 per die), a peril die, and a terror die. Once you have all three, that task is completed. The trouble with this is that areas can contain multiple tasks. Once you commit a die to a task, that die cannot be re-rolled during that adventure, reducing the amount of dice you have to use on tasks later in that adventure. This leads to one unfortunate effect: the game can depend a lot more on luck than it can skill.
Play goes as follows: roll your dice, complete your tasks if you can. If you can't complete a task in a single roll, you can re-roll if you have available clue tokens, or dump a single die and reroll the remaining dice. This can lead to a quick end to an adventure if you're not lucky with the dice. To combat this, you can use unique or common items to change a die from one type to another, add more investigation results, or add a yellow or red die which increase the chances of favorable rolls.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6110/6338479666_13d844378d.jpg
Each adventure has risks and rewards that you can reap. For example, a high-risk adventure may have a penalty of -2 sanity and -2 health, but rewards could be an elder sign or two, and possibly a common item and a unique item. That said, sometimes the rewards are quite the opposite as well, as occasionally a reward will include a monster on the board, an other world location, or advancement of the doom track.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6034/6338480254_551e9fe825.jpg
Also, as you adventure and take player turns, a clock keeps track of day and night. When midnight hits, various events happen, which can include the generation of a monster in a location, a doom token being added to the doom track, or damage to a player's health or sanity. Some locations can add to the pain of midnight, adding more effects when the clock strikes 12.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6225/6338479788_2b7d6d4a64.jpg
Upon completing a game, you are given a score as defined in the original rules of the board game. This score is posted to a scoreboard but is unfortunately local only. The game itself is local only as well, which is disappointing as this could have been a great opportunity to make this an online game that could be run in turns through a push notification system, much like "Words With Friends." Games like this fit the ability to do turn-based online play, but it is understandable that without being able to communicate your ideas and skills to other players, this could detract from the overall feeling of the game.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6115/6337727409_f610472c31.jpg
Graphically, this game is very pretty and follows the artwork from the board game of the same name. Everything is rendered beautifully on the iPhone's "Retina Display" and fits very well with the mythos within. The game is simple graphics-wise, there really aren't any sort of high-end graphical effects, just beautifully drawn scenes. The map is simple, something you might expect to see out of an old stained map with overlays for locations that you can tap to choose.
On the sound front, this game also does not disappoint. Ambient music is constantly playing within the game, giving an uneasy feeling throughout the game. It changes as different areas are explored, and never is overpowering. Sound effects are clear and fit well with the scenes you are in, from the pages flipping for the "dice roll" to the splatter sound from taking damage, everything here was calculated and fits.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6050/6337726183_c575766342.jpg
The videos that are included also fit well with the game, there being only a few videos at all. An introduction video plays before you start off on your journey into the museum, videos play optionally when you're first learning the ropes of different parts of the game, and a victory or defeat video plays when the game is completed. These videos are all well animated and once again fit the overall feel of the game, never getting too far away from the original source material.
Overall, this game is a solid experience that doesn't disappoint. It is relatively difficult to play successfully, but once you hit your stride in what abilities and items work best in-game, the game becomes easier to pick up and harder to put down. While it is really a dice game, it works well with the touch interface and requires no setup other than clicking "start game." Fantasy Flight Games provides a fun, engrossing game. While it isn't perfect, and it sometimes seems like victory conditions are more luck than skill, I definitely recommend this to anyone that enjoys the recent wave of board games that have been translated to video games.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6217/6338481010_391a73e8db.jpg
Curt says: A fun experience that is challenging and intriguing, it is a game that is easy to pick up, hard to put down, and one that should help drain the battery of your mobile device without you realizing it.
Score: (4.5 out of 5 Cogs)
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG4_5.png