Review
Embrace the Dark (or Light) side
by Craig Grannell (November 10th, 2010 at 3:00 pm)
Game: Archon. Publisher: React. Price: 59p/€0,79/99¢. Buy the game or download the demo
If you’re old (like everyone in Podgamer Village bar youthful Former Colonies import Grayson) but haven’t spent your life with a pathological hatred of the 8-bit C64 and Atari (unlike RevStu), chances are you might be a fan of Archon. Free Fall’s 1983 game mashed together chess and arcade gaming, creating a compelling and exciting arcade-oriented strategy game.
The iOS game initially looks like a perfect example of how to take something brilliant, harp on about a glorious victory, and then grab defeat from victory’s jaws, like – warning: Archon in-joke imminent – a single manticore duffing up the entire Light side in gleeful fashion.
But, as it turns out, there’s a lot to like about Archon.
The basic premise and gameplay components in Archon remain intact. You choose a side—Light or Dark—populated by unique fantasy characters. Both sides line up on a nine-by-nine board with the aim of wiping out the opposition or capturing the board’s five power points.
Instead of just taking opponents in a chess-like manner, battles transport you to an arcade arena, where the two characters try to kill each other to death. Knights and goblins get to wave their sticks about, but more powerful creatures lob deadly firepower at opponents, and some have other special abilities, such as the shapeshifter, which morphs into a clone of whatever it’s fighting.
The controls in Archon are very good. Tap-based movement on the board is never a problem, and the arcade battles provide a responsive virtual joystick and tap-to-fire mechanism, with optional auto-aim to make things easier.
Initially, it’s unlikely you’ll need the help, because, for some reason, Archon appears to have been lobotomised on its way to iOS. Even today, the original Archon on the Atari or C64 is fairly likely to kick my arse. On iOS, I won on my first go, annihilating the opposition and losing only two knights while doing so. Assuming it was a fluke, I tried again. It wasn’t—the AI opponent is an idiot, I thought. But then I discovered I was using the Novice level; on changing that when starting a game, Archon again becomes its ferocious 8-bit self (albeit an ugly version of its ferocious 8-bit self, because the updated graphics are truly nasty PC shareware fare).
For your money, the update also chucks in a few new boards and a Conquest extra that more or less serves as a demo of Archon: Conquest. It’s fine, but not nearly as compelling as the main game. Regardless of these extras, Archon’s fighting against too many great games on the App Store to justify its original £2.39/€2,99/$3.99 price-point; but at the time of writing it’s only 59p/€0,79/99¢ and therefore worth a punt, especially if you’re a fan of the original.
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