Don't sleep on Wrath Unleashed

[Alex Napalm]

Picked this game up last weekend as something myself and 3 friends could play together. First let me say it was something of an impulse buy. I'd heard very little about the game and seen the fairly average reviews (mostly 7's). Let me tell you all that Wrath is a damn fine game if you can gather 2 or 3 or friends to play it with.

The fighting isn't very deep, but there's a lot of strategy to be employed in the actual game that it more than makes up for it. The object of the game is to either control a certain amount of temple points or defeat each opposing armie's God/Demi-God. The action is played out over hexagonal terrain where you move your soldiers. Each unit can gain specific advantages on certain terrain (example: fire units are extra strong on lava terrain. duh.). When two units occupy the same space, a battle takes place. The battles are fought in real time; fighting game style. The actual fighting is fairly simplae and seems like it was meant to be. You really need to choose your battles wisely in Wrath as certain units are just going to kick the hell out of other units. However, with terrain advantages and hazards, any unit has a chance of winning any battle.

The creatures and terrain all look very nice. Not incredible, but they've got a good design to them and animate nicely. The one complaint I've heard about this game time and time again is that the load times are terrible. Not true. While there is a bit of a load time between the start and end of each battle, it's really not that bad. Certainly not nearly as bad as the loads in Unreal 2, the current grand champion of horrible load times. They're noticeable, but not that bad.

If you can get 2 or 3 other players to play against in Wrath, check it out. It's a very entertaining game once everyone figures out the mechanics of it. There's a singleplayer component to it, but I haven't touched that yet. I could see the singleplayer getting boring early on, though. I only reccomend this if you got some friends to play against. I really dig this game.

Also of note. This game was created by The Collective. The same developers who made the original Buffy game (the Xbox exclusive one) and the Indiana Jones game. Good pedigree in my mind.

Anyone else grab this game? Any other thoughts or questions?

[BinaryXtreme]

I'm going to check out this game. Sounds interesting. How sweet are the graphics?

[Alex Napalm]

It's a good looking game with a lot of detail in the creature designs. The animations arre nicely done, too. On the other hand, the game isn't going to knock you out with it's graphics. THey're nice, but not fantastic.

[Wolfgame]

Its nice to see some good thoughts about this game, but it wasn't my cup of tea from the demo

[thrAsher]

Yeah, the demo I have didn't knock my socks off, either.

But I will definitely pick this up at some point, perhaps through a trade or when it hits the used shelves at Gamestop.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it, though. I need a new game to thrash my roommate at, and he hates shooters and 'twitch' games. Got him playing some Magic: Battlegrounds, actually. And he kicked my butt.

Alex: about how long was a match w/ you and say.... 2 friends?

[Alex Napalm]

Originally posted by thrAsher-XBA
Yeah, the demo I have didn't knock my socks off, either.

But I will definitely pick this up at some point, perhaps through a trade or when it hits the used shelves at Gamestop.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it, though. I need a new game to thrash my roommate at, and he hates shooters and 'twitch' games. Got him playing some Magic: Battlegrounds, actually. And he kicked my butt.

Alex: about how long was a match w/ you and say.... 2 friends?

The length of the matches depends on how many people you're playing with and how good you set the computer. I'd say the average match I played in with 3 players and 1 cpu set on normal difficulty lasted between 30-40 minutes. Also depends on what stage you're playing on.

If your friend was into Magic:Battlegrounds, he'll probably enjoy Wrath. The actual fights are kind of similiar to Battleground, just more fast paced. The board game style strategy is what sets this one apart.

My only complaint is that there is no XBL support for this game. This game would be incredible online and begs to be played that way.

If you're in a situation where you can regularly get 2 or 3 more gamers together to play it, Wrath is a fun game. It's a lot like Risk where people will make alliances of convenience then backstab their ally the first chance they get . Make sure you play it with people who've got the patience to learn the game. Give it a rent and check it out.

[thrAsher]

Okay, that's good to hear. I was imagining these long, drawn out games...you know, 2 hour affairs.

And I hear you on the XBL thing. It's crazy these kinds of games don't have online capabilities. It really does hurt the game, IMO.

Thanks for the info, Alex.

[Wolfgame]

Im always shocked that games that have an emphasise on multiplayer dont take advantage of xbox live
like Wrath Unleashed, Soul Calibur two and several others. of course some features suich as online play mey be held back due to the gc and ps2, the company may get a bad reputation(like EA) for being onesided and only going online with one console,
thats just my two cents.

[Shadow20002]

It is in the mold of Magic The Gathering: Battlegrounds ?

[thrAsher]

Originally posted by Shadow-XBA
It is in the mold of Magic The Gathering: Battlegrounds ?

Actually, no, not at all, really. It's a turn-based strategy game that blends action/fighter elements. When your 'piece' and an enemy 'piece' meet on the board, you zoom into this arena space where you duke it out. Check out Nick's preview of the game, Shadow.

It's really kind of a strange sort of title, a hybrid of sorts. An interesting game, for a select few, however.

[Shadow20002]

Well, i know it's a turn-based fighting game. What i mean is the same plot about elements which is a little boring cause i have played too many games which is based on the elements (fire, water, earth, life and death). I need something new.