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Mar 28th, 2012 at 21:48:26 - Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot (Other) |
Since I spent the entirety of my first entry for Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot on the actual rules of the game, I will use this entry to give a quick review of the game.
Like I said in the last entry, Quest is a game that relies heavily on an element of randomness. Depending on your perspective, this can be a positive or a negative. One thing it DOES do is level the playing field between all participants. While solid strategy is certainly rewarded, having the run as a buffer between cards being played and coming in to effect limits the chances and effectiveness of an "ideal" play. The dice roll involved in many cards is another equalizer between the experienced and the novice. This contrasts heavily with a game like Magic: The Gathering or Rook where making one wrong play can be the difference between a win and a loss.
The complexity of the game is fairly well front-loaded. Once a player knows the basic setup and turn structure of the game, the next step is to become familiar with individual cards. As this familiarity is developed, proper play strategy is formed fairly quickly. Past that, there isn't much of an underlying depth. A certain degree of a metagame might develop if the same group plays frequently, but this isn't a game that people could spend hours theorizing with. Ten expansions have been released to add new cards and game mechanics to increase strategy depth and keep the game fresh, but I have not had the opportunity to play past the base game and the first expansion.
The theme of the game is very lighthearted and fun, with a slight dark bent surrounding the murder of bunnies. The Play Immediately cards that instantly kill a bunny each have a unique and humorous death written and drawn on the card. The weapon cards range from the silly to the ridiculous, from an egg beater to a nuclear bomb. This adds even more laughter to the social scenario, which tends to be quite active as it is. Trading cards between players is encouraged, as are informal alliances and agreements, all doomed to betrayal and backstabbing.
Based on this assessment, it is clear that the intentions of this game are not to foster an extremely competitive environment. Instead, the objective is instead to simply provide a fun, social atmosphere where every player can enjoy themselves, whether the session is their first or their fortieth. Speaking from experience, Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot succeeds in this task.
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Mar 28th, 2012 at 00:43:03 - Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot (Other) |
When presented with the task of writing a GameLog for a non-video game, I knew exactly what I was going to do. Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot is a card-based game for around, ideally, 4 to 6 players. Published by Playroom Entertainment, the successful franchise has spawned 10 expansions and several other Killer Bunnies card games, thematically similar to Quest for the Magic Carrot (Quest for short) but with a variety of different cards and rulesets.
The ultimate objective of Quest is to accumulate as many carrot cards as possible. At the end of the game (when all carrot cards have been claimed,) one is chosen at random to be the Magic Carrot, and whoever owns it is the winner of the game. This goal sets a tone for the game. Though intelligent play is rewarded, there is a heavy element of randomness involved. The following are the card types that are used in Quest:
Large Carrot Cards
Small Carrot Cards
Water Cards
Cabbage Cards
Bunny Money Cards
Run, Special and Very Special Cards
Play Immediately Cards
One 'Starter' Market Card
and 6 different colored 12-sided dice
Small carrot cards are simply representations of the large carrot cards, and are used for the random drawing of the magic carrot at the end of the game. An important concept to understand at the beginning is that gameplay occurs within the 'Bunny Circle', an imaginary, continuous circle on whatever surface the game is taking place. Each player owns a section of the circle directly in front of them, and it is where all of their cards will be laid. All cabbage, water, and large carrot cards are laid face down in the middle of the bunny circle, along with a face up starter market card, and all other cards in a draw pile face down. Space is set aside for a discard pile.
To begin, each player draws seven cards. Any Play Immediately cards drawn are discarded and a new card is drawn to replace them. Any Bunny Money drawn may be placed in the drawing player's section of the bunny circle. After all players have seven cards in their hand, each player places two cards in their Run, a 'top run' and a 'bottom run'. The run is essentially a queue from which cards are put in to play, with the top run card being the one popped off every turn, and a new bottom run being pushed on every turn. Special and Very Special cards can be played straight from a hand without going through the run. If they ARE put through the run, they can be played as normal, or be stored for future use. Very Special cards can be played instantly on anyone's turn. Players roll to see who goes first, and play proceeds clockwise around the bunny circle.
The most important cards other than carrot cards are bunny cards. Bunny cards are Run cards and are physically placed in the bunny circle, and a player is required to control at least one bunny in order to play most other cards (indicated by a pink rectangle on the card to be played.) Also, in order to win, a player must have a living bunny at the end of the game. The Play Immediately cards kill a bunny owned by the player who draws it, and are then discarded.
Choose A Carrot cards are Run cards played in order to gain carrots from the central carrot stash. Weapon cards are Run cards played in order to kill a targeted bunny, or possibly more, determined by a roll of the dice. Feed The Bunny cards are similar to weapon cards, but the player controlling a targeted bunny has until the end of their next turn to spend cabbage and/or water cards to save his or her bunny.
The cabbage and water cards (along with carrot cards) can be obtained through certain cards, or bought from the Kaballa Market with Bunny Money (with prices set by the Starter Market card, or another market card played to replace it) on that player's turn. Every other Run, Special, and Very Special card has it's own unique rules, ranging from a Magic Spatula that eliminates a weapon card being played to a Terminator Bunny that rampages across the Bunny Circle until it's killed or runs out of bunnies to terminate.
Confused, yet?
This is by no means a game that can be learned in one session. The learning curve can certainly be seen as a negative to the game, but provides for quite a bit of replayability and variety in gameplay.
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Feb 6th, 2012 at 00:31:45 - Orcs Must Die! (PC) |
For my second session with Orcs Must Die! I started off on the third level and played until the end of Act I. I tried to focus on the way the game handles difficulty ramping and how it attempts to keep the player interested.
Each level obviously must have the same general principle behind it, but the game adds enough quirks to make each one a different experience. For instance, in addition to basic orc monsters that run from their spawn to the rift, ranged orcs that shoot crossbow bolts at the player character and any companions you use (called guardians), but not traps. Super fast kobold creatures ignore obstacles altogether and simply attempt to get to the rift as quickly as possible. Eventually, levels start spawning large Ogre creatures that take massive amounts of damage before dying, often requiring the player to completely focus on them to take it down. Most levels past the first few also have multiple routes that enemies can take, or multiple spawn points that monsters can emerge from. The player can not use brute force to win each level by using the same tactics over and over, as different enemies come in different ways on different terrain. One's gameplan has to change based on the challenges faced.
The game appeals to two different skill sets, and at the end of Act I it allows the player to specialize in one or the other at the beginning of each level. The player may pick one of two "weavers" who allow the purchase of certain enhancement trees. One weaver gives bonuses to traps and guardians, such as increasing the damage down by all traps who inflict bleeding damage. The other weaver offers enhancements to the apprentice and his weapons and spells, such as reducing the mana cost of all primary spell attacks. Only one weaver can be chosen, and gold is used to purchase each enhancement, so the player must carefully balance his need for more traps and guardians and the enhancements for them. These weavers allow the player to choose a more strategy-oriented approach with appropriate trap/guardian placement, or a more action-oriented style with increased weapon and spell power.
After playing through the first act, the feel of the game is very solid and I'm having quite a lot of fun with it. Having several options at my disposal to solve each level is very refreshing in a modern game climate with very linear gameplay. The hack and slash aspect is satisfying, as the apprentice is very powerful even without weaver enhancements, but the sheer number of threats is enough to balance the difficulty level. The two biggest problems I forsee with the game is a lack of multiplayer and a lack of replayability. Multiplayer challenges would allow players to engage in much more difficult encounters on a much larger scale than would be possible for a single player to have a chance against. With apparently only 25 levels in total, where each spawn wave is identical from playthrough to playthrough, the only aspect of replayability is three different difficulties and a high score leaderboard. Eventually the game would get stale, regardless of the options the player is given to beat a level.
Overall, this game has an excellent amount of high quality content for the money I paid for it. I recommend this game for anyone who enjoys standard in-browser tower defense games, as it offers a new twist on the genre.
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Feb 4th, 2012 at 21:53:37 - Orcs Must Die! (PC) |
For this entry, I decided to play the game Orcs Must Die!, an unorthodox tower defense game where the player takes the third person perspective of the "apprentice" as opposed to a more traditional overhead view. This game was made by indie game developer Robot Entertainment and bought/downloaded through Steam.
The game begins by giving a brief exposition. The player is an apprentice in an institution known as the Order. His master has just died, and he is alone left with the task of defending a fortress against hoards of Orcs and Goblins and assorted other monsters. Following, it gives an explanation of the main game concepts. Waves of monsters spawn from large double doors, and they attempt to get to "rifts" which the player must protect using different weapons, traps, companions, and spells contained within his spellbook. Items from the spellbook are bought using gold gained from killing monsters, and an initial supply of gold is given at the beginning of a map. Only a select few abilities may be chosen from the spellbook to use on a given map, limiting the player to just a few options of their choice.
In the first level, the player doesn't have many options, but the defense is not difficult. The map is a straight hallway between the single set of double doors and the rift. Two archer companions are placed on the sides of the hallway to assist you. Companions generally stay in the location that they are assigned and automatically attack monsters that come in range, and monsters will reciprocate. The player is given a sword and a crossbow as means of personal defense, along with spike traps which damage enemies who walk over and tar traps, which slow enemies. If enough enemies make it to the rift, the player loses and must restart the level. If the player character dies to enemies, it also counts against this rift total.
During downtime between levels, the game gives the player a number of "skulls" based on their performance during the previous level. The skulls can be used to purchase upgrades for your spellbook, giving abilities an extra effect or increasing their strength. New abilities are also given as the player beats new levels. The first trap unlocked is an arrow trap, which is placed on a wall and fires arrows at any enemies that walk in its area of effect.
The game does not take itself very seriously at all. The apprentice is portrayed as a dimwitted individual with little regard to his enemy or what he is fighting to protect. The cartoony animation supports this, and the story is not a major factor in the enjoyment of this game. The action is the main focus, with hectic and fast paced action, including weapons that fire/swing as fast as you can click the mouse button, combo counters, and headshot indicators. Humor supports the action with quips from the apprentice and funny hit/death animations from the orcs. The apprentice even does different dances at the end of a level based on how well he protected the rift.
Overall, I completed three levels and explored as many of the game's options as I could for this first session. I will reserve any judgement for my second log.
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