Translation edited by Francesco_q (Translation Group)
The story: "For centuries, would-be heroes have pitted their skills against the Crypt of the Ancients. Now controlled by the seemingly ageless arch-mage, Alaric, the crypt is believed to have been constructed over 5000 years ago as a resting place for the Ancients, the creators of the world.
Guarded by powerful spirits, the Crypt is now a way to earn gold, as Alaric offers a kingly prize of 50,000 gold pieces to anyone who enters the crypt and lives to tell the tale. In history, only two have emerged alive from the mysterious confines... Jetraal the Heroic, and Alaric himself.
Jetraal perished mysteriously over 300 years ago, and now his spirit has returned, warning of impending doom unless Alaric is stopped... but stopped from doing what?"
The game:
The above is not the plot of the next Hollywood fantasy movie, but that of the new and incredible game developed by PPCstudio: Ancient Evil.
Ancient Evil is an RPG which takes place in the ancient times and medieval sceneries. The game, due to release officially on the 1st of August, will be released in two versions: one for QVGA PDAs and one for VGA PDAs. We tested the game using a VGA PDA, more precisely the Dell Axim X50v.
The VGA version is truly impressive. As a matter of fact, the size of the installation file is 38mb, and the amount of free memory needed on the PDA is 54Mb. It is therefore adviced to install the game on an SD card. Once installed and ran, the game will immediately display the story, the one set out above, After the story, the main menu appears.
From the previous screenshot, we can see that it is a BETA version we are testing, as the game is yet to be released, however, we never experienced malfunctioning or crashes. Furthermore, all menus and features have already been implemented, therefore, it is very likely that the definitive release will be pretty much the same as the one we tried. First of all, thanks to the CONFIGURE KEY MAPPING option, we can map keys to the commands, 4 in total:
In any case, the game can be controlled by both the keypad and the stylus. For the left-handed, there is the possibility of pivoting the screen:
Let’s finally start to play. Let’s click on “new character” to create a new character and start play. We will be asked to insert the player’s name:
After having entered our name, our next step is to chose what kind of character we want to play with, for example, a Warrior, a Spellcaster, Ranger, or a thief:
We then receive a profile recap about our character:
Finally we can start playing. As mentioned before, it is a strategy game where we need to collect points, objects, weapons, and kill enemies:
In The VGA version, the graphics are truly spectacular! Furthermore, the system that makes the wall transparent, to allow us to see through them, is well implemented. We can interact with practically anything, and read the crypts that we find on the way.
We find all the functions in the lower bar, from which we can control everything our character does:
Tapping on the human figure on the left, a resume of our warrior will appear, where we can see in detailed the objects and points we have. We can also add or remove weapons thanks to the inventory .
The IDENTIFY functions will tell us everything about any object we come across
The USE functions allows of course to utilize the objects we have picked up, we can for examples examine the map of the level, to find out where we are
The Drop function allows us to drop redundant objects, a handy feature since we have limited space in our inventory!
Tapping on the star, the main menu will appear, where we can save, load, or quit the game:
We can move our character by either using the pad, or by tapping on where we want our warrior to go:
In our expedition we will find several doors, to open them we need to click the action keys. Some of them however will require a key:
We often find strange creatures that we will need to kill with the weapons we find on the way. The weapons range from simple bows to magic sticks. In the first level, the “creatures” are strange green men, which look more like aliens rather than demons... Killing them however is not too easy, since they will surround you:
The levels:
Once we’ve looked at the game’s structure, we will then examine all available levels, 25 in totals, and all very well taken care of, well developed and full of mysteries and secrets. To finish a level we need to find stairs that take us to the lower floor, until we reach the deepest floor in the cave! Let’s now take a look at the second level:
The third level is similar to the second, but more complicated, and harder to finish:
The fourth level changes completely:
I will not comment on each single level, but instead let you appreciate the beauty of the graphics:
Conclusion:
Our final judgement is EXCELLENT! The graphics in the VGA version are amazing. Lots of levels are available and the game is very playable. The game is great and is getting closer and closer to real computer games of the same kind.
Although the game we tested is a BETA release (0.91 version) , as mentioned before, no problems were found, and the game went smooth. Pocket PC Studios said that dozens of feature and graphical updates have been incorporated into the current (and final) beta release (0.92). Although the official release date is 1st of August, the pre-sale is on at clickgamer which gives a 5$ discount on the retail price of 24.95$.
Pro: Excellent graphics Good soundtrack Playability Many levels
