Dark Shrine ($4.99)
Version 1.0
REVIEW – “A fun RPG that will keep you on your toes!”
The iPhone has truly become a unique and expansive gaming platform. Dark Shrine is simply one of many in a long line of RPGs but while it has some great things to offer, there are a few short-comings as well.
The game starts off with a unique story about the main character Leinhart being pursued by assassins. Leinhart is accompanied by a strange eyeball creature for a companion and the two at times have an amusing dialogue. But this is also one of my biggest pet peeves of the game, the dialogue is hard to read at time because words wrap from one line to the next. It looks really strange and just really takes me out of the story when I am trying to read though, a simple problem and a simple fix, definitely hope it gets taken care of.
But as far as game play it is relatively smooth. to move the character you simply tap and hold the direction you want to go. This can take a little getting used to and sometimes in the first few levels you can be stuck trying to move around a corner and completely lose sight of your character and instead be staring at a brick wall.
One of the things I enjoyed was the use of attack combos and the fact that it was a game where you could level up and get better gear and spells as you went through the game. In order to attack you simply swipe your finger either from left to right or up and down. If you do these motions in a certain order it will lead to attack combos which can really do some damage and get you out of a tight space.
The spells are even easier, they simply appear as icons in the bottom center of the play screen (above the HP and SP bar) and you tap to use them. The game never goes through this though and I found myself dying a number of times on a level because I was not aware that I could use spells yet. (At the beginning of one level you are completely mobbed and surrounded if you do not use the spell I have no idea how you survive 
)
The graphics and sound were not the best that we’ve seen for the iPhone but they were still rather impressive. The game play is what you should really be looking to in this game and as the updates start coming this game should become a great deal of fun.
The game is fun and considering that it is the work of Indie developers it should be appreciated as a great start to a game that focuses more on fun than on graphics and it brings back the old school feel of RPGs. What is interesting is that this game gets right the things that many games fail on, namely smooth game play and controls.
The game even has replay value as there are missions and sub missions for each level. Missions are required to progress to the next level and sub missions are optional and will net you special items. Each level is also graded so perfectionists might want to keep trying the levels in order to get straight A’s.
In short this game is fun and a good start. Since it is made from a group of dedicated developers this game will definitely continue to improve so give it a shot, you will probably end up having too much fun to really notice any of the short comings.
Stephanie S.
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Developer – Devsisters
© 2010, StephanieS. All rights reserved.