Braveheart [£0.59] is a ‘twin stick’ action RPG specifically designed to make best use of the iPad touch-screen, there’s no fake joysticks here (unless you enable them in the menu). You play as a barbarian who is on a quest to do something…it’s forgettable, the story is hugely unimportant though there are cutscenes in the game in the style of a comic book, I think it’s trying to be funny but it’s no Cerebus.

Ultimately the game is about swinging a massive weapon in a circle motion by spinning your finger anywhere on the touch-screen, you can move the player character by tapping where you want him to go, his rotating fighting style maintains a momentum so you don’t have to constantly spin your finger to keep it going. Just wind it up and tap somewhere and off he goes swinging his windmill of death. Another essential weapon is the crossbow, you fire this by holding down a finger to plant your aim and then tapping where you want to fire. This is the default control scheme, it may sound complicated but it’s remarkably intuitive, I’d go as far as saying that it’s one of the best ways of controlling a game like this I’ve seen on iOS.

The game is wave based, you jump into a level and try to survive until it ends, simple. Whilst playing you collect gold which you can buy weapons and equipment with, you also pick up temporary power-ups which buff your abilities with fire, ice, poison, health etc. During each wave you also gain a skill point which you can spend at any time during the level to give you an added bonus, this could be increased damage, a health recharge or risk/reward bonuses like extra gold if you manage to complete the level within an allotted time.

So while the gameplay is solid and rewarding, the real pins and needles inducing poision comes from the shop where you spend in-game currency on a plethora of new weapons and items for your character. Bored of a crossbow? Try the Devil which fires explosive rocks at a shorter range causing heavy splash damage. While the different weapons behave similarly to each other, their effects on the are different enough to change up your approach to each battle. You can also level up each weapon up to five stars worth of power.

The endless hoard of enemies in the game are interesting and varied, the game has paced its introduction of new things to kill very well, each one of the 5 areas brings with it new challenges. Also a smart addition which I have not seen in many other RPG’s is that you can go on a ‘hunt’ which is a non-story based level which you can use to grind in order to buy goodies more quickly. It isn’t essential but if you’re an obsessive maniac it’s there for you.

It’s brown and ugly but I love it.

[8]

About the author

Michael Manning

Michael is a sound designer and composer working in the games industry. His portfolio can be found at www.manningaudio.com