Blacksmith Features
March 4, 2004 by Anastasia

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Defend the Castle!

By zyxomma100

Defend the Castle! by zyxomma100 is a great single scenario, and is pulsepounding, nonstop micro-strategy. The outstanding design is a creative AoKtwist on the classic game of the same name by XGen Studios.

The game play is fast paced arcade action, and players progressthrough the challenging levels called rounds, while the enemy’sattack increases in strength and numbers. The amazing specialized unitselection with unique unit abilities add to the extreme challenge.Players advance into new rounds by successfully defending the castleand using the unique ability of the Alchemists (Monks) to convertenemy units for training. Players can train converted units duringor between rounds to one of five defensive units from an intuitivetraining menu inside the game. I played for hours the first time I played,but I was a bit frustrated by the time I reached round five. Victory isassured as players are taken to the up-beat screen to try again, but thelevels and a special timer allows for continued play against personal bestrecords.

The creativity in this scenario is excellent and is realized in theconcept of adapting a classic game to AoK. zyxomma100 gives us an incrediblearcade experience, but don’t expect a romantic adventure story. The onlystory found is in the advanced commands, and read while two War Elephantscharge your Archers! The Map is not a pretty town design but the menus areprecisely designed and very intuitive.

Round 7 is where my castle crumbles! Try as I might, I couldn’t get pastthe level. This is where I get to blame the game! Seriously, there are someproblems with the training menu, and the unique play also takes gettingused to. The menu is made up of idle AoK units, and sometimes when Iwould convert units at the same time the game would cheat me out ofthem by spawning them simultaneously into the menu. The game can alsocheat a player out of units after they are trained in a similar way.I thought I was receiving units for kills too only I’m not sure. Forthe training of units the player needs to train them one by one, andalso keep any units away from the common spawn point on the castlegrounds.

So try to keep all that in mind as wave upon wave of Teutonic Knightsand War Elephants storm your castle, and if you last until the 6th roundit won’t matter anyway…unless of course you can Defend the Castle!