I can't say I've never been called a hoarder before, but this time felt different. I've found it's more respectable among society if you're hoarding wealth instead of copies of Big Rigs, even if you burn a town or hundred to the ground to do so. But besides reminding me of a horrific fact of human nature, HOARD also proves to be a fun little time waster.
Keep in mind going forward, that II can't say I've never been called a hoarder before, but this time felt different. I've found it's more respectable among society if you're hoarding wealth instead of copies of Big Rigs, even if you burn a town or hundred to the ground to do so. But besides reminding me of a horrific fact of human nature, HOARD also proves to be a fun little time waster.
Keep in mind going forward, that I am basing this review off of my experience beating all the singleplayer levels of at least bronze ranking and proving myself over other AI dragons. I'm sure multiplayer is great for this game, and likely the point, but I only ever buy friends when they're on discount on Craigslist and, ironically enough, there weren't any fire sales on people at the time.
So how does HOARD stack up as a singleplayer experience? Decent. What you'd also experience for a tenner at a gentlemen's club is my best comparison. You had a good time, but you'll deny it if your family asks.
The idea is simple. All 3 game modes revolve around achieving a high score in some way. You burn towns, farms and wagons to collect gold. Princesses, knights, archers, giants, thieves and wizard towers add complications to that goal. At certain intervals of treasure collection you also level up and spend points to increase your dragons capabilities, and pick up powerups spread across any given map. On its own, this simple gameplay is fun for a while and solid enough to provide a challenge. Then, on certain maps, you add to the list of complications in your life when other dragons compete for that glittery golden goodness. Once again, it's another simple complication that won't add to your stress levels too much. That is, at first anyway.
Early on, you'll wonder why the other dragons even bother. They seem unable to collect as much treasure as you can and, instead, spend their time fairly benevolently. They'll kill any thief they can get their fire breaths on, whether he be headed for their gold pile, or yours. That's cute. Soon enough however, you'll notice the other discrepancies. It seems strange to me that when you play the exact same map, with the same goal, using the same mechanics that AI dragons start off stronger than you. They level like you do, yet their base momentum and attack is higher than yours. While waiting for those early villages to spawn you might find yourself running away from the other dragon because until other villages spawn to distract his ADHD-stricken, flame-happy, special self he might just decide to murder you for his own amusement and what pitiful amount of gold you've managed to get a handle on so far. And you're likely not getting away if he does. This violent psychopathy of your multi-coloured friends doesn't seem to extend to each other, however. At least, not as far as I saw. Until you out-level them with your smarter-head-brain tactics, it seems it's stacks-on Qarren. This isn't much of a problem in the normal game mode simply titled 'Treasure' for some unknowable reason; I say, shrugging. But in the next game mode where you have to snatch so many princesses that the Me Too movement would simply break down at the thought of it, it starts to become noticeable as you don't have that extra time to make up for your early handicap. As while computer dragons seem unable to gather gold in any urgent manner, they sure do whisk away royal girls with swift enthusiasm. That's not concerning at all...
The final mode is a survival one. Last as long as you can against knights and wizards and archers and claustrophobia without another dragon in sight. This is where the biggest problems lie. First let me say that the controls are quite fine. Not perfect, but perfectly usable. Except on keyboard. Don't do that. Get a controller. It's just constant screams of agony otherwise. Nonetheless, the dragon is very slightly slippery, but you should be able to handle him just fine almost immediately. Yet survival might test you on that. Most of the 4 maps rely on removing big patches of the board so you have very little manoeuvring room like a covid nightmare, and then filling those small spaces to the brim with knights and wizard towers. I found, like with much of this game, it's not so much about survival skills as it is luck. I don't remember this game's description mentioning bullet-hell anywhere. They must have forgotten that. But oh wait, bullet-hell games rely on pattern recognition and super tight controls and manoeuvrability. I already mentioned movement, but pattern recognition? "Bah" the developers say. Randomly spawn the wizard towers and let them all upgrade quickly into rapid fire obelisks of death that can snipe you from across the map.
You'll find this game is absolutely doable to a gold standard, but it might take a turn or two for the RNG to give you a necessary hand. May the odds be ever in your favour.
All in all, a rather pretty BOARD game aesthetic and nice music for a fun game best experienced for 5 minutes at a time.… Expand
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