i’ve found that i like this format for multiplayer casual games. you get to play with real opponents on your own time. no need to schedule a meet or have it get in the way of anything else. play it during your commute or hunker down in bed with it. play for 3 minutes or forever with a chain of different matches. spend 3 minutes on your turn or take your own sweet time to work it out. start enough matches and there will always be one available for you to play and there is no expectation that you play them immediately.
i only know 3 good ones: Conquer Club, Draw Something and Hero Academy. the first 2 has been mentioned before on the boards, the last is basically a modern casual game version of Chess. you have a board and teams with 28 pieces consisting of 3 tanks, 3 healers, 3 archers, 3 casters, a super unit and various items to use or equip. you draw 6 pieces randomly and choose which to bring into play on the board. it is a multiplayer only game and is incredibly easy to pick up. you’d probably like it if you’re looking for a casual version of Chess or Final Fantasy Tactics.
it is an ios game and it’s horribly unstable after its recent update to a universal app and consequently game support is swamped. thankfully it only crashes in between games and is actually cough a feature for me atm. it is free with one team and is supported by unforgiving ads which goes away when you buy another team. you pay for variety with the in-app purchases with nothing that would give you an edge balance-wise. the free default team actually seems to be the easiest and thus “strongest” one to use.
despite the instability and costs, i have since bought 2 teams and have been playing for a couple of weeks. it’s a little gem that utters what i have not heard for a long time, “one…more…turn…”
You’d probably like Frozen Synapse. Take this idea into squad-scale tactical urban combat, a la X-Com & Jagged Alliance. A turn consists plotting orders for your squad and then both sides are resolved simultaneously in 5 seconds of realtime action. It’s done in a rather slick way.
i gave the short demo a try and i loved X-Com & Jagged Alliance, but it didn’t hook me at all even though it sounds like it should.
OPwise it feels too real timey for me to imagine running 40 games concurrently on asynchronous basis, or simply starting a game and having to wait for more than a few minutes for the next turn. the apparent lack of a tactical puzzle more than a move deep means there is no reason to start a game halfway and come back to it later.
Gamewise it is too random, depends a lot on luck, has no equippable items, lacks suspense and there appears to be few tactical options. (what if i say, camp in a corner with the rocket launcher covered by a sniper and a machine gunner? how do you counter that other than by luck? i know exactly where you are and you cannot hide behind a wall. run out into the open and the sniper will get you. close range and the machine gunner takes you out. to put it simply, what are the tactical options available to overcome a camper other than a random case of who shot first?)
these are of course, just the initial impressions from a very short demo which includes the very much hated escort mission. maybe if it drops to a more reasonable price during a Steam sale, i might give it a proper try.
There’s no randomness or luck involved in Frozen Synapse. The outcomes are 100% deterministic from the orders given. A shot will never miss, for instance. It’s a purely tactical game in that respect, compared to the X-Com/JA style of game where the RNG rolls can make a huge difference. It’s more artificial, but it fits well with the setting and the abstract art style, I think.
You counter the camping idea with your own rocket or grenade launcher; as either can fire well outside the range of the machinegunner and get off their shot faster than the sniper can. The grenade launcher can potentially bounce a shot in from outside line of sight. The explosive weapons are hard to land hits on mobile targets, but really powerful at dealing with stationary ones.
I don’t think that seeing where the enemy is helps in this scenario, since they equally know where you are. I’d think it would be more successful in one of the fog-of-war modes, since you might potentially catch someone by surprise with it and score a kill before they set up to dismantle your arrangement.
A lot of people like Words With Friends (Scrabble rip-off), I don’t because it feels like luck plays too large a role. I do like Scramble With Friends (Boggle rip-off) because you and your opponent get to play the same gameboard.
I’m currently addicted to Hero Academy as well! The official forums has a link to a ELO ratings style league, and I’m currently taking part in a fan-run tournament going into the semi finals.
Tabby Cat, looks like we’re the only two here who enjoys the game. that’s just not right for something so crazy addictive! i only play for fun but i might try the league sometime.
N9IWP, of course! I mentioned Conquer Club in the OP and it is the best Risk (the board)game i know.
the commentary on the replays are interesting. i have never paid much attention to turning over cards or keeping track of your opponent’s inventory, i don’t even know what’s left in my own! >.<’
