Tech Land: Android Game Review: Emissary of War

Saturday, 17 September 2011

Android Game Review: Emissary of War

First things first: I know the video says iDevices. Obviously I didn't make it, but it's gorgeous and really captures the game experience better than any video I could do. With that out of the way, know this: Emissary of War is one of the best games on Android right now and probably the best game in its genre right now.

Emissary of War is epic. It takes the feeling or idea of a console or PC game and puts it on Android for us to enjoy. The first thing I immediately thought of when I saw the environments was World of Warcraft. Nerdy, I know, but that's what the open world and graphics and textures all reminded me of. It also kind of reminds me of say, Diablo, since you're walking around, fighting bad guys, and adding skills to your repertoire as you go along. Like I said, it's epic.

The story has got to be one of the best I've seen on Android, too. If someone decided to blow this out into an entire game, I wouldn't be surprised, and I hope more chapters are coming (eventually). You are Ghent, barbarian on a task to do some barbarian things and fight a bunch of bad guys along the way. Your companion is the trusty Hassock, a nice, bald-headed alchemist who gives you support via potions and has a bit of an issue with balance (he trips often).

Go from chapter-to-chapter, slaying baddies, picking up gold and runes, and upgrading your arsenal. There's an entire shop that has weapons for Ghent, potions for Hassock, and a slew of status upgrades for both of them. It's entirely up to you how you spend them, which is such an awesome thing.

Controls are all done via pointing. Tap a place on the screen, Ghent walks there and Hassock follows him. That's it. Tap on a bad guy to attack him. You can also control Hassock's potion queue by picking what order he'll throw things in. Ghent also has a sweet rage move he can use when his rage meter gets filled up. Depending on what sword he's got equipped will affect what rage move he does, though.

Graphically, I'm pretty blown away. There's real character models here and unique characters actually look special and unique. The legions of bad guys you take down all have the same face, but I wouldn't expect things to get that detailed. This game looks great, though. Environments, weapons, potions, everything. It's really a marvel to see something like this on Android.

Performance-wise, the only time my Thrive even remotely stuttered is when there were 15+ enemies on the screen and I was using a rage attack that hit everyone. Otherwise, this game runs well. There's no stutter, there's no lag.

Emissary of War is $1. Go and buy it, trust me. I think the entire story took me a couple of hours, but it was awesome. There were twists, there were turns. It's entirely voice acted, for cryin' out loud. This is truly a gem of a game and anyone who even remotely cares about Android gaming owes it to themselves to play it.

We've got download links after the break.