Confrontation
Review
Aarklash moves from the table-top board to PC
by William Thompson
reviewed on PC
From Table Top to PC
Dungeons and Dragons and its off-shoots and imitators have had some decent success when transferred from table-top games to the PC. It is possibly with that in mind, that Cyanide has decided to move the Confrontation board game to the PC screen in the form of an action oriented RPG. In Confrontation, you take control of a squad of Griffin soldiers in their attempt to protect their lands of Aarklash from the forces of the Scorpion, Jackal and Wolfen factions.
Your squad of Griffin soldiers (you can select four for each mission) must use their combined skills to defeat their opponents as they make their way across Aarklash. Along the way, more party members can be recruited into the Griffin squad, although only four may be taken into each mission.
Choosing your squad
Switching your squad members around makes for a certain degree of variation, but the fact that your characters level up as you progress means that the more often you use them, the quicker they will gain experience. Therein lays the major conundrum with Confrontation. Do you continue to use the same characters in order to gain the required experience to increase skills needed for later battles? In doing so, the game becomes somewhat dull in the middle missions. Knowing how your squad will perform and act in an identical fashion leads to this monotony.
On the other hand, you could certainly change things up, but changing a tried and true formula can often end in death if you don’t handle your squad properly. The introduction of new squad members as you progress through the missions certainly adds some variation to the game, but at the expense of the experience that could be garnered from using your favoured squad. Also, balancing your squad is important. So taking too many of one particular class into battle can be a deadly mistake.
From a visual standpoint, Confrontation is on the poor side. The character models look antiquated and the backgrounds are dull and dreary for the most part, especially when confined in dungeon-like settings. The effects for the attack and area of effect spells look kind of cool with their explosions of colour though. The interface is also colourful, with indicators of weapon and magic effects being displayed near each characters profile.
Cluttered squads
Unfortunately, the interface can often be cluttered due to the size of the party members’ icons and the details for each of the actions available to the party members. These detail pop-ups can cover other party members or enemy units which makes it difficult to target them. It happens so often it can’t simply be call a nuisance and normally right in the heat of an extended battle when issuing commands can make or break a contest.
6.6
fun score
Pros
Controls are simple to learn and use. Additional squad members provide variation to gameplay.
Cons
Graphics are outdated. Interface can be somewhat cluttered. Squad pathfinding can be troublesome.
