User Rating: 1.5 | Age of Castles PC
this game is a sloppy 'strategy' (term used very loosely, it took me a few mins to figure out there was a big flaw, but its there, and once its seen the whole idea of strategy goes out the window) game based on an idea alot like those from the mid-eighties pc games, namely its pretty much text-based. The graphics are basically one screen, with a little animation, namely people animated like lemmings, except that theres a few frames of animation repeated ad-nauseum. there is a castle that enlarges as you progress, but even that has a bad smell, it sort of pops into place when certain milestones are reached. The music on the other hand, well basically on the same hand, sounds like a looped 5-10sec. piece written by some idiot with a casio keyboard, sort of like cheesy bells being softly played. If you've had the displeasure of hearing 'tubular bells', its alot like that. very painful. There is a map system and a few other things that sound like good ideas, but nearly all are poorly executed. Take the afformentioned map system, basically theres a submenu that you can click on certain points to move your castle to (not sure on how they explain the process of moving the castle, no explanation in the demo) but the only way you can tell you have moved is by a wallpaper background changing. All your little ugly lemming people are in exactly the same position, doing exactly the same thing they were doing 20 mins. ago. This game smells worse than my sneakers after mountain bike riding with no socks on. Really really bad. Not even worth the download, never mind paying for it. run far away.
--