I have been playing BloodyCheckers for the past 2 weeks, and I can honestly say it is the best indie game I have played.
The entire premise of the game is that you find yourself in front of a castle that is on a big hill. You decide to explore it. First you find your candle, which you will use the whole game to light the castle. Torches are treated as save points. The game is half 3D adventure game, half checkers. This sounds kind of odd, but stick with me. In order to open gates that lead on to more parts of the castle you must defeat portraits in checkers. The portraits are member of the royal family who lived in the castle, but all of them died. The portraits tell of their deaths and some of them are very funny. Before you battle a portrait it will be dirty, usually in a way relating to how that person died. After you beat a portrait it becomes clean with a golden star on it. You can choose to battle portraits again for money if you wish, and if you lose the gate you opened for beating that portrait closes, but can still be opened by pressing A on it.
As you go deeper into the castle you will find treasure, locked doors, and Creaky. Creaky is a roaming shopkeeper who will follow you around if you want him to. He sells useful items that keep your candle lit or that can relight your candle if you are careless. Then if you get lost he will lead you to a torch, or when you want to see his key shop he will take you. Creaky is a great twist on the traditional shopkeeper character by being the go to guy for help if you need it. There are puzzles to solve in the castle as well, but I won't ruin it for you.
Now to talk about checkers.
The game gives you 90ish training missions to do within the game. These range from forcing jumps to breaching, to winning the game with a quintuple jump. These are fun, and if you get them first try with no hints you get a gold bonus. These training missions are a great way to learn some hidden checkers tips and tricks. The normal rules of checkers apply in this game, so force jumps are active. That means you have to take a jump if you have it. This leads to more strategy than I expected. I play on the hardest difficulty because it makes for such a great challenge, and I suggest that to anyone who finds normal too easy. The difficulty setting is in the audio menu strangely enough.
The thing that separates BloodyCheckers from normal checkers is traps and spells. These have no affect on the actual game of checkers, but they are great ways to make gold/get experience. You buy traps from paintings or Creaky and set them before the match. Then, during the match, if your opponent places a checker on a trap square, their checker gets beat to a pulp, sawed in half, eaten by a bear trap, etc. This makes the piece spit out money and become bloody. This does not destroy the piece or anything, but it still adds a but of strategy to the game. You want to make your money back on your traps, so you will sometimes force an opponent towards a trap cluster. Traps last about 3 uses before they disappear, but by then they have made you a profit. Also when a piece lands on one of your traps, you get spell points. Then you can use spells. If you cast arrow barrage for example, when you hit a piece (friend or foe) you get experience. Since spell points do not add up outside of the match you earn them in, it is always wise to fire them for a chance at extra experience. Spells and traps add a layer of strategy I didn't think possible with checkers, plus it also adds excitement and a lot more fun.
Online play is also very fun, and easy to play. Now you may be saying "Wait, indie games are pretty dead online, I don't want to wait an hour for a match". Well fear not! Instead of waiting in a lobby for an hour you can just start up single player and hit B. This will activate your lobby (make sure messages are turned on). This will allow you to play single player, but if someone joins your lobby you will be told and you can hop straight in to play them. It is an ingenious solution to a generally broken system. In online mode you place your bet before the game, and so does your opponent (these can be wildly different, it is just up to you how much you want to bet. The higher you bet, the more bonuses you will have. Like more money from traps, more exp, and even a rare item if you win. This is a very cool way to encourage higher betting. Be careful though, the money you bet in online correlates to your single player account.
The Graphics and Audio in this game are perfect. The music and sounds of the castle go so great with the visuals. There is a element of mystery and suspense to the game, but no horror.
Overall:
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 11/10 (for a $1 indie game, this is mind blowing)
Audio: 10/10
Difficulty: I rated this game just right in terms of difficulty because you can change the difficulty of the game to your liking. I play on the hardest, but it is up to you. It only affects the checkers, which is great.
Story: I have not completed the entire game all the way through, but it is there and somewhat interesting. I want to know what happened in the castle, and what is at the end. It is better than a lot of indie games, but this game is great because of good gameplay. The story is just a bonus to already well polished package.
All in all: a must buy for adventure fans, checker fans, and anyone who wants the best deal on xbox live. $1 for a 30 hours game plus online? Yes please!