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Courtesy of Triniti Interactive Limited
Ancient War is a 2D, side-scrolling real-time strategy game that functions like Age of Mythology possibly would if it had this design. Or rather, it's a brightly colored version of Galaxy Front with Age of Mythology qualities. For example, instead of hiring minions, troops can be "created" when enough food is gathered. Also, instead of firing a giant plasma cannon, players can call down on god powers to rain fire upon the oncoming enemies.
The goal of the game is to slowly take over each ancient tribe by sending troops to tear down the opposing tribe's totem pole, which their gods ensoul, and prevent them from doing to same to the player's own.
Ancient War is actually a bit more fun than Galaxy Front, but it has one major downfall: the upgrade system is notoriously pricey. With every tribe takeover, players receive a cash award to use toward upgrading their warriors, the health bar of their totem pole, and purchasing new types of warriors. However, it is very expensive to purchase just one of these items, which often requires players to replay levels to amass enough coin. Without upgrading as much as possible, attacking the next tribe is often suicide, as they have no problems upgrading everyone.
The game accommodates for this a little by providing four different difficulty modes to complete for each tribe. Playing through one tribe twice is one thing, but after the third time, it gets really, really old, especially if the upgrades are still unaffordable. The gameplay does not require any complex strategic planning, like a 3D RTS does, so repeatedly just sending in the same troops over and over is extremely tedious.
But this may not be as annoying for those who just eat up the RTS genre and like finding new strategies to win or for a newcomer to the RTS genre who is just learning the ropes. For those who still aren't sure if this is the game for them, there is a lite, free version that offers a sample of the combat and upgrade systems, which may be the best option for RTS newbies as well as hardcore RTS gamers.
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