Gaming: Deus Ex Go
Long flights and lazy afternoons relaxing from teaching, I tried out another game on my Android device, Deus Ex Go. It is a turn based game in the style of the Deus Ex series (long years ago I was beta tester for the Deus Ex version of LGP). A turn based game where you have to pass through a series of levels, each one consisting of an hexagonal grid with an entry and exit point, and some nasty villains or machines trying to kill you.
Without any explanations given you are thrown into the game and it takes a few iterations until you understand what kind of attacks you are facing, but once you have figured that out, it is a more or less simple game of combination how to manage to get to the exit. I played through the around 50 levels of the story mode and I think it was only in the last five that I once or twice had to actually try and think hard to find a solution.
I found the game quite amusing at the beginning, but soon it became repetitive. But since you can play through the whole story mode in probably one long afternoon, that is not so much of a problem. More a problem is the apparently incredible battery usage of this game. Playing without checking for some time leaves you soon with a near empty battery.
Graphically well done, with more or less interesting gameplay, it still does not stand up to Monument Valley.
If you’d like a brain teaser I’d recommend trying Hoplite.
It appears to be another conventional hexagonal-grid kill-em-all-and-reach-the-exit game, but the combination of different kinds of attacks, upgrades and monsters with unique attacks makes it think-before-you-move 😉
Sure, after completing the main challenge a couple of times, you’ll beat the first 10 levels of the challenge easily but once you feel you’re pro, you can switch to more hard-core modes.
Oddly enough, not being a hard-core fan of TBS games, I find this one not getting boring and play a couple of levels on occasion.
Interesting, thanks. Sounds like I’ll enjoy it more than DEG. I played a lot of TBS board games, but the computer ones haven’t got me hooked till now.
Tried Hoplite, it was rather easy to beat the 16 levels of the normal game play. The nice thing is that it is generated so the levels change. Thanks for the hint.
On a related note, the just-released blockbuster sequel to the main Deus Ex franchise is expected to get a Linux port any time now, according to the usual signs.
And a previous entry from the “Go” distillations series, Hitman Go, got a port to desktop Linux.
Interesting, on Steam?