Divinity – Dragon Commander is a turn-based, role-playing, tactical, first-person, real-time strategy boardgame. Sounds impossible, but it works because Dragon Commander is actually more like four games rolled into one. In this prequel to the Divinity franchise, the player takes on the role of the commander of the Dragon nation army as they seek to create a unified kingdom under their own rule.
In each ‘turn’ of the game, the player moves through three phases. First, they roleplay the diplomacy of the Commander while on board the Dragon military command ship. The player mush chat with NPCs, developing and maintaining relationships with VIPs and ambassadors. Doing well in this phase of the turn rewards the hero with ‘cards’ that carry over into the next phase, which takes place on a boardgame-esque map of the gameworld. Troops are produced, moved, and bolstered with the assistance of the cards earned in the previous phase. If the Dragon armies come into conflict with another nation on the board, then a real-time strategic map of the area forms the backdrop for the third phase of the turn, in which the player builds buildings, recruits troops, and issues commands. There is also the option, in this third phase, for the player to leave the safety of the command ship, and, in dragon form, assault the enemy personally.
All this combined into a single game makes for a very ambitious project, clearly designed to appeal to a wide variety of gamers. With a few notable exceptions, games that try to appeal to everyone, end up appealing to no one in particular. Perhaps Divinity – Dragon Commander can be one of those exceptions. It certainly seems to have the heart for it.
In Cloudberry Kingdom, players run and jump in a procedurally generated, infinite world, described by the designers as “the difficulty curve of Tetris meets old school platformer action”. On each playthrough, the game generates a random series of progressively more difficult (yet always possible) levels, promising to eventually challenge and defeat even the best platforming players. The player can customize their character with different physics, abilities, and gadgets, and the game will generate the levels based on what it knows the character has the ability to do. If the player ever gets stuck, the AI can be asked to step in and show the solution to the level it created.
The game can be played solo or with up to three friends in one of several multiplayer modes, including ‘Bungee’ mode, in which the players are tied to one another with short ropes. Unfortunately, even on Steam the multi-player modes are local only, so it’s really like they aren’t available at all for most players.
You remember Flashback, right? That’s the game you got for the Genesis when you were thirteen, thinking it looked pretty cool, and you’d heard good things, but then you could never really get anywhere with it. I mean, you tried to get through the game four of five times, the last try only a few years ago, when, on a whim, you dragged your Genesis out of the attic and tried one more time to get past that part you never could when you were a teenager, only to find that you couldn’t even get that far anymore?
Well, you’re in luck, as you’ll be getting one more chance to finally defeat the game when the HD remake comes out this month. Flashback is a complete retooling of the original game from the ground up, moving the platforming, puzzling, adventuring gameplay into the new millennium with advanced 3D graphics and new puzzles and levels which were conceptualized back in ’92, but weren’t possible with the technical limitations. Wake up once again in the dichotomous techno-jungles of titan, and reassemble your memory from the clues you left for yourself, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll finally get through that level that nearly made you defenestrate your Genesis twenty years ago.
With Duck Tales Remastered also set for release this month, it’s a good time for fans of early 90’s platformers who are also fans of modern graphics.
It’s not your fault, War for the Overworld; I’ve just been hurt too many times before. I know you’re willing to try. I see that you’ve got the open world building, the monster possession, the traps, and even a visual style reminiscent of Dungeon Keeper, but I’ve heard all these promises before, and after a long string of failures in this arena, I’m not going to get my hopes up again. It’s not you. It’s your genre, which is full of poseurs… and which you might be another one of.
Following is a full list of announced North American releases for August 2013:
Windows
- Cloudberry Kingdom
- Disney Infinity
- Divinity: Dragon Commander
- DuckTales Remastered
- Europa Universalis IV
- Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn
- Lost Planet 3
- Saints Row IV
- The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
- Worms Clan Wars
WiiU
- Cloudberry Kingdom
- Disney Infinity
- Disney’s Planes
- DuckTales Remastered
- New Super Luigi U
- Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
- Pikmin 3
- Pokemon Rumble U
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
3DS
- Disney Infinity
- Disney’s Planes
- Family Kart 3D
- Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
- Rune Factory 4
Xbox 360
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Charlie Murder
- Cloudberry Kingdom
- Disney Infinity
- Flashback
- Killer Is Dead
- Lost Planet 3
- Madden NFL 25
- Payday 2
- Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
- Saints Row IV
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
- The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
PS3
- Cloudberry Kingdom
- Divekick
- Dragon’s Crown
Vita
- Cloudberry Kingdom
- Disney Infinity
- Divekick
- Dragon’s Crown
- DuckTales Remastered
- Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn
- Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F
- Ibb & Obb
- Killer Is Dead
- Lost Planet 3
- Madden NFL 25
- Payday 2
- Saints Row IV
- Tales of Xillia
- The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
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