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Wrath Unleashed

I think many gamers would agree with me that over the years, LucasArts has had some pretty weird and strange ideas. These ideas are quite welcome because, simply put, they are unique and sometimes original. LucasArts will not disappoint fans with Wrath Unleashed. Wrath Unleashed plays like chess but has more to offer. Instead of your basic chess pieces that contain knights and kings, you have dragons and demigods. Also when two opponents encounter each other the game’s strategic chess like engine will turn into a real-time combat system.  

First of all if you’re not familiar with the rules and concepts of chess you might want to check out the tutorial in Wrath Unleashed. If you decide not to check out the tutorial you’ll eventually catch on, either way there’s a fair bit of a learning curve ahead of you, though after a while you’ll find that the game isn’t too difficult to play. There are a few modes in Wrath Unleashed including campaign, battle, versus, and team fighter.

Campaign and battle modes allow you to choose or customize your army of Dark Chaos, Light Order, Light Chaos, and the Dark Order. Every army has a demigod which respectively replaces the king in chess. Demigods can cast spells and so can one other member of your army. Magic is a crucial aspect of the game, players can recover magic faster if they stand on special spots of the map that contain mana crystals. Careful though, your enemies will put up a good fight for it.

 

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There is a lot of strategy involved which will force the player to make the best decisions when it comes to movement. If you don’t think before you act there will be consequences ahead of you, so watch out for that. When two characters from opposite teams step on the same space, the game’s strategic engine will turn into a real-time combat system where the two characters will duke it out one on one. The fighting consists of light attack, strong attack, light magic, strong magic, special 

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magic, and every character has a signature move. The battles in Wrath are quite fun and will keep the player entertained. I also like how the game allows up to 4 players, not too shabby.

Versus and team fighter modes allows players to fight battles without any strategy or maps. It’s just one on one battles over and over again. I found myself getting bored after a short while with these modes. This is when I realized for the first time that the combat system seems very weak and lacks entertainment without its strategic counterpart. Overall, most players will probably want to stick to the campaign and battle modes.  

Wrath Unleashed does have nice visuals as far as character models go but landscapes during battles could’ve been a bit better. The visuals on the map are a bit plain but really nothing to complain about. The music in the game was superb. It even had some cool chanting in some themes. It’s very tense and I loved it. I just wish they would’ve added a few more battle themes though. The sound effects are a let down, it definitely doesn’t stand out like the music does.

Overall I would highly suggest Wrath Unleashed being given a try before you buy. It’s definitely aimed towards strategy fans, but fans of other genres might feel Wrath to be a nice welcomed change and being an interesting addition to their collection.

Jay Tonello

March 24, 2004

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