Shadow Zone Review

Shadow Zone by NewGround is a turn based strategy game set in 1986 when Chernobyl's 4th block has an accidental nuclear explosion and the area is sealed off. This game boasts 40+ hours of game play so it's definitely not a short game you'll be done with in a couple of hours. Now that I've gotten some real play time with this game, here is our review of it.

Game Play: The game play itself is quite good as there is a lot of interaction that comes along with this game. It's a turn-based strategy game so during your turn you move your units, buy new units or upgrades, attack enemies, repair building, collect income and more each turn. The game doesn't just revolve around killing all your enemies but also finding artifacts and taking over buildings to achieve the current maps goals. The background story is quite thorough as well with character dialog (text in a window) during game play, especially when completing the goal you are currently on. I experienced no lag during game play on my G1 which is stuffed full of games and apps and is almost out of space which is good.

Features:

• Seven precisely balanced missions in campaign mode with more than forty hours to finish all tasks.
• Eight skirmish maps to fight against one up to three opponents.
• Graduate technological development of player and enemy forces during campaign.
• Seven types of game world terrain. Each type has defined cost of passing through and additionally can increase/decrease some abilities of the character staying there.
• Four types of buildings with various meaning in the gameplay.
• Player and enemy have ability to occupy buildings in order to gain additional resources.
• Twelve types of battle units including commanders (Stalkers) with different abilities.
• Each battle unit has five major abilities allowing a variety of strategic decisions during the battle.
• Experience of each battle unit increases during fighting.
• Hot keys to acquire operative tactical data about all units on the map.
• Mini map to depict all units on the map and all buildings.
• Save game feature with three slots to store game at any time when player need this.
• Extraordinary graphics and game atmosphere
• Marvelous music and sound effects
• Cutting edge, precise and intuitive user interface

Controls: You can control your units or do any type of action during your turn using either the on-screen touch controls or the trackball (or both which is what I prefer to do). The controls for the most part are good, sometimes a little too sensitive when using the trackball as in you might by-pass the spot you want to move your unit to but that's not really a big deal. Especially when you get into the game, you're too busy concentrating on what to do to really notice it. Once in awhile the main action menu will pop up when trying to click on a unit to do something like moving it but again, just a bit of over sensitivity and you get used to it pretty fast and hardly even give it a second thought while you're playing the game.

Sound: The background music and sounds are pretty decent, they reflect the style of older console games from back in the day but really with a turn-based game, sound isn't a huge part of that when compared to a 3D game or something more shooter style.

Graphics: Graphics in this game consist of very detailed pixel art with an over view of the general area and units. Think of the old Final Fantasy games when you are on the world map moving around, it's like that. Your units and some of the map are animated during moving, being stationary, attacking and most other instances of the game.

Options: There are a few options you can use to turn sound off and on. You can also save up to three games as well. There's also the option to select previously completed levels as well as Skirmish maps should you just want a quick game instead of playing in campaign mode. The Skirmish maps become unlocked as you play more into the game.

Overall: This game is a very complete, polished game with good graphics, good storyline and controls. I would like to see multiplayer added into this game as this would truly make it a competitor in the turn-based game genre. Without multiplayer, it'll eventually fall behind but if you aren't into the whole multiplayer aspect of gaming, this is a pretty solid, enjoyable game to play with a lot of replay value. it comes in two versions, Free and Pro with the only difference between the two being that the Free version has ads where as the Pro doesn't. The ads aren't all over the place either, just when you select something from the Main Menu such as loading a game and when you exit the game so it doesn't get in the way of playing the actual game. Anyone who enjoys turn-based strategy games will definitely enjoy this one.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

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Official Site: NewGround Mobile

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