Beards and Beaks - Review

Real-time strategy games tin can be tough to get right on platforms other than computers. Console controllers tin't lucifer the speed and accuracy of a mouse, and then most developers don't fifty-fifty try. Smartphones are much better at recreating mouse-style controls thanks to their touchscreens, only the lower screen resolution compared to PCs still complicates things. Thus, not-PC strategy games tend to be of the less click-intensive tower defense variety. Merely Microsoft Game Studios has bravely crafted a casual RTS experience with Beards & Beaks, the Windows Telephone-exclusive Xbox Live title.

Beards & Beaks (which I always want to type as 'Birds & Beaks' for some reason) revolves around 2 warring tribes: gnomes and crows. Each side competes to collect treasure earlier the other, inflicting as much impairment as possible forth the way. Strangely, the game is completely devoid of an actual story - a missed opportunity given the unique and adorable graphic symbol designs. Fifty-fifty Angry Birds (whose 'birds versus pigs' premise is similar enough) has story sequences, after all!

Motion-picture show past the break for our full review.

Flying gnomes

In Beards & Beaks, players control a pocket-size regular army of gnomes. Instead of tapping on gnomes and telling them where to go or dragging them to their destinations, players direct the little guys by flicking them. Yes, flicking a gnome sends him flying a short distance in the intended direction. It'due south designed to be unproblematic and piece of cake.

Flicking is an interesting input method to be sure. The only problem is that these gnomes also have minds of their own. They basically wander effectually like idiots and might choice up a treasure if they happen to smack into it. Anyway, what often ends up happening is I'll be trying to direct a gnome to a particular location or enemy, and in-between my flicks he's constantly trying to run off in a dissimilar management or latch onto a dissimilar enemy. The gnomes' impudence actually got me despising them, which couldn't take been the developers' intention. But in fairness, the goofy AI seldom cost me a level.

A variety of garden gnomes

Putting aside their intellect for a moment, let's take a closer look at the piddling guys. Is information technology notwithstanding politically right to telephone call them little guys? Well! In that location are iv types of gnomes. Each 1 has a crow equivalent, except for the healing gnome. Note that even though one of the menu screens features a ninja gnome (which I'd have loved), the ninja isn't available during game play.

• Carmine: This standard, all-purpose gnome is best suited to collecting treasure as he takes a lot of impairment in fights.
• Brown: Ranged attack gnomes don't do a tremendous amount of damage with each hitting, but they're tops as support characters. Placing them atop a mushroom garrison greatly increases their range, too.
• Blue: This large musculus-dude gnome can really get into a fight and survive, which is handy. He takes downwards regular crows quickly.
• White: Paging Doctor Gnome! Whiteys are good for healing other gnomes and worst at fighting. Simply they're non fifty-fifty that good at healing – they can simply restore a single unit of health at a time and that'south if the stubborn footling jerks feel like doing it. They'll often walk correct past injured gnomes and wander into the range of enemies instead. Healing would piece of work so much meliorate if it had an ever-on radius.

Treasure hunting

Almost of Beards & Beaks levels involve trying to capture a fix amount of treasure earlier the crow team does the same. Treasure comes in two sizes: pocket-size and large. A big gem tin be carried by a single gnome or crow, simply it slows them down greatly. Putting two or more gnomes on the job speeds it up a lot, which can be essential when yous're trying to outrun a pack of crows.

Other levels are more combat oriented, with each side having just a certain number of fighters. Whichever side loses too many warriors loses the battle. So there are base defense force levels, in which one or both sides take a destructible base. The object of these is to go along the gnomes' base of operations in-tact or knock out the crows' base inside a set fourth dimension.

Finally, boss levels pit the gnomes confronting a crow commander (and sometimes his minions). The commander can take a lot of damage and he tin kill any gnome with a unmarried swipe of his sword. Lose also many gnomes and the villain wins! The central is to use only one to ii gnomes to peck away at him while minimizing your vulnerability. He's vulnerable just later slashing his sword.

Mushroom madness

Players have access to 4 mushroom-fueled special abilities that can speed upwardly or turn the tide of a stage: a meteor that crushes crows, an arrow that tosses gnomes across nifty distances, a whirlwind that blows stuff around, and a magnet that pulls treasure towards itself. Unfortunately, the mushrooms that these powers require are time-based. Information technology takes hours for them to recharge on their own, making mushroom powers pretty much useless. Well, a few abrasive levels require specific powers to complete, merely otherwise the powers are optional.

Oh, simply players tin opt to refill the mushroom bar instantly by ponying up various quantities of Microsoft Points. This sort of cash grab is common in iPhone and Facebook games, only I just can't see anybody actually choosing to buy mushrooms.

How many levels do you lot want?

Beards & Beaks' downloadable levels brand a lot more sense. Past default, the game comes with two areas that contain 15 levels a piece. But a third expanse is available as gratis DLC, pregnant the game substantially comes with 45 levels for the base price. A 4th area is currently available for purchase and a fifth one has nonetheless to exist released.

At lxxx Microsoft Points, these areas aren't priced too exorbitantly. I wouldn't buy them unless they included new Achievements (they don't), but they're a nice selection for people who want the game to go on longer. It's just a shame that a large "New Content!" advert so prominently nags gamers on the title screen.

Waste non, want not

Beards & Beaks not but eschews a story, it also does abroad with pesky explanatory text. Whenever a level introduces a new mechanic, that information is conveyed by a chalkboard drawing. Unfortunately, these oftentimes don't brand much sense, forcing players to upshot to trial and error in order to figure things out. Similarly, players' performance on each level is conveyed by a rating of ane-to-three gnomes. But the game never explains how the rating system works, so there's no incentive to actually become back and try to do better.

All of these omissions (and give-and-take from the developers themselves) lead me to believe that MGS left out the instructions that games ordinarily have in order to reduce the costs of translating the game into other languages. An interesting cost cutting measure out, merely not one that benefits the game in the to the lowest degree.

Achievements

Beards & Beaks gets creative with its Achievements, rewarding optional tasks like knocking five crows into the h2o or using iv gnomes to carry a single heavy treasure. In that location is, however, one rather objectionable Achievement. "Mushroom-Fueled Excess" requires the utilize of all four mushroom powers in a single level. It takes 11 mushrooms to use all four powers, but yous can but have 10 mushrooms at a time. Thus by design, the Accomplishment would crave the purchase of actress mushrooms. Not absurd. Thankfully, Yip Yoo'south Achievement Guide lists a workaround that involves tricking the phone into thinking a 24-hour interval has passed, refilling the mushrooms for free.

Overall Impression

Beards & Beaks has many of the makings of a bang-up game: a unique premise, enchanting graphic symbol designs, and a catchy swing soundtrack. But information technology never quite comes together to meet its potential. Real-time strategy games require precise controls to work well. Not just is the flicking hither a little on the imprecise side, but battling your own regular army's dunderheaded AI really limits the game's strategic potential. It would likewise have benefited from more physical goals and instructions, to say nix of ditching the mushroom system. These bug don't kill the game's fun factor, just they do limit its staying power. Possibly the core ideas here could exist fleshed out in a sequel some day. Just don't forget the ninjas adjacent time, MGS!

Beards & Beaks costs $2.99 and there is a free trial. Grab it here (Zune link) on the Market place.

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