Medieval Chess
A redesign of chess, Archon like
I think Chess as a game is so ingrained in most of our consciousness, us regular players or even casual players that we rarely think about how the game could be changed up, modified. However, some developers did just that with this game here, and, I would say that they did a tasteful job at changing the rules just enough to give a new lease of life to the game. However, it is rather a cool, tasteful re-imagining of the original, and, for all intents and purposes and it is a very playable and well produced game. And, thus, it has a very nice feel to it. The rules are not changed 100 percent, but a few new ideas are blended into, making the win states a little looser and avoiding stale mates. Plus the game is packaged neatly, with nice graphics and a neat set of chess pieces and tables. Give it a go, if, say, you loved Archon and/or other imaginings of the basic game. It will really offer you a great experience and you will see chess through a new lens. Totally worth it and well produced as well.
The real dieval
I think this is a fantastic variant to playing normal chess. I like how it bends the standard rules of battle, in that Medieval Chess gives the victim a chance to turn the tables where there is the expense of one of his pieces being captured - I.E. If you play the PC, and the PC plays a move that "captures" it's desired piece, you get the chance to keep your piece where it is by defensive battling.Also on the plus-side is how pieces have levels of strength measured by the sword shown in battle scenes. It's great how if you are hit, it slowly diminishes and gives a chance for you to still win back, rather than an instant death. If you happen to do well with a piece and use it winning several battles, the sword length increases, thus making the piece stronger; I remember I did this with a pawn once. It never took any hits in any of the first few battles and the result was that it developed to be quite a strong pawn.Furthermore on the subject of battle, I like how particular pieces have ranged weapons rather than mele weapons. Last to say is I have to give credit to the game designer in coming up with the idea of death-mark icons. "Dust", "R.I.P." and in particular, "Toast" are fantastic!
