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ArchMage
Embark on an adventurous journey to rescue a small lake kingdom from evil! Fight as a young mage with his mighty dragon or a young witch with her mystical unicorn, and destroy hordes of evil monsters to rescue the Lake Shire. In 35 action levels, you will battle giant Orcs, monstrous insects, huge cyclops, gruesome gargoyles, and a host of other diabolical beasts before eventually facing the Demon King himself!
Well its not what i expected to be. The Rune mixer didn't turn out as I expect also. But its a nice game. Not much storyline though.
The game didn't turned out to be as flexible either. You can only move left and right. And with the monsters, you can see the traditional swam and shoot and sometimes slam right at you. The graphics is somewhat good though.
As overall I rate it average. Good graphics and players who just want to shoot out thing and read less will enjoy it.
This review has an average score of 3.8 - Based on 6 ratings Login to rate this review
Jerryfish's Review - August 13, 2008
Demo Version (PC)
Overall:
Graphics:
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Gameplay:
A rather boring shooter game indeed...
Archmage is a simple 3D, vertical scrolling shooter. Though a bit boring, the graphics are quite impressive and the audio is considerable. It has innovative characters: Instead of fighters you fly a pegasus or dragon.
Gaming however, is not that interesting. You can only move your character horizontally, causing lower mobility (unlike those in Chicken Invaders 3). The good point is those spells, which affects what you fire, add strategies and differentiates the game: not to be too repetitive.
There is also a wide array of bonuses to be picked up, some to change your projectile and some to empower your shooting attack. But once you get the Double Shoot and Rapid Fire your enemies all crumble before you - too easy.
But the monsters are too boring, just swarming down the screen and doesn't have much tricks, you only have to hold down your left mouse button and wait for the level to end, nothing will ram from the side or trying to shoot accurately. This makes the game lack of challenges, at least for the first ten levels.
Overally, an average game. Good graphics, and enjoyable for a short time. But after a few levels you get bored.
This review has an average score of 3.3 - Based on 11 ratings Login to rate this review
I'd played this shooter some time in the past and at the time thought it was a nice little Dragon Spirit like shooter, but nothing too amazing.
With the release today, I played it again, and found that I really enjoyed it MUCH more. The difference was in one simple thing, I picked the Witch instead of the Mage.
ArchMage has some decent power-ups, good sound, and pretty cool bullet effects (they stack like in Gunstar Heros). However, I was so distracted by those big flapping wings of the Dragon that takes up most of the screen when you get the Mage, that the game felt 'off' to me.
The Witch uses a much smaller flying unicorn, with all the same bullets and weapons while decreasing the distracting size of the Mage's Dragon.
Overall it is well worth a play, or a play again if you've given it a shot before and not tried the Witch ;).
This review has an average score of 3 - Based on 7 ratings Login to rate this review
This cheat requires editing of save files so dont forget to back-up!
go to save folder then open the files with the file name player# (replace # with 0 to 5) with notepad. Here you can edit the name runes and spells you have.
Crown of Thorns powerup
THAT is the key to getting 100% kills--or even HIGHER than 100%!
As soon as you grab the Crown of Thorns, it'll say "Destroy all enemies"--but they don't die! IMMEDIATELY head to the lower-left corner of the screen for a handful of random powerups, Runes, even new Spells!
Pain Taught is the best Spell for a Boss, as it takes the spread-fire idea and turns it inside-out! Instead of diverging, the shots converge, meaning ONE enemy takes it all! Can really SHRED a Boss, or any other tough enemies. Also inflicts Poison, and Poison damage is based on the health of the enemy. (As opposed to burning damage, which is based on the Spell, and therefore constant)
Plague or WildWind are the best Spells for NON-Boss enemies. Plague has a good spread and a fair rate-of-fire, even with NO powerups, and inflicts Poison. WildWind makes little snaking "cracks" of ice, damaging enemies anywhere on the screen! Forget aiming, WildWind will literally go anywhere--good against enemies that actually fire back, IF you're lucky enough that the WildWind actually hits'em!
Which one you use is completely dependant on playstyle: Plague is somewhat aimable, and inflicts Poison, while WildWind has a chance of Freezing enemies, preventing them from moving or firing.
