Posted November 16, 2011
First of all, the game is free. It is an open-source, turn-based strategy, fantasy-medieval game. I am not a big supporter of "open source" game/apps; or rather, I do not really care much about them or the whole "open source" movement or whatever. Most open source games I've tried sucked anyway.
I downloaded and tried out Battle for Wesnoth back in 2006 or 2007. I was not too impressed. The graphics were horrible. Sound and music were non-existent. The interface was clunky. Campaigns and storytelling were disconnected. Tutorials were confusing. So I wrote it off as another amateur production.
Last week I came across this game again in the Android Market. I checked out the Android version and, I thought, wow, the Android version was way better than the Windows version. So I downloaded the Windows version again. And, whoa. The developers have certainly been busy. They have been seriously upgrading and improving every single thing in the game. It is like a completely different game.
Graphics. Sounds. Music. Interface. Campaigns. Stories. Tutorials. Everything is excellent and comparable and even than most commercial games. I am especially impressed by its installation process, which asked me where I want to installed the my program files *and* save games, (they could be in different directories.) The game then asked me how I wanted to save/remove my save games and gave me plenty of options for saving and auto-saving games. Most commercial games do not even give me that choice.
The main campaigns are actually quite good. I am going to use WarCraft III campaigns as the direct comparisons because of the similarities (i.e., they are both strategy games, medieval-fantasy settings with elves and orcs and magic and whatever.) Wesnoth campaigns and stories are superior to those in WarCraft III, (except the Night Elf expansion campaign, which IMO is the strongest and most interesting campaign in WarCraft III.) Wesnoth campaigns and stories focus on characters (unlike WarCraft III which has poor characterizations and inconsistent character motivations; like, WTF did Prince Arthas turn evil?!? Like Anakin Skywalker, Arthas' characterizations were inconsistent. His motivations were confusing and never fully explained. It's like he just woke up one day and decided, "hey, I think I am going to be a bad dude from now on.") Some Wesnoth campaigns have interesting and greatly varied branches and folks.
So many open-sourced and volunteers-made games have failed and collapsed. It is amazing how far this free, volunteers-developed game has progressed and improved in the past five or six years. Seriously, everyone should download it and check it out.
http://www.wesnoth.org/
I downloaded and tried out Battle for Wesnoth back in 2006 or 2007. I was not too impressed. The graphics were horrible. Sound and music were non-existent. The interface was clunky. Campaigns and storytelling were disconnected. Tutorials were confusing. So I wrote it off as another amateur production.
Last week I came across this game again in the Android Market. I checked out the Android version and, I thought, wow, the Android version was way better than the Windows version. So I downloaded the Windows version again. And, whoa. The developers have certainly been busy. They have been seriously upgrading and improving every single thing in the game. It is like a completely different game.
Graphics. Sounds. Music. Interface. Campaigns. Stories. Tutorials. Everything is excellent and comparable and even than most commercial games. I am especially impressed by its installation process, which asked me where I want to installed the my program files *and* save games, (they could be in different directories.) The game then asked me how I wanted to save/remove my save games and gave me plenty of options for saving and auto-saving games. Most commercial games do not even give me that choice.
The main campaigns are actually quite good. I am going to use WarCraft III campaigns as the direct comparisons because of the similarities (i.e., they are both strategy games, medieval-fantasy settings with elves and orcs and magic and whatever.) Wesnoth campaigns and stories are superior to those in WarCraft III, (except the Night Elf expansion campaign, which IMO is the strongest and most interesting campaign in WarCraft III.) Wesnoth campaigns and stories focus on characters (unlike WarCraft III which has poor characterizations and inconsistent character motivations; like, WTF did Prince Arthas turn evil?!? Like Anakin Skywalker, Arthas' characterizations were inconsistent. His motivations were confusing and never fully explained. It's like he just woke up one day and decided, "hey, I think I am going to be a bad dude from now on.") Some Wesnoth campaigns have interesting and greatly varied branches and folks.
So many open-sourced and volunteers-made games have failed and collapsed. It is amazing how far this free, volunteers-developed game has progressed and improved in the past five or six years. Seriously, everyone should download it and check it out.
http://www.wesnoth.org/
Post edited November 16, 2011 by ktchong