Ravenmark review (iPod/iPhone)

♫ “Mighty Raven Dark
Blashyrkh’s Mighty Raven Dark!”

"Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion" - to give you its full title

10 word description: Fantasy turn-based strategy in an original world. 15 missions.

One of the early levels is an ambush, which gives you a bit of a starting advantage

10 word review: Epic visualisation of story enhances solid strategy game. Polished experience.

Mostly, Ravenmark avoids blatant fantasy clichés. The characters are all fairly stereotypical, but that's not necessarily bad.

You will like this if you enjoy: Battle for Wesnoth, Highborn, etc. Turn-based strategy battles.

The codex contains detailed information about units, lore, etc.

The good news: Intuitive and accessible turn-based gameplay. Characters and story have an epic feel, considering there’s a relatively small amount of exposition in the intro scenes. Battle results rely heavily on your decisions – learning from your mistakes is the entertaining part. The control scheme is tight and issuing orders doesn’t feel like a chore.

Your basic strategies will need to include reference to the extended rock-paper-scissors unit effectiveness

The bad news: You won’t get victory handed to you on a plate and you won’t win on your first try, every time. Some learning is required, as is a moderate attention span. Arguably not bad points, but worth mentioning.

Each unit action is depicted in a static scene with statistical information and description of any effects or outcomes

Arcadelife verdict: It’s very good, and nowhere near as impenetrable as some turn-based strategy games can be. Although it’s fairly easy to get into, and the order-issuing is a breeze, the battles are complex and require actual strategy (surprise!) to overcome the often deviously capable AI enemies. Overall, a very worthwhile challenge for any TBS fans, and probably a much better introduction to the genre than many similar offerings on the app store.

It doesn't take long for battles to become rather large and challenging

Arcadelife rating: 85/100

Version reviewed by Arcadelife is 1.01

Witching Hour website link

Arcadelife played and reviewed this game on:
4th gen iPod Touch (OS 5.0.1)