A few days ago I was bored and in the market for a new app to grab my interest. I was also curious to see if there were any tributes in the app store for Steve Jobs, who as we all know just passed away after a long fight with cancer. That whole situation has been talked about plenty over the last few days, so I’ll just say ditto and leave it at that. While there wasn’t a tribute to be found, I did notice a refreshed “Game of the Week” listing: The Dark Meadow.
If you’ve played Infinity Blade you’ll notice that this game is pretty similar. They are built off the same Unreal Engine 3 after all. As a result, the graphics are about as good as it gets for a mobile device. It does come at a price though; the app will take up over 800MB to install. Plan to be on a Wi-Fi connection if you want to give it a go. As one of the more polished games available in the app store, it’s also one of the more expensive choices, at $5.99. It’s still a drop in the bucket compared to anything on a console, but for the world of apps, is it worth it?
When the game starts out, your character wakes up in a run-down hospital without any memory of how he got there. You spot an old man in a wheelchair, who will talk to you over a loudspeaker in different rooms throughout the game. The guy is strange, and talks in riddles, but he’s the only person you’ll hear as you play, so you get used to him. Roaming through the halls, you occasionally run into odd looking monsters you have to fight. The battle system is almost identical to what Infinity Blade had to offer, with an added twist. As the monster approaches, you use a crossbow to knock off a few hit points before switching to a sword when they get close. Some of them are able to shoot back too. After that, you dodge or block their attacks, and then counter by swiping at the screen, just like in Infinity Blade.
You earn experience points and gold for each battle, and as you level up you can increase your character’s stats. As you’re walking through the halls, you can also find gold laying around (don’t forget to check the fire extinguishers – an “obvious” place for bags of gold to be stashed away) which can be used to purchase upgraded swords, crossbows, and amulets that increase stats. The bags are pretty much identical to the ones found in Infinity Blade. Are you seeing a pattern here?
Other than the environment and enemies, the big difference between this game and Infinity Blade is that as you walk around, you also find journals, letters, and newspaper clippings that contain clues as to the history of the old hospital. The story seems to be pretty deep, but you have to explore every nook to try and get all the pieces to the puzzle. You’re chasing the final enemy around throughout the game, who appears as a beam of light at the end of the hallways, leading you in the right direction. I’ve beaten her once already, which just opened up the second floor for exploring, and chasing her around again.
The gameplay can be fun, but really repetitive. Wandering around to find all the journals and letters gets old after a while, but at least you’re leveling up at the same time. So, is it worth it? Well, it depends. If you played Infinity Blade to the point where you could say you collected all the items (which I did), it’s going to get old fast. If you really liked that game though, you’ll probably like this one. And even though it’s one of the more expensive apps for iOS, it’s still just $6.
Other apps I’m stuck on
What other apps (games) have I been killing time with lately on my iPhone? Here’s a few:
- Skee-Ball (A great mindless time waster)
- Words With Friends (I constantly have 6-7 games going on at a time)
- Card Ace: Casino (Purely for my hold ‘em fix, without wasting any real money)