BlitzKeep Review
Price: $3.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 5
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Promising to be a combination of an RPG and pinball, BlitzKeep sounds a little too good to be true. That's because it is. It's briefly entertaining and offers slightly more depth than initial impressions suggest, but it's still a fairly pricey offering given its shallow nature.
The idea is that you help a hero travel across various kingdoms, taking out many enemies in his wake. This is done by flinging him around each screen full of enemies. Each time he hits one, he takes them out – assuming that his power bar is superior to theirs, otherwise it's game over. The hero continues to bounce around until he either reaches the next screen or hits a glowing area that will cause him to stop and take stock of his situation. Understandably, as with most pachinko based games, there's a certain amount of randomness to what unfolds here.
You do gradually learn what works for BlitzKeep though, mostly through trial and error. Some enemies are stronger than others, and you learn what to aim for as you go along. The game is over and you start back at the beginning of the kingdom if you hit an overly powerful foe, which can be frustrating since you're given so little information on what to expect. There are power-ups to collect along the way, as well as special attacks, but you can still only go so far in terms of feeling in control. A restrictive timer throughout keeps you on your toes, but also detracts from enabling you to plan carefully.
A lot of the time you're going to feel either hideously underpowered or hideously overpowered, which obviously makes a huge difference in your survival chances. Boss battles are often quite easy, given that you should be ridiculously overpowered by the time you come across them anyway.
At times, BlitzKeep is slightly satisfying but it's never enough. Perhaps it'd be entertaining enough to be fine as a mindless treat if it weren’t quite so costly, but it's in dire need of a content boost to warrant anything more premium than that. For now, it's a neat idea that lacks longevity.
