💾 Archived View for anjune.lol › gmi › archonclassic.gmi captured on 2023-03-20 at 17:28:07. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

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monolalia → Others’ Worlds → Archon: Classic

Archon: "Classic" expands on the simple but compelling 1983 action strategy title with secondary attacks, character levelling, a variety of different boards and a campaign mode that leads the player through a series of smaller-scale battles and flavour loredumps. So far, so good — it plays at least as well as the Amiga version, and the additions actually work. It's nice to see a lowly knight or goblin level up instead of simply getting his health eroded further with each barely-survived duel.

What I don't like is the stats and figures the game keeps throwing at you to facilitate or highlight this. Give me rune stones, pictograms, updated character graphics, *something* more tangible than sober English text and numbers… and leave the details for the player to observe or infer. It’s not a complicated game! Visual clutter and complexity work against Archon’s classy aesthetic and timeless appeal as an immediately accessible kinda-sorta chess variant. This is an apocalyptic clash of mythic titans, told through a living board game: golem against dragon, basilisk against valkyrie, phoenix against earth elemental; to my mind, character sheets just don't fit in there any more than they’d have suited the holo-game aboard the Millennium Falcon. Your take on it may differ wildly, of course.

Quibble #2: the campaign mode could really have used some proof-reading. Feels shoddy at times.

Quibble #3: "nope" to online multiplayer.

All that aside, it’s a good game. It’s not as “pure” as the original, not as iconic, more heavy metal than stone and wood and parchment… but it’s as much if not more fun.

It’s unproblematic on Linux with the right Wine or Proton version; it’s furthermore DRM-free and works fine sans Steam.

(Regarding gamepad support: the first thing I see is a pop-up warning me that the game couldn’t figure out what this “X-Box 360 controller” is supposed to be. It does work, though.)

This review was written by someone who doesn’t care one bit for strategy games. Keep that in mind.