CastleStorm is a unique title unlike anything the company has produced in the past and features gameplay like the gaming industry has rarely seen. The new physics based title combines many different elements including Angry Birds styled destruction, tower defense based squad management, brawling mechanics that allows the player to join in the battle against waves of enemies and even RPG elements that allow characters, spells, projectiles and more to level up and gain profound new power. All of these things combine to make CastleStorm one of the most interesting new games of the year and the best Xbox LIVE Arcade exclusive of 2013.
If you're a fan of the mobile series Angry Birds, you'll already have a head start in the primary mechanics of CastleStorm. You play through the game as Sir Gareth, the leader of the Kingdom's army and a true war hero. A variety of projectiles will be fired from the castle's ballista towards oncoming enemies and against your rivals' structures. Most stages throughout the game can be completed by simply firing until your opponent's castle has been fully demolished, but there is also a class-based tower defense battle going on at the same time. You can summon troops that range from your all-around soldier, to mounted knights and even giant stone golems once you've progressed far enough into the game. The troops are housed within the walls of your castle, so you'll want to protect your own castle during battles as well. If enemies become too plentiful, Heroes can be summoned to the battlefield, including Sir Gareth, to let the player take control in typical hack and slash, brawler fashion to cut down enemies for 30 seconds. There are also powerful spells in the game that can make a troop invincible for a short time, call down a lightning bolt on an enemy and more to help push the tides in your favor. Another way to win most battles is to continue fighting back the hordes of enemies controlled by your opponents until you break into their castle and steal their flag back to your own castle. CastleStorm has a lot of different mechanics working together, but it never seems too overwhelming, as the game does a wonderful job of easing players into each of the different aspects of the game during earlier missions.
But what is all of this fighting for anyhow? CastleStorm's storyline takes place in a fantasy Kingdom where legend tells of a great war that came to an end when a Goddess shed two tears from the heavens. One tear turned into a blue crystal as it plummeted to the surface and granted great power to that of the civilized knights, while the other became a red crystal and gave a special ability to the dwarven Vikings. The two groups lived together at peace until one day when the Vikings attacked and stole the blue crystal away in an attempt to join together the two crystal shards for the ultimate power to rule all of the land. This is where Sir Gareth steps in with the plea of the King to recover the crystal at any cost. CastleStorm has a lighthearted storyline with plenty of colorful characters including Sir Brutus and his group of soldiers who provide the constant thorn in the side of Gareth. The campaign of CastleStorm is quite large for a downloadable title and will likely take most gamers 10+ hours to complete depending on how many side missions are completed. Laughs just keep coming in CastleStorm's campaign, and the game provides great entertainment from start to finish.
Once you've completed the main campaign of CastleStorm, there is still plenty to do in the game. For starters, the game features three difficulty settings and rewards stars and gold upon the completion of any stage in the game. You'll need to play on the Hard setting to unlock every star and get the best rating for each stage to move up the online leaderboards and work towards the most difficult Achievement in the game. There are also other modes in the game including Skirmish, where missions are set up by the player against an AI controlled opponent, Survival, where a player battles against wave after wave of enemies to see how long they can hold out before the castle is destroyed or the player's flag has been stolen, and there is also a Hero Survival mode where a Hero character from the game is chosen to battle against endless waves of enemies. Each mode is a lot of fun and gives the game great replay value beyond the addictive campaign.
Multiplayer is another key component of CastleStorm. CastleStorm supports both local and online multiplayer and the three game modes Versus, Survival and Hero Survival. Versus works the same of Skirmish, only with a human controlled player as the enemy. Players can also team up in cooperative play in Survival and Hero Survival to try and outlast endless waves of enemies. Survival allows one person to control the castle while the other fights enemies as a Hero on the ground, while Hero Survival has both players becoming a hero, obviously. Both modes are incredibly addictive with a friend or just another online player over Xbox LIVE, and once the campaign was completed, it was hard to stop playing multiplayer survival modes in CastleStorm
CastleStorm has an excellent presentation through nearly every aspect of the game. Colorful character sprites and an awesome array of magic spells light up the battlefield. The game includes 12 different environments in which to wage war to mix up the backgrounds nicely. Some stages had low flying planes emerging from the backround for unique effects while others featured a teetering mountain top that looked as though it would come crashing down at any moment. Even the game's menus are colorful and helpful too. CastleStorm also features an excellent soundtrack composed by Newgrounds artist Waterflame. You may remember the composer from his work on the soundtrack from another highly successful Xbox LIVE Arcade title Castle Crashers, and there is definitely some influence carried over from that game for CastleStorm. Zen Studios Lead Designer Tamás Balog stated that it became clear that Waterflame had to produce the music for CastleStorm after spending some time with the soundtrack for Castle Crashers. The result is an excellent soundtrack that pushes the game forward and helps tell the fun storyline of a game that features very little spoken dialogue. The only real complaint with the game is how difficult it can be to precisely aim shots with the left analog sticks of an Xbox 360 controller at times, and the game definitely could've used an additional button used to slow the speed at which the aiming cursor moves when trying to accurately gauge shots, but again, this is a very minor complaint, especially when AI opponents seemed overmatched for large portions of the game and human players will have just as much trouble with their own shots.
CastleStorm is an excellent game whether you're looking for a new game to invest some serious time into or to find a new game for you and your buddies to enjoy together. The game is perfectly crafted from a fun single-player campaign that features hours of gameplay, plenty of unlockables and lots of side missions that never seem repetitive. You won't find another game that offers such a unique experience on any platform, and a stunning art style, amazing soundtrack from one of the best in the business and a good variety of game modes offer an entertainment value that can't be beat only 800 Microsoft Points. CastleStorm is an incredible game that we can't recommend enough, and a game that should cement Zen Studios as one of the best developers around. Pick up your copy of CastleStorm today, and start wrecking some castles!
CastleStorm is now available exclusively for Xbox LIVE Arcade and can be purchased for 800 Microsoft Points. CastleStorm is rated T by the ESRB for Blood & Violence. For more information on the game, check out the official CastleStorm website.
Game Features:
Game Information:
Developer: Zen Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Available exclusively for Xbox LIVE Arcade
Release Date: May 29, 2013
