[h3]RANKING:[/h3]
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[h3][strike]AVOID[/strike] | [b]LACKING[/b] | [strike]MAYBE | WORTHWHILE | COMPELLING | UNMISSABLE
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[h3]SYNOPSIS:[/h3]
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[th][b]WHAT TO EXPECT:[/b][/th]
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Daldos is an indie made digital adaptation of a historical Scandinavian table-top boardgame from the 1800s. A turn-based game based on the confrontation between two Viking clans on a drakkar (Viking longboat). It is a very simple game of piece elimination played on a top-down board across three one-way tracks, two of which serve as the starting positions of the warriors on each side. The winner eliminates all but one of the enemy pieces. Made for versus PvP, it can be played online or on the same device. A solo mode is also available
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[td][b]STATUS:[/b][/td]
[td]Released and likely abandoned as development looks finished and it has not received any updates since coming out of Early Access
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[td][b]AUDIENCE:[/b][/td]
[td]For fans who enjoy games with simple and engaging Ludo-like strategy and a Viking theme
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[td][b]VALUE FOR MONEY:[/b][/td]
[td]Its quite cheap, but given the 1-dimensional nature of gameplay may be too high. The original price has been reduced as not all planned features were implemented
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[td][b]REVIEWED USING:[/b][/td]
[td][b][/b]Intel i5 6600 3.3GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX970 @ 1GB 1920x1080 windowed, EVO850 SSD
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[quote]Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/quote]
[i]More info below....[/i]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891902816
[h3]OBSERVATIONS:[/h3]
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[td][b]THE GOOD:[/b]
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[b]▲ CORE GAMEPLAY:[/b] Actual core gameplay is in a similar vein to Ludo and can be quite engaging when the bot is lucky with their rolls and makes some good moves
[b]▲ FAIR ADAPTATION:[/b] Core gameplay demonstrates some engaging if simple strategy which I would assume is fairly representative of the original board game
[b]▲ NORDIC AMBIANCE:[/b] Visually its basic but solid. The modelled warriors are well animated and I love the Nordic ambience created by the Viking aesthetic. The soundtrack greatly adds to the atmosphere created
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[td][b]THE BAD:[/b][/td]
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[b]▼ GAME STATS:[/b] This window does not update with any stats of games played, won or lost. It could have done with more info too
[b]▼ UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURES:[/b] It has been released with a struck out 'Shop' menu option demonstrating it is (or was) a work-in-progress. It should be removed if this feature will not be implemented
[b]▼ AI FREEZES:[/b] In some solo games the AI can freeze up during a turn and not move its pieces, resulting in the need to restart the game. Tends to happen on the second dice roll, after the first dice roll has been played
[b]▼ NO SAVE SYSTEM:[/b] There is no save system to come back to games where a player may have left in mid-flow. Games can only be surrendered if this happens
[b]▼ LOCALISATION:[/b] It has been translated into 4x languages - Russian, English, Norwegian and Danish, but the English one (at least) needs a fair amount of attention from a native speaker
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[td][b]AND THE REST:[/b][/td]
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[b]= GAME MODES:[/b] Provides solo play against a fair AI opponent and 1-on-1 versus play local or online. Only solo play was reviewed within due to a lack of anyone else playing the game
[b]= STEAM SUPPORTS:[/b] Overlay screen capture only
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https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891901074
[h3]FINDINGS:[/h3]
[b]GAMEPLAY[/b]
> A simple elegant game that very much plays like Ludo.
> The base game while playable could really do with the option of some variant rules to update it for modern gamers. I can think of plenty of possibilities.
> Overall, the visuals and audio are well done and the adaptation captures the Nordic theme really well.
[b]ISSUES[/b]
> The profile/stats page does not update, the AI can get stuck on its turn and freeze progress in a game. (Happened in about 3/5 of the games I played.)
> The game has been released incomplete and while the core game is fairly well done, the features that would make it an acceptable release are not there.
> The problem with hung games where the AI fails to complete its move hurts it a lot.
[b]BALANCE vs DIFFICULTY[/b]
> Not a difficult game to learn or play. Nor is it difficult to beat the AI if you have some modicum of experience with strategy games.
> Playing against opponents will obviously depend on the player's own abilities and/or their luck with the game's dice rolls.
[b]REPLAYABILITY vs LONGEVITY[/b]
> The core game is designed for replayability and it translates well in this digital version.
> Without achievements, any sort of player-base or variant rules, the game will struggle to retain long term interest.
[td][b]ENJOYMENT[/b]
> I really liked the core gameplay. Its simplicity has an engaging quality that surpasses the casual, but remains easily accessible. Its just a shame its been left half-♥♥♥♥♥♥.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891904359
[h3]VERDICT:[/h3]
Daldos is actually a fair digital adaptation of the simple Scandinavian boardgame that it is based on. However, for a STEAM release it needs to offer more than it currently does and requires better quality assurance especially the issue with hung turns in games. Ideally the developers could have used their imagination to populate the game with some variant rules to extend its appeal, but this is unlikely to happen as it appears abandoned.
If Daldos had been released F2P it would have gained a higher rating, but to charge even a modest fee for a product [b]LACKING[/b] in quality and content is not something I can recommend.
[quote=]Thank you for reading. | Follow my curator[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40556040-The-Irregular-Gamer/] here[/url].[/quote]
