Rise: Battle Lines

Solid little multiplayer title. If you like to get a quick fill on a multiplayer turn based strategy game then I highly recommend this title. It is very simple and straightforward but it will definitely get you thinking as to how to outsmart your oppenents. For $5.00 you cannot go wrong in my opinion. WARNING If you are looking for an in depth single player experience then this game is not for you and clearly it was never designed to be. It does what it does pretty well and doesn't pretend to be something it isn't.

Jumping into Rise battle lines was quite interesting for me. I am a big fan of strategy games and enjoy playing them. With this game though there is not much content at all. (yet) Do not take this as a bad thing though, I feel what this game does it does well indeed. There are three modes - Local VS, VS AI and VS Online. You only get heraldry points through winning online battles (what these do is unlock visual customisable options to your crest) When playing the game, before you start the battle the troops are randomized and there are limited quantities of troops to choose from, in which you and the enemie takes turns in choosing. So before you even start the battle, your mind is already mentally at battle against the opponent. You then take turns after you placed the troops to move to different squares. What I did was wait at my spawn for the enemy to come to me (like a camper) and then control my troops from there outwards. The game was pretty easy for me to learn and I even skipped the tutorial. I have a preview video available here for the game, it's worth viewing the video as I explain and show the game better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAXIvHF5S-0 The game also has some brief levels of customisation although they are only visual options to your coat of arms. If you're looking for an in-depth strategy game which is full of all options and tactical add-ons then I would avoid this game. However I still find the game enjoyable and would most definitely recommend it to people new to the genre and more intermediate players. The game runs stable and I have not encountered any bugs. A good way to improve this game would be to add more content and/or a story mode single player. It's very promising start though to an early access game. Thanks for reading and if there is anything I could add please do let me know.

[h1]A Paladin’s Steam Review: Rise: Battle Lines. There's Something Lacking About These Battle Lines.[/h1] [list] [*]Genre: Simultaneous Fantasy Turn Based Strategy Multiplayer Only. [*]Developed & Published by: The Secret Games Company & Digital Tribe. [*]Platform: Windows, Mac & Linux. [*]Business Model: Base Game. [*][i]Press key provided free of charge by developer[/i] [/list] [i][url=http://kingisaaclinksr.com/2016/01/30/a-paladins-steam-review-rise-battle-lines-two-armies-smash-into-the-battle-lines]Read the Full & Unabridged Review on A Paladin Without A Crusade[/url][/i] [b]Overall Gameplay Thoughts[/b] Rise: Battle Lines is a streamlined simultaneous turn based strategy title. It’s gimmick is about providing quick 15 minute strategy battles between you and other human opponents. Each player sets out the moves their collection of units will take in a turn and then the game plays them out at the same time. The resulting carnage will be decided on the actions taken. There is only a single mode to play in this game. It’s a mode that takes place on a large hexagon board where two armies battle it out for supremacy. The last unit standing, doesn’t matter which, wins the game. Compared to most turn based strategy games, Rise goes for a lighter, more focused experience. Every unit only has a couple of flat stats which create their speciality. You can fight against the AI or another friend in real time or “by email”. Winning or losing affects your your heraldry points regardless of who your opponent which grants you unlocks for your shield and allows the game to match you against more appropriate opponents, in theory. So, let’s talk about the strategy component of Rise. [b]Strategy Exploration[/b] Rise is about positioning and attacking units at the right time. If you move on an enemy and do a significant amount of damage or kill some units before losing your own, you may very well end up winning the game. This game can be distilled down to two armies bashing each other until one side or the other eventually hits a tipping point. Once this tipping point is past, the game is basically over because the losing team can’t do enough damage to finish the remaining units off. The tipping point is going to be different because there’s a variation on what units you can choose from but it’s always there and I almost want to say losing even a couple of units early on is enough to secure your defeat. It’s hard to say for certain just how devastating losing units is because I wasn’t able to play against a variety of opponents to see how things would work out. But the time I did spend seemed to indicate that this is the case. It’s not helped by the AI. See, this is my main issue with Rise: Battle Lines. There’s a lack of variety to really change things up. Units do the same thing every time and there are very few to choose from. So, while the game attempts to change things up by randomly generating how many of each class will be available, the limited amount of said classes generally guarantee that both sides will get at least one of the units they desire. This isn’t always the case, I did have a couple of battles where an entire class didn’t get any generated. But it doesn’t happen that often and I found it didn’t really change the pace of the battle. Said pace is ultimately having two armies mashing and grinding into each other until one falls. The battlefield is too small to really add any real flexibility in how armies move around. There aren’t any randomly generated obstacles or AOE abilities to change things up. Once a battle is decided, there are few ways to truly recover from it. As such, it leads to a very repetitive experience with each battle. We could talk about how there’s some nuance with the simultaneous turns or the classes but it doesn’t really matter when we have a map like Rise: Battle Lines has. It’s a straightforward board that basically encourages the two armies to smash into each other until one side falls over. Doing anything else isn’t encouraged unless you fight against different opponents and even then the differences are very minor. [b]The Multiplayer Experience[/b] Before I start, Rise: Battle Lines has a small character limitation for the player’s name. (I could only fit KingLinksr). I really wish games would quit having that limitation. Functionally, the multiplayer of Rise seems to work well without any problems. I was able to get into random ladder matches fine and setup games with other players without trouble. Though the loading times to get into these matches was on the long side.But, there’s the elephant in the room. The game doesn’t have a multiplayer community. I was able to get some random player matches while it was in early access and then fully released. However, those players quickly quit playing, myself included. The average playing stats on Steam doesn’t paint a rosey picture either. The only reason to get Rise: Battle Lines now is to fight against the AI or friends. And really, the game is only worth getting against human opponents due to the aforementioned problems with the AI. The only time I lost was against a particularly experienced player. For the time being, I don’t see the multiplayer experiencing changing any time soon. [b]PC Settings and Audio/Visual[/b] Rise has a very simple settings screen for a Unity-engine title. Resolution settings only include native resolution and a couple of other resolutions. I don’t know why it limits them. On my 16:9 monitor I only get 1920x1080 and 1600x900. On my 16:10 monitor, I only got three resolutions including 1680x1050. It’s a curious and unnecessary limitation. There’s a graphic quality slider that goes from very low to very high. This isn’t a performance demanding game though so very high is what you’ll likely use. It also has a Tilt Shift slider. I guess it’s so you won’t be distracted by the area outside the battlefield? It’s inclusion is a little baffling. All other graphical options aren’t included as it doesn’t seem to use them. Yes, this means no AA included and there are jagged lines everywhere. Fullscreen and custom cursor can be turned on or off. Audio settings include SFX and Music volume which is nice. The game does run well and I never ran into crashes. Though I noticed that alt-tabbing out of the game caused the GPU to start running hard. The UI is functional but doesn’t really take advantage of the screen like it should with its small windows and tons of scrolling in the help menus. [b]Final Thoughts[/b] I can confirm that the features listed on the store page are here in the game. I can confirm that it’s a fifteen minute streamlined strategy experience with some minutiae that might make things interesting for a short while. But this game isn’t fun to play because there's just not much content or interesting strategies to experience. I got the sense pretty quickly that I’ve seen everything that’s possible. Outside of the minutiae in stats and turn-by-turn tactics, each battle is largely going to be the same. Send units forward, to the sides, wait for the “right time” and strike until one side is decided the victor. It’s a title that simply needs more variety in maps, units or something to keep players coming back to it. Games like these generally have some hook and I don't feel it. I was really surprised it left Early Access as quickly as it did but the result of which shows. The multiplayer community is extremely small, the Heraldry system is a lacking reward for winning battles and a few strategies can be used to easily win against the AI. It’s a concept that remains woefully underdeveloped. As such, Rise doesn’t get a recommendation from me. [h1][url=http://kingisaaclinksr.com/2016/01/30/a-paladins-steam-review-rise-battle-lines-two-armies-smash-into-the-battle-lines]Read this review and more on A Paladin Without A Crusade[/url][/h1]

PRO: - Simultaneous turns - Drafting CON: - Not variety enough - Too slow - No campaign

Rise: Battle Lines: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Medieval times were difficult in so many ways, especially with these long and bloodthirsty wars between kings and kingdoms. Well, now you are able to relive these incredible battles! Take your ten-man army and fight for. . . hold on, rewind. . . a ten-man army to fight a medieval battle?! Of course! Raise your army and prepare to challenge an opponent in a snappy fifteen minute medieval battle! Rise: Battle Lines is a turn-based strategy game primarily designed to play against online opponents. However, you can play the game against the AI or even with a friend on same computer in a hotseat battle. You can also play a quick and comprehensive tutorial before you take on an online opponent. Your grand army of ten will be a combination of five units: knights, swordsmen, axemen, crossbowmen, longbow men plus a general. All units have different point attributes which are attack, defend, move and range. At the start of a game, you will enter a draft where you and your opponent will be selecting your units. I really like this feature; all you know is that both armies will have ten soldiers but you won’t know until the draft is done how many of the units you will have to choose from. To give you an idea, in one draft we had to choose between eight swordsmen, three crossbowmen, five knights, one axeman and one longbow man. Then you and your opponent will take alternate turns to select your units, one by one. After that, you will be ready for battle! The battlefield or board is setup in the shape of a hexagon. Your two armies will be each side of the screen at the beginning of the battle. Both players will be able to select all their units (if you want but you are not obliged to do so) one by one and move them across the board. If you play an online game, there is a time limit, but there is no time limit against the AI. When your units are within range of an opposing soldier, you can select to attack him. When you eliminate the enemy (including the General), you win the game and you will be given points. You can customise your coat-of-arms too, wish is a fun. There are a number of designs to unlock in our heraldry by winning battles and collecting points. The graphics are nice and the game is very easy to get into. In terms of finding an online game, I find an opponent within minutes. Positives: ~~~~~~~ - Nice graphics - Single player, hotseat and multiplayer modes - Cross platform between Steam and IOS - Good price point - Achievements Negatives: ~~~~~~~~ - It would have been nice to have a single campaign mode Rise: Battle Lines is a fun online turn-based strategy game. 7/10 Key provided by developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own! [url=https://www.zeepond.com/reviews][b]EPIC “THE CPT FROGGY” REVIEWS UP NOW ON ZEEPOND, THE HOME OF THE ALMIGHTY FROG![/b][/url] [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/thecptfroggyclub#curation][b]FOLLOW THE CPT FROGGY CURATOR PAGE HERE[/b][/url]

So this is an OK mini turn based game. All battles are fought on a terrain free hexagon board. There are five different kinds of units plus your general for 6 kinds in total. The distribution of the units is random for each battle, the only constant being that you will always have your general. The graphics and animations work for the kind of game this is and the sound effects that are there work. I found it a little tricky to figure out how to properly use my range units in the simultaneous turn system, but once I got the hang of it the game was dirt simple. Overall the experience was OK. However I cannot recommend this game. First, there is almost no single player content. There are three different fights that are almost identical. The bulk of the game revolves around multiplayer. I sat waiting for another opponent for 10 minutes while watching YouTube videos and the matchmaker never found another player. The game is pretty simple for the asking price, and it is multi-player focused with no multiplayer community. Expect at best 30 to 60 minutes of content.

First of all I’d like to mention that I almost never play strategy games. When I played this game and I am glad I played this game, it’s getting me hooked to the strategy genre. The game is a combination of turn based strategy, and chess. Having not played most strategy games I had a blast with this game. You can play with AI or play online with random people or invite your friends to play with you online. Furthermore you can even play locally with friends with the turn by turn system. [b][u] Graphics: [/u][/b] The game looks good and the top down view gives plenty of details and the texture quality seems to be nice as well. There are presets of graphics on this game so even if you are playing on a very old PC you can crank the settings down and play. Other than that there’s the usual resolution adjustment, post processing filter of some sort (looks like motion blur to me) and a couple of other options like use regular windows cursor instead of the games’ one. [b][u] Sound: [/u][/b] The music in this game is very good and the tutorial is voice acted and surprisingly good voice acting at that. I have no problems with the music I can listen to it all day long. [b][u] Gameplay: [/u][/b] You can play the strategy game by yourself with the AI, there’s 3 levels of AI. Easy, medium and hard. You can play online with random people within your skill level or you can play with friends (online and local). When you beat someone you get points and as you get points you unlock styles/designs for your shield which is like your custom avatar. I think this game is very underrated as I had a blast playing. It has one of those Steam notification systems where steam will send you a notification when it’s your time to move so I think that’s a neat feature as you can also minimize the game and do something else in the meanwhile. [b][u] Graphics: 8/10 [/u][/b] [b][u] Sound: 7/10 [/u][/b] [b][u] Gameplay: 9/10 [/u][/b] [b][u] Overall: 8/10 [/u][/b] [b][u] Conclusion: [/u][/b] All in all this is a very fun game and I highly recommend it if you like chess and strategy games.Price is reasonable too and if you want it even cheaper wait for a sale.

RISE:BATTLE LINES Oyunun Türüne Mini-Strateji Diyebiliriz,Bazen Gerildiğiniz,Heyecanlandığınız Anlar Olabiliyor.İyi Stratejilerle Savaşı Çevirmek Çok Müthiş Bir His. Multisinde ÇOK AZ Kişi Var. Oyunun Daha Çok Gelişmesi Lazım. Her Dakika Aynı Map'te Savaş Yapmak Bayabiliyor. Class Sayısı Arttırılmalı. Yeni Oyun Modları Yapılmalı. Hep 1vs1 Değil De "2vs2" Savaşlar da Getirilmeli. Map Editor Filan Getirilmeli FAKAT Bunların Olabilmesi İçin Oyuna Destek Olmanız Lazım. Oyunu İndirimsiz Haliyle Alın,Hediye Edin,Aldırın.

[h1]A Turn-Based Tactical Strategy Game[/h1] https://youtu.be/toF9lzYXGY8 + Quite a bit of depth in the strategy aspect as each unit has their own strengths and weaknesses and can be easily caught off-guard through the turn-order quickly shifting the tide of battle + Very similar to classic Chess in many aspects + Good background music + Easy to understand, but difficult to fully understand and master + Online multiplayer - I did not like how all the actions of both sides take place at once. This means that if you are in range to attack a unit, and the enemy decides to move one space away, then you will essentially waste your turn. I feel like the game would improve a tad if there was a movement phase, and then a combat phase. - I felt the draft mechanic was a bit strange, essentially units are randomized at the beginning of each game and then you get to take turns picking which units you want which makes both sides have slightly different units.