Awrite-up about Lesson Learned: Cult of the Elizabeth? Haven’t you only just posted a news piece about it? Yes, and yes. If you read the previous post, you’ll note that this tower defence title is a prologue, and prologues are typically short. I finished this in about an hour, so reel your neck in.
Introducing the quirky characters from the upcoming game from MadGamesmith and Gaming Factory, the prologue/demo showcases three full levels, in addition to brief tutorials—all you need to assess a game and post some thoughts about it.
Let’s begin with a side dish of clarity, as you must know my tastes in games, and because Lesson Learned: Cult of the Elizabeth is a tower defence title, it’ll be an immediate recommendation. Not necessarily, but in fear of being predictable, yes: it’ll be a recommendation and here’s why.
First of all, this is an undiluted tower defence game. There’s no bridging of genres, such as the excellent rhythm game meets tower defence Rhythm Towers or FPS meets tower defence in GROSS. While the conventional mechanics remain- collecting resources and building a defensive structure on the specific paths to fend off enemies- the gameplay is a little more proactive.
We’ve all seen the heroes in games like Kingdom Rush and how your character can get a little more hands-on by attacking enemies, and Lesson Learned: Cult of the Elizabeth isn’t any different. Your character in the game, a child named Amelia, who’s whisked away into an unknown land, can attack invaders and slow them down. However, Amelia can also be attacked, and should that happen, they’ll experience a brief time-out.
The two elements that make the prologue different to its peers are the actual base: it moves. Enemy waves attack from behind, and pending you can ward them off, the base will accumulate XP (kinda) and walk further along the map to its destination. Think Owl’s Moving Castle with turrets. With this approach, you must position structures constantly behind you, so the further you move up the map, the less likely you are to keep an eye on their durability and effectiveness. So now what? Delegate.
Amelia is joined by a friend, referred to as a minion – what a user! – and you can give them orders. Amelia can manually hack at trees and rocks to gain the resources for building a turret, or she can get her ‘friend’ to. Should the enemies damage a turret, her delegate can fix it. Don’t expect them to engage in combat as they’re a complete pussoir.
Lesson Learned: Cult of Elizabeth’s approach is decent but a teeny bit tricky. There are three game difficulties, and though it’s doable, it takes some getting used to, as resource hunting is sluggish, and Amelia can’t actually damage enemies unless she picks up a power-up. No doubt there will be upgrades and whatnot in the full game.
As for the presentation, the artwork is slick and reminds me oh-so-slightly of The Brothers McLeod mashed up with a bit of Toejam & Earl (the map layout and movement). It’s early days, as obviously, the success of the game will be determined by the variety of towers, upgrades, and, to a lesser extent, the story. I’m biased—I want to know more, but I appreciate that many folks will want to get stuck in.
