Wrath Unleashed

Usually when someone mentions LucasArts, how many times do the words “fighting game” come to mind? That’s what I thought … not many, especially considering there really haven’t been any of them by the Star Wars producing company (except for Masters of Teras Kasi if you want to count that one). Well, LucasArts’ newest venture outside of the Star Wars universe is an interesting blend of strategy, fantasy, and lots of creature and monster fighting combined called Wrath Unleashed. While it’s nothing that will revolutionize the gaming industry, it turns out to be a pretty entertaining title.

Wrath Unleashed puts players in the role of one of four Demigods, each representing a different elemental realm (earth, wind, water, and fire) and battling for ultimate supremacy over the planes of existence. Each Demigod comes to the battlefield toting with them the creatures of their realm to do battle, ranging from things such as unicorns and centaurs to giants, golems, and even dragons. The game consists of a map made up of hex spaces that you or your creatures will move around on in a turn based “one action per turn” format, and when two opposing creatures or players occupy the same space, the game changes from a map based hex board to a fully controllable battle between the two opposing forces, complete with magic, melee skills, and a block button. Also, each hex space on the map may contain the element of one of the sides, which allows the monster or player who represents that element to gain an additional bonus to their attack and defense abilities for the combat round. Have I confused you yet? I’ll explain more in detail as we go, so read on. 

There are a couple of different modes that players can choose to fight in, the first of which being a Battle Mode. This mode allows you to play in individual battles, single player campaigns, or a tutorial to help you understand the game when you first get started. In the individual battle mode, winning the game (against the AI or a human opponent) means obtaining a certain number of points by capturing temples around the board. Each one will be either one point or two points, and as an example the map you are playing on may require a player to capture 7 out of 10 in order to officially claim victory. In other words, the ultimate object of the maps is not always just to wipe out all other monsters on the board, even though the game may appear that way up front. In the campaign mode there are missions that will require this to be done, but that’s not the only way to play it.

Let’s talk about the board for a second and the strategy element of the game, which may help to further clear up and make sense of it overall. The boards that you play on will be laid out in various patterns, with various hex spaces containing friendly or enemy elements, temples, power crystal, portals, or neutral territories. The temples obtain points for a victory if you are playing in individual battles (as we discussed earlier), and some of the monsters and the Overlords themselves are able to cast certain spells like resurrect, teleport, smite, or transfer heath thus needing power crystals to do so. Each turn, total power crystals that you control (represented by the spaces that your monsters occupy that contain them) give mana to help in casting spells to help move monsters further around the board, smite down enemies, or heal a creature that you may need but is low on life just as a couple of examples. Now, if your opponent controls a number of power crystals, it may be a good idea to move one of your monsters onto a space that they control and then try and kill your opponent’s monster in order for you to take control of it for your own. If the space that you are fighting over happens to be on an element that your opponent controls, then they wind up getting an advantage and vice versa, while at the same time you have to try and watch your temples and mana crystals to ensure that you have enough magic to turn the tables in your favor. Basically, the best way I can describe it is kind of a chess / Risk kind of mixture that works out interestingly enough.

The fighting game element of the title comes into play when two monsters occupy the same space, thus moving from a hex map to a 3-D fighting game kind of screen complete with brief graphic intros of the combatants and then full control and movement of the monsters or Overlords involved. Each monster has a similar setup in controls in the fact that they can launch four different attacks … a light magic, heavy magic, special magic, and a signature attack move, each with varying times to cast and damage done.  Tapping the X button for example will perform a three or four hit combo to an opponent, and launches quickly, but won’t do much damage nor will it do damage if the opponent is blocking. The special magic on the other hand may take 2 – 3 seconds to warm up and fire off, but it also winds up doing a lot of damage if it hits successfully and will take some health off even if the opponent is blocking it at the time that it is thrown. Each creature enters the combat arena with a certain amount of life, be it one to four bars worth (smaller and faster creatures like unicorns have only one life bar while larger, slower creatures like fire giants have three), and once all health bars have been depleted the monster is dead and the battle is over. While ultimately it seems like a bigger and stronger monster will always win, sometimes it all comes down to reflexes and speed overall. Interestingly, the fighting element plays just as much into the strategy part, since winning a battle at the expense of most of a stronger creatures health may seem like a good idea at the time, but you have to make sure you didn’t just open up the chance for your opponent to place a bigger and stronger one there to defeat you and re-take their space again.

Ultimately as you can probably tell, there is a good mix of strategy and fighting that the developers managed to put into the game overall to make a unique mixture of gameplay styles that will probably cater to fans on both the fighting and strategy sides of the fence … for a short while. Ultimately, there are a couple of things that really hinder what could have been a great gameplay experience. For starters, playing one elemental Overlord versus another really isn’t going to do a whole lot in the ultimate outcome. While I’m glad that they didn’t just use a simple “fire beats wind which beats earth etc.” formula like I would have expected, using one element or another means nothing except for some variety in creature colors and some minor cosmetic changes. Ultimately, monsters found on all sides of the field are the same, while one may be green and have horns while the other is red and doesn’t have horns or something like that. If a fire giant goes up against a golem, it’s pretty standard that it’s an evenly matched battle even though they look a tad bit different. Anyways, you get the idea.

The second issue I ran into lies in the overall fighting system itself. I’ll definitely give LucasArts some props for implementing it into the game to break up standard board game play, but the controls are just not tight and solid like I would have liked them to be. Instead, it seemed like they were just way too sluggish, whether it be for bigger or smaller creatures, and overall all of them felt like they pretty much moved at the same speed. Also, there are no actual combos to pull off or to learn, which would have helped in overall enjoyment, and rather focuses on who can get the most attacks off or block the most versus using a fighting strategy similar to other popular 3-D fighters out on the market.

Lastly, one thing that I ran into which was really an annoyance more than a gameplay problem was in the load times. Every time you switch screens from strategy map to fighting match, be prepared to sit and see “Prepare for Battle” with the loading bar for about 10 seconds or so, then you get to see the 10 second loading screen once more when you exit battle and move back to the board. While playing in the beginning while not much is happening isn’t too bad, once you get to the point where battles are sparking off pretty frequently, you’ll audibly hear yourself huffing in exasperation more than once. There is the option to just let the AI duke it out and skip it altogether, but where’s the fun in that?

Overall, I have to say that even with its issues, I personally enjoyed and have a lot of fun with Wrath (but as a reviewer I have to make sure I call it like I see it). If you are a strategy game fan who doesn’t mind some action mixed in, then this could be a good game to check out. Fighting game fans looking for something deep like Tekken or Soul Calibur aren’t going to find that level of fighting here unfortunately, but may still get a kick out of the strategic element of the game which has been mixed in to give you something a little more. Ultimately, if you are deciding on whether or not to purchase Wrath Unleashed, I would definitely recommend a rental prior to signing on the line for it. 

Gameplay: 7.4
I thought that the mixture of strategy and fighting were really neat, but there are some issues to be aware of. The fighting controls seem very sluggish, and even the faster style creatures seem to move as slow as the bigger ones which kind of makes them lose the competitive edge. Also, the ability play a couple of different ways was neat (and there is even an option to build your own army), but picking one element or Demigod over another does nothing more than some color changes or cosmetic differences in similar monsters.

Graphics: 7.2
Overall, I thought that the monsters themselves looked really good, but there are just too many repeated models to really make the different teams feel unique. The arenas that you battle in also had some differences to them like rocks, spike traps from the ground, or crystals jutting up from the earth, but overall the graphics looked a little outdated and not up to modern PS2 standards.

Sound: 7.5
The sound in Wrath wasn’t too bad, and there are even some bars in the background music that have kind of a Star Wars feel to them. The monsters will of course roar and stomp around the field, but nothing that really stood out as impressive or intimidating.

Difficulty: Medium
The game overall is quite easy to pick up and get into even for the beginning player. Making some wrong moves can wind up costing you the game, so a lot of the overall difficulty will rely on your moves and the plays that you make.

Concept: 7.8
The concept to Wrath in my opinion was really, really good … especially in two markets that can be a little overdone in this day and age. I think that addressing issues mentioned above in a second version could possibly produce a really top notch title.

Multiplayer: 7.9
Personally, I really liked jumping on and going at it two player style, especially with some of my friends who really enjoy fighting games (and some of them chess). Sadly, there is no multiplayer mode for online play which would have really added to the overall experience in my opinion. There is the ability for up to four players (free for all or team battles) using a multitap as well.

Overall: 7.4
While this game is definitely not going to be for everyone, I personally have a lot of fun with it. If you are a strategy or fighting game fan, I would recommend at least giving it a try for the weekend from your nearest rental store if you think it may be something that you would like.