In Lightslinger Heroes, you play what looks like a pretty standard bejeweled type game, except you appear to have a myriad of heroes along the top that corresponds to your ball colors. Also, there are monsters that keep appearing. Huh… weird.
After a few rounds of normal Bejewelled play, you might realise that this isn’t just a basic game of bejeweled, but in fact an in-depth adventure RPG.[sc name=”quote” text=”After a few rounds of normal Bejewelled play, you might realise that this isn’t just a basic game of bejeweled, but in fact an in-depth adventure RPG.”]
Each level of the progressively more difficult story, you fight a different variety of monsters, culminating in the final boss. You deal damage and interact with the monsters through up to 5 Heroes, each of which is prescribed a specific colour that matches that of the available balls in the bejeweled game below.
When you manage to connect a ball to one of similar colouring, any hero of that colour will attack and deal damage.
However, they’re not limited specifically to dealing damage – each colour also has a specific effect that is applied. Red appears to deal extra damage, Yellow allows you to gain some damage reflection, Green adds a shield to protect your health bar and Blue actually heals you.
This means that, while what colour is available to you is predetermined by the game; you are able to create different effects based on what colours you manage to connect. Alongside that, different characters have special effects depending on if you can hit up to five bubbles at once. For example, red characters are able to damage all enemies at the same time.
This means that it is always to your benefit to hit as many bubbles as possible to affect the battlefield as much as possible.
Considering it’s just a pretty basic bejewelled game at the bottom, it is surprising how much you can feel motivated to do well, considering the difficulty of the fights on the top of the screen. Even just from the beginning, the pacing feels difficult and challenging, allowing you to understandably need to prepare and pace yourself well to not die horribly to a dragon.[sc name=”quote” text=”Even just from the beginning, the pacing feels difficult and challenging, allowing you to understandably need to prepare and pace yourself well to not die horribly to a dragon.”]
The loot system for Lightslinger feels somewhat confusing, however, as each enemy has a chance to drop a chest that contains loot you don’t really understand or seemingly need. In between levels you can level up your characters or improve their abilities, but the actual loot gained from the fights seems inconsequential – likely it has some grander purpose, but upon immediate receipt of the item, you are left with no real idea of what this item is, leaving you confused and a little annoyed.
Lightslinger combines an elemental, bejewelled-style puzzle game with an adventure RPG system that captivates you sufficiently to keep going. There is strong impetus to do well, as well as a myriad of additional effects and party combinations you can include to alter the playing field.
Lightslinger Heroes manages to turn a simplistic concept and add in other elements to make it something pretty special. Not amazing, mind you, but special enough to play a decent amount.
[appbox googleplay com.skybornegames.battlepop]
[appbox appstore id1106212569]
