Finally a strategy game that's not real-time. Clash is a good old fashioned turn based strategy. Too bad the good old fashioned part rings true throughout the game.

You can choose to play with up to 4 other computer or human players, but on the same computer as there is no network gameplay. There are 2 scenarios to choose from (selected by choosing a side). When you start out the scenario you are given a short history lesson explaining what is needed to complete the mission. Each mission gets progressively more difficult enabling you to learn as you go. The basics of the game are very similar to 2 other great turn based strategy games out "Warlords" and "Hero's of Might and Magic". You build up your castle while trying to balance resources and build an army to attack the enemy. There was potential for the game...on the drawing board.

The most notable problem with this game is the outdated graphics. Some of the menu screens look ok, but once you see the map screen you almost want to laugh because you could mistake it for a badly done golf game from 3 or 4 years ago. Once you get past the bad graphics you are left struggling with a control interface that is quirky. To control your armies, you just click on them and click on the destination. The problem is sometimes your armies move to the destination on their own and sometimes they don't. When you click on an army it will say something like "at your service sire" and each type of army has it's own saying and voice. There are a couple of sayings for each army making it less likely for you to get annoyed at hearing the same thing repeat over and over, but it still gets repetitive and annoying, just not as fast. Once you click on an enemy army and move to it you are given a choice of manual or auto attack mode. I tried both and the Manual attack mode is a nice feature it just wasn't implemented very well. Half the battlefield is covered by a status box that doesn't let you view the enemy army until it is right on top of you. making this mode completely worthless. Auto mode doesn't show the battle, you just end up with the results, making it much faster, but less satisfying. The map screen has a similar problem to the battle screen, a large box containing the small map view in the right hand corner that blocks the view of the map and can't be removed. The map doesn't auto scroll meaning you have to move and then click to readjust your view then move again, making traveling long distances with several armies a very tedious process. Building your castle up required balancing taxes with the number of peasants in the castle and is also just a tedious process of waiting for more money turn after turn. There are several improvements that you can make to the castle which improve your army production and allow you to produce new types of armies. The more improvements, the more variety and more powerful armies you can create, but it takes many turns to save enough gold to make the improvements. The game requires you to balance improvements with pleasing the queen with gifts while trying not to allow too many peasants to build up and cause a plague.

I am a fan of the genre of game, but this game always left me wanting more. There were never enough details. There were no hidden prizes to find or special places to visit to grant you more powers or wealth. The game was lacking depth in just about every category. I would not recommend this game to anybody except the most die hard turn based strategy fan, and only then because there are no other new turn based games out right now.

Graphics: 10/20
Sounds: 12/15
Gameplay: 18/25
Fun Factor: 10/20
Multiplayer: 2/5
Packaging: 4/5
Overall Impression: 6/10

It's some where during the medieval period, and the typical medieval-ish things are going wrong. Such as, looting barbarians, brothers quarreling over daddies castle and crown, and other dark age activities. In Clash, you take the role of one of two brothers Galaahad ( the bad one) or Bochuwit ( the good one), Galaahad represented by a druid and Bochuwit represented by an odd eyeball sculpture. Clash is an overhead turn based game, and shares many aesthetic similarities with the Warcraft series. Before each mission you are given the low-down on what the other brother is doing and your goals vary from mission to mission.

-Graphics

I think comparing the graphics to Warcraft 2 would be the best way to go about this, there are so many similarities between the two its just unbelievable. Even the artwork around the game screen mocks that of War2's. Unfortunately this is one of those games that makes no use of the current 3d technologies and simply relies on the old video card. My video card is a piece of junk, but the game ran smoothly and I really can't complain about the performance. The graphics are very dated, there is little to no detail on your soldiers or the land, the only instance where detail is shown is in your castle. If you played Warcraft 2 you will know exactly what to expect in the graphics department.

-Sound & Control

Again, the sound effects for the warriors and such are so much like Warcraft2 its amazing. The knights even say "Yes m'lord" just like in War2. Many of the other sound effects are very outlandish and have no place at all in a game like this. Control is alright, it's just like any other game of this genre. One major complaint, for some reason it wont let you select a mass group of units, causing you to move them one at a time, even for turn based its frustrating to me.

- Fun Factor

Just about non-existent, it took me over an hour just to figure out the basics of this game. I think an in game tutorial would have really helped me enjoy this game, but Clash's creator's decided to do without one. Most of the time I felt as though I was playing a cheap rip off of Warcraft2, with the exception of Clash being turn based. You must be a true fan of fantasy turn based games to really enjoy Clash, due to the graphic and sound drawbacks.

-Multiplayer

Non-existent again....Although there is a multiplayer button you can only play against the computer in a melee mode, no human opponent options. The computer AI isn't to innovative for the most part, and there isn't any difficulty settings that I could find to make it more challenging.

-Overall

To put it gently, this game is the biggest piece of crap I have played in awhile. It offers nothing new at all to the turn based game family, its just another pointless clone.

Graphics: 8/ 20
Sound: 5 / 15
Gameplay: 8 / 25
Fun Factor: 5 / 20
Multiplayer Play: 3 / 5
Packaging: 5 / 5
Overall Impression: 3 / 10