Puz: Gwain [by Eibon && Shtraf]

Game: Gwain
Release: January 10, 2003
Genre: Board Game/Strategy
Developer: Eibon && Shtraf
System Requirements: Win 95 or higher, 3D accelerator recommended.
Price: FREEWARE
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Ever since I saw the original Star Wars movie, way back when, I have always wondered what if Chewbacca and R2 had chosen to play a different game rather than the futuristic ( past...er.....ific ?) Holo chess game seen in Ep. IV. After all im sure Han had some other board games stashed away in the game closet on the falcon that would have provided days of distraction as he and our favorite wookie Hyper drove through space. For instance what if R2 and Chewy had been playing a game of “Monopoly” or “Risk” and what about that diabolical game of revenge we all know and love “Sorry”? That game was great and it’s definitely a must for interstellar travel fun.

Eibon && Shtraf’s new game Gwain captures the nostalgia of the original board game and adds a few twists such as holographic dice, and little glowing discs as game pieces. But the true beauty of this game is the graphics. From the detailed game room which you can pan a full 360 degrees, to the beautiful lighting scheme, many of you will enjoy just looking at this game.

The music is a different story however. It is just a little to techno for my taste. Thankfully you can turn the music off and just leave the sound effects on. But perhaps the best aspect of this game besides the graphics engine is the fact that it’s so easy to play. The game tells you which pieces you may move, then tells you to what spaces you can move them. Of course the goal of is to get all four of your game pieces completely around the board and in their respective places before any of your opponents can knock them off the board and back to the starting line. In turn on the way around the board you must attempt to “Knock” your opponent’s pieces back to the beginning.

Multi player mode is very smooth, probably because it’s a turn-based game. With up to four human players you will most likely end up with more of a challenge playing the computer opponents as the AI takes advantage of any vulnerability you might have at every turn. But be it human or computer there must be a total of four players at the start of the game no matter what. While it would have been nice to be able to go head to head with just two players, the four players must rule does keep the game challenging even if it does slow the game play down a bit.

All things being equal this is a nice little game to have in your collection. While you may not spend hours glued to your monitor it is a nice alternative way to kill some time and challenge a friend, just take my advice and let the wookie win.

Concept: 7
The concept is slightly over done but in this case its done well.

Fun: 6
I promise you won’t get addicted to this one. On the other hand you won’t have a bad time either.

Overall: 6
Worth the download time I suggest you check this one out.Added: March 16th 2003
Reviewer: Torrence Kelley
Score:
Hits: 3555
Language: english