Rules of the game invincible knight. Invincible knight

Rival Knights, which for some reason are in the domestic App Store are called " Invincible knight“, lay claim to the laurels of a unique simulator of knightly tournaments and have already received approval in the form of an “editor's choice” of the apple store. A preliminary look really promises us a juicy picture and interesting gameplay, and the “free” tag makes us press the install button without any hesitation. We will find out in today's review how right the editors of the app store are and whether microtransactions (for free) will actively interfere with the wheels.

No, we still cannot understand how, for the life of us, the words “rival” and “knights” were confused with “Invincible Knight.” Apparently, you need to adapt the posters of a good hundred Hollywood films into Russian in order to understand such subtleties of turning phrases. But there is nowhere to go, because we live under the “ru” section in iTunes and will be content with “our” interpretation. So, “Invincible Knight” is ready to pass the test of strength.

Fans of the Middle Ages, King Arthur, Merlin and just horsemen cutting each other with long spears at full speed have been waiting for such a game for a long time. The waiting time helped brighten up things like Shake Spears!, but the warriors there did not know how to turn their left cheek towards the player and fought battles only in 2D mode. It was interesting and addictive, although the so-called “wow-effect (sorry for the slang)” made itself felt only after the launch of “Invincible Knight”.

What's the secret? And look at the image! The graphic component is simply amazing! Any system unit based on Pentium III would convulse and let out a heart-rending scream, trying to work out such a picture. The first Infinity Blade proved that Unreal Engine can be developed on tablets, and Rival Knights (or “Invincible Knight”, damn it) brought its own dose of variety to the meaningless one-button hack, although, to be honest, it was not far behind it :)

Models of horses, weapons, backgrounds, animation, speed effects, the shine of armor and flying chips from crushed spears are very colorful. If we concentrate on the fight itself, it is executed very colorfully, the opponents’ entrance is staged in detail, the horizon is covered by the walls of the fortress and, in parallel with the rushing skanun, rows of tents with service personnel rush by. The only problem is that the background does not change and over and over again, battle after battle, the atmosphere is created by stone buildings. But the time of day and weather are updated, giving you the right to pierce enemies under cover of darkness and in wet armor. Maybe in the future the developers will provide the game with green meadows, a variety of castles, throne rooms, and finally.

Visually, we were convinced that the image on the screen is worthy of praise and now it’s worth talking directly about the gameplay, because behind the beautiful wrapper there may be good old tediousness. If you try to graft a genre onto our invincible knight, you will end up with something like Action/RPG. The Action part is responsible for the tournament duel. At first, you don’t focus at all on equipment, improvements, or your own symbolism. You just concentrate on the fight and that’s it.

To successfully conduct a battle, you only need to remember a couple of truths. First, you adjust to the countdown to the start in order to rear up your horse and increase the acceleration by clicking on the screen at the right time. This, by the way, will be rewarded with additional coins. As soon as the stallion takes off, you need to “throw wood into the firebox,” again by single clicks on the tablet when the arrow is above the green mark. The further you go, the faster and the more difficult it will be to seize the moment. The horse is racing, the opponent is approaching, the spear is ready, the camera slows down, marking the desired point on the hostile knight, along which you need to move as accurately as possible. This is exactly the essence of the game. An extra millimeter to the side and you're already flying out of the saddle. You need to adapt to the speed, to the enemy’s defense, and it is advisable to have hands that don’t shake in order to successfully beat your competitors.

Essentially, the entire process is controlled by a couple of taps on the screen, but it adds a lot of adrenaline and makes you want to binge-watch the entire campaign, which is the length of Santa Barbara. Here we are gradually approaching the RPG part. For certain battles you will be given bonuses: improved defense, bonus to speed, replenishment of seals. The latter are red and blue and serve as a pass to subsequent skirmishes. It’s precisely on them that the developers are trying to cut down real money, therefore, in a knight’s wallet you can only store 6 seals, which will be spent in 4 minutes and will be restored 5 times longer. Along the way, you can go through rating battles using blue seals, but the story of squandering will repeat itself.

If you decide to spend real money, then you should familiarize yourself with the prices, which are by no means budgetary.

Even gold is not as important as seals or diamonds. Jewels are a separate type of means for purchasing equipment and access to the “Tournament of the Chosen.” They are highly valued and sometimes you have to wonder whether you should spend 5,000 gold or 40 diamonds. As in poker, no one will accrue gold in a day, unlike stamps. On the one hand, the game gives you time to take a break and brew a mug of chicken broth while the red stamps are restored, but on the other hand, you want to beat your enemies without stopping for any pause!

In fact, “The Invincible Knight” creates that same medieval warlike atmosphere in which you want to change the types of armor, spears, improve them, measure the load on your horse, and hope that in the next battle you will get free bonuses to attack or speed up your horse. And in the midst of this splendor, sitting stupidly and waiting is not a fountain. Especially when you participate in tournaments for blue seals with real rivals— the excitement is heating up to critical levels!

It seems that the guys from Gameloft have a slogan “Time is money!” It even hangs in the restroom, because they make you wait a long time to improve your uniform and replenish your seals, or you have to reach into your wallet to buy expensive diamonds. In any Action/RPG for PC you go to the blacksmith, pay local gold and get an updated blade instantly, while Rival Knights starts a timer, and under it is an alternative payment and robbery option.

An overly ardent thirst for profit does not have a very nice effect on the final score for the game. It’s a shame that it turned out to be a very high-quality game, both in terms of graphics and gameplay, although not very sophisticated, which is being strangled by the financial yoke of expectation. Even for 169 rubles, many would download this application to their devices, but pay a similar amount each time for the sake of the next delicacy, which will have to be changed in an hour... You’ll get by with 7, gentlemen.

The theme of chivalry excites many players and pushes developers to bold experiments. Spectacular tournaments where the winner takes all, and the loser rolls in the mud, leaving with bruises in best case scenario. All this has its own romance, which has been tried to be conveyed in more than one game. The latest and most recent example. However, attentive readers who have read the review or played the game itself will immediately name several critical shortcomings. Today we will talk about a game on exactly the same topic - Rival Knights from Gameloft. In this case, the game does not have the same shortcomings that prevented Joust Legend from becoming a hit.

First, let's note that Rival Knights is distributed free of charge. This, of course, is a big plus for many players who do not buy games at all, but knowing Gameloft and the general trends in the field of free-to-play games, there is nothing to be particularly happy about. After starting, players are greeted with a short story introduction, which explains who will fight in the game and why. Not to say that there is a need for a plot, but it’s nice that the developers thought through this component and also created very colorful characters.

Let's not put things off for a long time and go to the lists, where we will fight for the first time with another knight. Any fight consists of three stages that are important for the final result: start, run-up and strike. It all starts with a countdown and when it reaches one, you need to have time to tap on the screen exactly in certain moment to get the best start, immediately getting a good increase in speed. Then the horse gains momentum, and the player must have time to touch the screen when the indicator is in the yellow, or even better, green bar area. Each such “hit” will add very real numbers to the speed.

Finally, it comes to meeting another knight in the center of the lists. Time slows down, and the player is given the opportunity to aim at a point highlighted by the game. This is supposedly a weak point in the defense of the enemy knight. This is done using gestures in appropriate directions. Closer to the target, the sight changes its color from yellow to green, but you should keep in mind that the spear can move to the side in these couple of seconds, so you should be ready to adjust it for the blow. The one who copes better with the three listed elements often remains in the saddle, and the loser spectacularly flies into the mud.

However, the further the player advances, the more surprised he will be at the ease with which his opponents send him into the same mud, and the naughty spear leads him away from the target just before the blow. It turns out that Rival Knights has another important component for victory - characteristics. Each character has three of them: defense, speed and impact power. And if the defense indicator remains unchanged after the start of the fight, then the speed and force of the blow depend on the successful actions described above. Thus, the knight who is stronger in two of the three indicators will become the winner in one particular fight.

Characteristics improve between participation in tournaments. Use the accumulated coins to improve existing items or purchase new ones. For every knight, a helmet, armor, a spear and a horse are important. It is these four areas that can be improved. However, there are sorely not enough coins for this matter. In addition, the free nature of Rival Knights resulted in the appearance of so-called royal seals for participation in tournaments. If you run out of them, take a break from the game or replenish your supply with diamonds. This is another currency that is spent on unique items or speeding up various actions, such as improvements.

But the fun doesn't end there. Rival Knights has something that Joust Legend didn't have. Multiplayer. Having dealt with the first serious opponent in the campaign, you can begin online tournaments, where the game independently generates lists of participants and draws lots. Participation in an online tournament costs a certain amount of diamonds, and the action does not take place in real time, but with a slight delay. For example, you fought with another player’s knight and defeated him, showing a certain result. Then the other player has 24 hours to respond to you and hold the exact same match on his side. Whose results will be better in the end is the winner. Considering the difference in skills and dynamic gameplay, which not every mobile Internet can handle, such a system seems fair.

Well, the developers make the graphics in games about knightly tournaments to be a feast for the eyes. Rival Knights looks great, even better than Joust Legend. Excellent detail, good animation and reliable physics, together they give an amazing effect. Add to this the change of day and night, as well as the opportunity to examine any piece of equipment in detail in the store - the artists did their best. The sound is somewhat lost against the background of such cool graphics, but it is quite appropriate within the framework of the game. I don't want to turn it off.

The result is quite interesting. To begin with, it is important to note that Rival Knights is quite simple game. It only takes a few minutes to get comfortable with the controls, whereas in Joust Legend it was one of the more difficult tasks. Gameplay also simplified as much as possible to appeal to the widest audience. It is important that at the same time he did not become less interesting. The fights are fast, spectacular and even fun until the seals run out and you have to wait for them to be restored. It would seem that at this time you can be distracted by multiplayer, but even here, after one fight, you can wait up to a day to continue participating. So, in the end, the brisk pace slides into a painful wait for the next game, and this is not very good. Otherwise, Gameloft did it right great game about the knight's tournament. Not a simulator, but a great arcade game.

Rival Knights (recently officially translated as "Invincible Knight") was one of the first games I played on my newly acquired iPad mini, and it remains one of my favorites. Of course, once I gained gaming experience, the excitement subsided noticeably; but I think it’s still worth writing about Rival Knights.

Colleague Oleg Dreyman once called the game “mediocre” in a personal conversation. I will not argue with this formulation, especially since there are quite grounds for it. But personally, I would use the characteristic “ambiguous.” And that’s why “The Knight” is worthy of attention.

So what are Rival Knights? In short, this is a simulator of knightly duels (who would have thought), as simple in gameplay as sophisticated in design. Moreover, I would say, it’s sophisticated in the right way. And with a pleasantly unobtrusive freemium, which is especially pleasing. However, first things first. And I’ll start, perhaps, with the most delicious.

Graphics and setting

An elegant steel poleaxe is the weapon of a glamorous knight. Severe armored infantry chooses six-footers made of tank rubber!

(from what was heard in the Kyiv role-playing party)

To say that Rival Knights is visually cool is an understatement. Full cinematic 3D graphics, changes in time of day (including sunrises and sunsets) and weather, authentic medieval surroundings with characteristic houses and a castle - this is only what is on the surface and noticeable almost immediately.

Moreover, all this beauty begins with the background image in the main menu. The faithful knight's horse steps from foot to foot and twitches its ears, the rider sways in the saddle, the wind blows leaves - everything moving, everything alive. I agree, such backgrounds on the main game engine are far from unique, but in Rival Knights they are implemented beautifully. Even I, who have never been a visual person, am always happy to contemplate the picture.

The background itself is also “live”; if you wish, you can see your loved one from all sides:

As well as any piece of equipment, both purchased and already purchased:

Screenshots, as often happens, look clumsy and grainy - but this is not noticeable in the dynamics, believe me.

Of course, all the visual splendor continues during fights, and then physics is added to it. Ragdoll in “The Invincible Knight” is our everything:

All this, of course, with pathetic slowdown and camera fly-around.

It must be said that after two or three dozen victories in one approach, all these flights begin to irritate with monotony and raise doubts about the realism. On the other hand, I have never seen a real (and not staged) fall of a knight knocked out of the saddle - maybe that’s how they fall. And the feeling of irritation is a good signal that it’s time to take a break - and the same break can be perfectly treated.

The specific fly in the ointment in this barrel of honey is something else: all fights take place on the same lists in the vicinity of the same castle. And passing, and key missions of the single-player campaign, and all types of multiplayer tournaments, and even training - everything! The variety of lighting and weather conditions mentioned above, of course, brightens up the picture somewhat - but not so much as to make the constant background invisible.

At least final fight stage, even training - the background is the same everywhere.

Moreover, there is one more point: there are exactly two living people on the screen - the player and the enemy. No, the setting itself is done perfectly, with taste and love: farm houses, knights’ tents, a revolving mill, mountain peaks in the distance... But where are the people?! Where are the crowds of cheering spectators, brilliant fighters waiting their turn, beautiful ladies, prim lords?

The rain has nothing to do with it - it’s just that in this world people don’t like to watch fights.

By the way, about brilliant fighters. As far as I know, at one time tournaments were a demonstration not only of martial art, but also military fashion, each knight tried to decorate both the armor and the horse with everything he could. And in Rival Knights, the armor is beautifully drawn, clearly detailed in small details - and at the same time looks practical, but not ostentatious. They wore these on hikes rather than to tournaments.

Some noticeable decorative elements - plumes, visors with masks, etc. - become available only at the end of the second stage of the single-player campaign, or as prizes in online tournaments; but all this still needs to be achieved. The rest is similar to the epigraph to this section: instead of glamorous knights, there are stern infantry and cavalry. Beautifully drawn, yes. But with six-footers made of tank rubber.

Gameplay

Play knight with him...

(m/f “The Little Imp with a Bushy Tail”)

But in terms of gameplay, you shouldn’t expect anything stunning from Rival Knights from the very beginning. However, you just have to knock down your opponents, although not from their feet, but from their horses - but this is the only type of battle presented in the game. The mechanics of the process are extremely simple.

Let's get...

Conventionally, the fight can be divided into two stages - attack and overcoming, acceleration and collision. First, the player is required to make a successful start and at the right moment change gears and spur the horse, focusing on the indicator (hello CSR Racing).

...and we overcome.

Shortly before the collision, the aiming mode is activated: you need to point the spear at a vulnerable point on the enemy’s body randomly selected by the system. The force of the blow depends on the accuracy of the sight, and it is not so easy to ensure it - spears have inertia, sometimes quite serious. A blow - and the fight is over, look at the results.

Yes, it is also possible to miss.

The results of the fight are determined based on three main parameters: defense, speed and force of impact; To win, it is enough to surpass your opponent in two of them. And if protection depends only on the armor and helmet worn, then speed and strength are determined by how well the player fired up the available horse and how accurately he aimed the available spear. Simply put, cool weapon and a horse is not a guarantee of victory, you have to try. Otherwise it may turn out like in one of the screenshots above.

There is also a bonus for perfectionists - “ critical hit", when with an ideal combination of start, speed and strength, all parameters increase beyond the usual maximum.

In this way, you can overwhelm even an initially more powerful opponent. And an option for those who doubt their skills is one-time boosts. As a standard, they are purchased for diamonds (the game's premium currency), but can also be rewards in some single-player missions.

By the way, pay attention to the upper right corner, where the opponent’s name is indicated. In this way, many of the creators of the game wrote their names into history, and since the development team was international, the options are sometimes very interesting... Personally, under the walls of a typical Western European castle, I also met Prince Skorodumov, Baron Nguyen, Viscount Lizunov and another Kravchuk, too Viscount. Although such names are rare, there are still more authentic ones.

As for missions, there are several types of them in the main campaign: a regular tournament for three battles in a row, “king of the hill” (the same three battles, but with a rollback to the beginning if defeated), “all or nothing” (without the possibility of repeating in case of loss, usually for diamonds), a test (a task for an ideal start, acceleration or impact). This somewhat brightens up the monotony of the fights themselves. Missions are combined into stages - Orders; each has its own range of available equipment, as well as unique opponents - champions of the Order, who play the role of intermediate and final bosses.

Alas, the required picture was not at hand. I had to borrow from Made for iPad.

It's a shame that fights with champions can't be replayed - each character is quite colorful.

And a few words about multiplayer.

“On the glorious day of Saint Bo, we give bo-bo to everyone!”

There are two modes: event and echelon tournament. The first option is a time-limited tournament, according to the legend of the game, timed to coincide with some important event: a holiday, fair, etc. For victories in battles with other players, the participant receives “fanfare” (for defeats he also receives, but much less); the amount of fanfare determines the position in the standings:

In addition to the reward for the final place taken, the player receives coins for each individual match and for the total number of victories. So the motivation to participate is quite good.

The second type, “Tournament of Echelon” - knockout battles. Here everything happens much faster and more hardcore. No more than 15 minutes are allocated for each fight: 5 minutes during which you can start the first fight, and up to 10 minutes to wait for the results of the rematch. At the same time, unlike the first mode, the player does not have access to the opponent’s statistics and power-ups - so he has to fight with whatever he has and give it his all.

Participation requires a considerable entry fee, but the prizes are good.

In both modes, battles take place not with living people, but with their conventional images, created by the system based on equipment and performance. And this is completely justified, because synchronizing the participation of two players in a fifteen-second clash is a lost cause.

Separately, I would like to note that Rival Knights does not pursue the social functions that are fashionable in modern toys. In this sense, the game, as one writer said, consists of continuous “nots.” It doesn’t ask you to log in via Facebook (and flood your feed with left-field users), it doesn’t replace the single-player campaign with fighting other people, it doesn’t force you to visit each other, etc. All interaction within the application itself is limited to adding friends, and after that - assigning allies in multiplayer games and exchanging seals that are needed to participate in battles.

Adding friends is implemented directly in the standings.

For misanthropes and introverts like me, who don’t want to once again let strangers into their personal space, this is Happiness with capital letters"SCH"; and for those who like to talk, there is a specially trained forum, accessible via a link directly from the game.

Monetization and purchases

Buy not what you need, but what you need.

(Cato the Elder)

Rival Knights uses classic scheme monetization: freemium distribution model, two types of game currency (coins and diamonds) and seals spent on participation in battles, which can be restored, incl. purchase for diamonds. In general, no charity, developers also want money, and that’s normal.

At the same time, it’s not for nothing that this freemium was called “pleasantly unobtrusive” above. Having managed to reach the Third Order, having completed more than 170 single missions (2-3 fights in each, with rare exceptions) plus hundreds of battles in multiplayer events - I have not yet paid for gaming content not a cent. And not because the Toad is pressing, but because there is no need. I won’t go into details, but I’ll say this: be in the world more games with such a freemium, all lovers of freebies would be happy.

The only thing that is sometimes noticeably annoying is the time it takes to upgrade equipment.

At higher stages, it can be measured in hours, while only one item is improved at a time, and for urgency you will have to pay, of course, in diamonds. But this is exactly the case when not all is well with Maslenitsa.

Bottom line

Many of the key characters in Rival Knights refer to the playable character as a “commoner” in dialogue - and this, in my opinion, is very symbolic. In fact, the game itself can be compared to a similar knight, whose luxurious armor hides a simple and unpretentious soul without a single hint of the mannerisms of an aristocrat.

I won't say it's bad - just don't expect too much. Despite all the coolness of the design, Rival Knights is a casual game, nothing more, and should be treated as such. At the same time, this is a casual game with a very pleasant appearance, and most importantly - noticeably catchy, despite all the jambs. And as for “catchy”, I’m not only speaking for myself - I found the game through the top App Store, and at the time of writing this review it had an overall rating of about 4.5 stars out of 5. And that says something, you’ll agree.

Each owner mobile device can feel like a participant in a real tournament with the game Invincible Knight. Game plot begins long before our time in 11th century France. In those days, knight competitions were considered a noble and honorable activity. Gameloft decided to resume the tradition. There are five clans in the world: the Order of the Falcon, the Order of the Griffin, the Order of the Dragon, the Order of the Rose and the Order of the Wind. Each of them is headed by a feudal lord and several of his lords. To become the champion of the entire kingdom, you need to defeat them all. To participate in each battle you need to collect one red seal. This resource accumulates throughout the game or is purchased for real money. In some battles, you will have to complete the assigned mission to defeat the enemy. In battles with lords, you can earn various additional bonuses (improved defense, replenishment of the collection of seals, or a speed bonus). The process of tournament battles is simple, but incredibly spectacular. The difficulty is that when aiming, the characters continue to move and it is very difficult to aim at the enemy’s weak spot. To win, you need to take into account three nuances: speed, impact power and defense.

To successfully complete the battle, it is enough to have an advantage in 2 characteristics. If the scores are equal, a draw may occur and you will have to start over. In fact, the entire mechanics of the game come down to pressing a few buttons on the display of a smartphone or tablet. But at the same time, the adrenaline level goes through the roof. There are several game modes: company and network. The latter is similar to multiplayer. In essence, the players are confronted with the same artificial intelligence, but with the settings set. The programmers clearly worked on the graphics for more than one week. The details are carefully thought out and look quite colorful. During battles, chips even fly from shattered spears. The weather and time of day are constantly changing, but the background remains unchanged. There is hope that the developers will fix this flaw in updates. The game is distributed absolutely free of charge. But the prices in the in-game store are simply huge. This is very disappointing, developers should curb their greed. Application Invincible knight creates a magical atmosphere of the Middle Ages. It makes you want to change armor and spears to fight your opponents. This is a fun and interesting simulator of knightly tournaments that players will love.

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