I love a good RPG, but sometimes I get tired of paying lots of money for a nice, playable game. I tend to not get a lot of replay value out of my games, so I generally prefer to pay less (and sacrifice some long-term playability). Juggernaut was a game that seemed to meet my criteria – only 5 bucks, and it looked like a decent game. I decided to check it out.
In the latest version of Juggernaut (Revenge of Sovering), the terrifying Sovering has taken over the land of Haradan. You play as one of 5 legendary warriors, better known as the “Scorpions.” Within your quest you must slay more than 100 evil beasts as well as complete numerous, terrifying quests. It all culminates in the final battle against a terrifying demon. Is Juggernaut worth your time and money? Stick with me after the jump to learn more about gameplay, strategy and what I really think about the game.
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Getting Started
After being introduced to the story, you must choose a character before you can properly begin the game. A variety of character choices are available. You can choose characters with incredible strength, critical blows or exceptional magical strength. You can also make decisions regarding your character based upon type of magic – e.g. ice versus fire. Unfortunately, no real customization abilities exist.
Choosing a character is the first step.
Now you’ve got a character – let the fighting begin! Juggernaut is a turn-based action game. Meaning, you strike and then your opponent strikes back. It’s pretty simple, especially in the beginning. Take a look at the picture below – my character is on the left, the computer is on the right. The glowing red and green below my opponent is my attack mechanism. Click or drag to strike from the green area. If you select the red area (the opponent’s line of vision), your opponent will block your attack. The strongest attacks come from when the red indicator is as far away as possible. Simply do more damage to your opponent than your opponent manages to do to you and you’ll win the battle. If you win, at the end you get to choose a treasure chest. The chests have various prizes, including gold coins, power-ups, gear and more.
Fighting my first battle – remember to strike in green, not red or orange.
Fighting Intensified
So those are the basics. Once you’ve started fighting, it’s pretty easy to just follow where the game likes you. Also, the in-game tutorials are super helpful – as elements are added, the tutorials come up appropriately. Let’s check out what gets added along the way.
We can’t talk about what gets added to battles without first finding more battles to participate in. After completing your first series of battles, the map opens up to you. From the map you can choose to find fights in two different ways. There are chapters available for play – these chapters get increasingly difficult, consist of a series of fights ending with a boss battle and provide more of the story for the game.
If you need to gain some XP before facing the boss, you can choose from one of the various quest style battles. Here, you have a certain task to accomplish (e.g. defeating a certain number of monsters). These quests earn you XP without forcing you to move on to a difficulty level beyond your character’s capabilities.
The map – choose quests, chapter-long battles or treasure hunts.
Once you continue on in the fighting, you’ll notice elements that are added to the fighting style to make things more difficult. First up is the ability to defend yourself from certain attacks. When the enemy uses a magic attack, you are given the opportunity to play an ever so brief mini-game, which will allow you to dodge the attack if you win. You’re either told to memorize a sequence and repeat it, or forced to rapidly click away a number of smoke bursts in order to clear the screen. The games are quite simple, and make for a fun break in the occasional monotony of a battle.
Defending myself from another monster’s attack – repeat the sequence determined by the on-screen circles lighting up.
Next up is the ability to utilize magic and mana. Mana is necessary to perform magic attacks – collect it by clicking on the glowing orbs that appear during battles. Once you have stored up enough mana, you can click to cast a spell. Then, simply draw the shape shown on screen and the spell will cast automatically for you. At first, you only have the ability to perform magical attacks. With time, however, you gain the ability to collect another type of mana which allows you to perform defensive manuvers, like blocks and even recovering health. Magic is quite helpful and as you learn more you can level up spells and customize your capabilities for various opponents.
Drawing the symbol to complete my magic attack.
Lastly, you see the addition of a “combo-blows” feature. Shown at the right side of the screen, this indicator highlights one of the three sections of attack. If you attack from that particular section, your combo increases. Once you fill up the combo meter, you’re given a guaranteed critical hit from anywhere you choose to strike. It’s pretty easy to hit the enemy from the right section, so this feature is quite helpful.
Building up my combo, shown on the right hand side of the screen.
Self-Improvement
Understanding the game is all well and good, but an integral part of your success lies in knowing how to improve your character. One easy way is just to level up – like most games, you earn XP through fighting. Once you’ve earned enough XP, you level up. This provides skill points, better stats and unlocks magical abilities and equipment. Earning achievements as you battle can also help to contribute to your XP, eventually helping you to level up more quickly.
Earning XP from achievements to help level up.
Speaking of equipment, if you’ve got some cash on hand improving yourself is a piece of cake – just buy some upgraded gear. Better gear becomes available as you level up, and you can use your hard-earned cash to purchase the best stuff for your character. Items can improve strength, health and even your ability to collect money. Choose wisely as your combination makes a great difference in your character’s capability. You can also find equipment to use when you’re out fighting (during the rewards at the end).
Shopping for armor to improve my stats.
Gear (and money for shopping) can also be found when you go on a treasure hunt. To treasure hunt, simply select one of your protected areas from the map. You’ll need scarabs to hunt, which are available for purchase and can also be found at the end of a fight as a reward. Hunting is simple – just look for the location which makes the scarab’s wings flap and dig. Treasure will abound, which definitely helps in the improvement process.
Treasure hunting – looks like I found something!
So those are all the ways to potentially improve yourself .. but how do you take advantage of all the things you’ve earned/purchased? Well, you have to use your character’s backpack. Within the backpack you can view any gear you own, equip what you want, sell your extras and move around inventory as needed. You can also access your character parameters from within the backpack, allowing you to apply any skill points you’ve earned from leveling up.
Checking out my parameters.
To Fight or Not to Fight
Juggernaut: Revenge of Sovering was a pretty fun game. From the very beginning you are thrown into the action, and while the first couple of battles are incredibly easy, it definitely picks up. The creators added additional elements to the battles at a good pace – I didn’t ever feel overwhelmed, and I stopped being bored pretty quickly. The graphics are pretty well done, and I was definitely immersed in the world while playing. There’s a decent variety of activities, and I certainly enjoyed my time spent playing Juggernaut.
That being said, I think there is a LOT that the game could improve upon. First and foremost, it’s made for a tablet or other mobile device. The controls are clearly best with a touchscreen, and the display is incredibly small compared to the size of my actual monitor (the game is just 1024 x 748). That’s easily my biggest problem, and in order to really make the game shine those problems need to be addressed.
Also, the gameplay does get a bit monotonous at times – the same type of battle, over and over. Even with the addition of elements, I got tired of the game at times. It can be a bit laggy in fights, especially when defending yourself which is a bit frustrating. Lastly, the need to pay twice is definitely a problem with the game. First, I already paid $5 to get a not entirely awesome port over from a tablet. Now, you expect me to pay extra money in order to get equipment which is definitely necessary for success in the game? No thanks! It’s asking a bit too much for the quality given.
So to sum up … Juggernaut was pretty fun. I generally enjoyed playing it, and $5 isn’t awful. Unfortunately, it’s not so much fun to play when you’re spending 3x or 4x more just to get to a point where you can continue on in the game. Juggernaut is, unfortunately, probably not worth the download. If you could more easily earn coins/gems to purchase gear, it would definitely come with a better recommendation from me.
What are your thoughts on the game? Would you play or have you already? What do you think of the game? Share your thoughts in the comments below.