Tavern Guardians Banquet

Review

Taverns are being attacked by hordes of strange creatures with magical powers all around the country. Tavern owners are in need of people with strong combat and strategy skills to repel these attacks. The only issue is that they are running low of guardians and need to find new warriors urgently. Why not become one of them in Tavern Guardians Banquet?

Tavern Guardians Banquet is a casual / Match 3 game developed and published by Wombo Combo Games Inc and is currently available on Steam as an early access.



The game has two modes of play: Story and Survival. In the story mode, you have to save 10 taverns across the map, or survive as long as you can if you decide to have a go at the survival mode. However, you must beat at least the first five levels of the story mode to have access to the challenging survival mode.

Well, let’s be very upfront here. This game is really tough from the get-go, and super addictive too!

As you start the game, you’ll be asked to choose the difficulty you’ll like to play first. I would strongly recommend starting on the normal difficulty rather than hard if I were you. From here a map will appear and you’ll be able to jump straight into your first mission if you wish to do so, or check out the wagon, bar counter, forge and inventory icons located on the right bottom corner of the screen. There, you can select your hero by clicking on the wagon. Bear in mind that one hero will be available when you start a new game and another two will be unlockable as you progress through the game. At the bar counter, you’ll be able to purchase potions and other items to help you through your next battle. At the forge, you’ll be able to craft additional and important equipment for your hero and the inventory will show you all the items you currently own. You can also equip 4 items and 4 pieces of equipment to bring along to your next battle.

The board is made of 8X8 tiles. AS the level begins, each of these tiles will have either a blue potion, meat, arrow, coin or stone icon on them. Underneath the board, you’ll also have a shield, three magical power attacks and a heart icon. As you start matching three or more of the same icon, enemies will start appearing at the top of the board.  Each of these enemies will have either two or three icons displayed within their tile, which most of the time are a movement and health icon. Sometimes they might also have a shield and you’ll need to destroy their defence first before draining their health.  As it is a turn base type of game play, you have to be very careful how to play your next move, especially if one or more enemies have a sword or spell icon displayed on their avatar (tile); that will indicate that they will attack on their next turn. Thankfully, you might be able to protect your hero by activating your own shield, or maybe by launching a magical attack (as long as you have gathered enough blue potion to do so). If you don’t, each of their attacks will decrease your health extremely quickly, and it could be game over in a few turns. The other way to inflict damage to the enemies is to match three of the same icons right next to their tile.  It will be even better if you manage to line up four of five which will bring on more damage. Each of the stages has two waves; the first one will have around 8 enemies to kill, while the second phase will bring on a boss and more enemies too. You can regenerate your health, shield and mana by matching three or more meats, stones and blue potions respectively.

The second wave is where you probably use some of the items you have in your inventory to help you to win it, but it can take you several attempts to do so, and that is on the normal difficulty! Before starting the next level, make sure to buy new items at the bar counter or forge new equipment for your hero. That is, if you have managed to collect enough coins.  

Nice graphics and sounds. The maximum resolution is 1920X1080, which is fine and can turn on and off the music if you wish to do so. The game offers good re-playability, especially with the survival mode. By the same token, I would like to see more levels for the story mode.


Positives

+ Nice graphics
+ Fun and challenging gameplay
+ Great bosses
+ Good re-playability especially with the survival mode

Negatives

- Need more levels (story)
- No Achievements or trading cards as yet

Review Summary

If you are looking for a fun and challenging match 3 game, then Tavern Guardians Banquet is your game!

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Zeepond Rating: 7/10

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