THE GAME PAD REVIEW REALM

***Tone Rebellion from The Logic Factory***

Review by Ken Baugh

The system used for this review is a Dell PII-300 with an STB Velocity 128 Riva AGP, SB AWE 64 sound card, 64 Meg SDRAM, 17-inch monitor and Microsoft mouse.

The Tone Rebellion is a real-time strategy game with a very funky tone (pun intended). It takes place in an ethereal type of universe which is made up of creatures called floaters. Their history is one in which they have no knowledge of their past, but they had built a civilization out of the ebbs and flows of the Island World. They existed in harmony with another group of floaters called the New Ones. The New Ones were good at constructing devices and machines, as well as monuments, temples and shrines. Eventually the day came when the floaters and New Ones grew weary of each other and fought a long war. The floaters were beaten. Many returned to call upon the forces of their home, the Island World. They succeeded in banishing the New Ones to the outer reaches of the 4 Realms. Thus begins the game. You must take your floaters from their home island to conquer the outer islands, gather artifacts, and eventually destroy the Leviathen. At the very least there is an interesting story and concept here.

GRAPHICS

There is no 3d acceleration which is irrelevant since it isn't needed at all and the game will apparently even run on a P90. The graphics are superb and there is absolutely no pixelization at 640x480. I didn't find any options for other graphics settings though. The background art is beautifully done and the use of colors is pulled off very well. Both the landscapes and creatures have a lot of detail and everything seems to flow together very well. Judge for yourself from the screenshots.

Graphics score-9

SOUND

The music was one of the best parts of the first Logic Factory game " Ascendancy" and is even better in Tone. The music works with the graphics to set a very astral/ethereal type of ambiance that very nicely sets the mood for this game. The battle sounds and explosions are fairly generic but by no means are they bad; It's just that they could be better. The battle sounds are more reminiscent of an earth battle and don't quite fit in with the mood or music.

Sound score-8

AI

The AI is about on a par with the average RTS game. It doesn't do anything too stupid, although it could do a better job coordinating attacks and defending Leviathan spawners. The Leviathan forces don't seem to operate as a team as well as they could. Sometimes you can attack a Drak or a Ronth, send your Gazers to recharge, and the enemy waits on you to come back and finish them off instead of pursuing you from behind and finishing you before your gazers reach the dojo (their fortress where they are recharged). It can also be frustrating, when in the heat of battle, your gazers go to the dojo to recharge and often forget to come back, leaving your forces weak and often losing the remaining gazers before you realize you better check the recharge status of those who left. If they are recharged you often must tell them to get their butts back to the front lines or they just hover around the dojo. This must be a bug since sometimes they do come back to fight without being told; about 60% of the time. Another weakness is that when you have entered a new planet and click on the gazers left on your previous planet you end up giving them the same order over-and-over again, to come to the new island; they finally respond.This leaves the gazers who responded first and are already in the battle in a weakened position while you are waiting. These are small gripes but they do cause frustration in the heat of the moment! Like I said, the AI isn't stupid, it just isn't exactly brilliant either.

AI Score-7

GAMEPLAY

There are a few options to set up and tailor the game to your skills, as well as the length of the campaign. There are 5 difficulty levels and 3 game size selections. This is one of those games that will drive you crazy though when you see the potential, yet realize it's shortcomings. The major shortcoming that this game has, in my opinion, is that it just isn't fun. It is extremely repetitive-which is ashamed considering the great graphics, cool music, moody soundtrack, decent AI...
The problem is that there is a lack of variety in the gameplay department. Here is the scenario in a single-player game. When preparing to conquer the next island, the player moves 10-15 floater/warriors there to beat back the Leviathan forces and establish a beach-hold. Next, the player builds a structure generator, a crystal generator, a couple of dojos and a tone spreader. The crystals are your power source, the dojos train your gazers to fight, and the tone spreaders allow you to see beyond the darkness. You then destroy a few buildings from your previous island to increase the tone flow. Either move your old dojos or blow them up and build new ones on this island. Beat back the enemy and gather some artifacts until the island is cleared. This is all very tedious and slow moving and you repeat this scenario 15 times with virtually nothing new each time (other than some new artifacts). It gets boring real click...err quick. The funny thing is that I found it very addicting because I kept thinking something cool would happen real soon, and I wanted to see what the next island looked like. After a few hours though, I didn't care anymore. Flashbacks of Diablo come to mind!
It is an interesting game for the first couple of hours but is too slow moving and repetitive with too few rewards and too little variety along the way(ie not FUN!!)

I haven't tried multiplayer but Internet and modem play are supported. It looks like it would be much more fun in multiplayer, however this game is being reviewed on its single-player merits only.

Gameplay score-5

Interface/Controls

This game has an excellant interface and I have no complaints whatsoever about it. Everything is laid out just where it should be. Building structures, coordinating attacks, checking the status of your forces and islands...are all done in a very efficient manner. Everything is point and click, no keyboard required!

Interface/control score-10

Summary

This is a game that fails to realize its full potential. It has a great interface, sound, graphics, and a decent AI. Unfortunately the fun-factor is somewhat lacking and the game becomes a do-this, then do-that, over and over again type-of-game. That is exactly the problem I had with Diablo! Perhaps with some add-ons and more variety, which Logic Factory has been promising via the usenet, and this game will realize that potential. If so we will update the review. At this point in time, I just cannot quite reccomend it as a fun RTS.

Final quote "Great atmosphere but it just ain't fun, dag blast-it!!

FINAL VERDICT-6.9

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