Windows 8- and RT-powered devices boast a handful of features that should make them perfect gaming devices. You can sign into your Xbox Live game profile and earn achievements, for example, and play certain games as your Xbox Avatar.
These features come to the fore in A World of Keflings, and create an atmosphere of console level polish. It might be an illusion, and an illusion all too often broken by juddering framerates and fidgety controls, but the end result is still an entertaining casual strategy game.
Kefling it upIf you've not played a Keflings game before, the aim is grand but simple. You're a giant - if you've got an Xbox Live account you're a giant styled after your Avatar - who's dropped into a world populated by plucky little blighters called Keflings.
It's up to you to marshal these midgets and get the world in shape. You'll collect resources, give out tasks and jobs, and build new structures for them to live and work in. You'll also stomp around scaring off dragons and making faces at foes.
It's a remarkably easy game to pick up and play. Everything is controlled with context-sensitive taps. Tap on some trees and your giant will start chopping them down. Tap on a Kefling, then tap on some trees, and you'll give the little chap a job for life.
Keflings with flashing exclamation marks above their heads give you different tasks. You might need to make a specific building to accomplish a set goal, or go for a wander around whichever map you're on to find some new equipment.
Everything is pleasantly sedate, and there's a nice sense of accomplishment when you finish all the buildings and tasks in one area and move on to the next.
Worldly wise-ishA World of Keflings shows off what your Windows-powered tablet can do without ever taxing you as a player. The experience isn't always a smooth one, though, and some cutscenes shake themselves out rather than play.
Still, there's a lot to enjoy here, and plenty of content to while away a good few hours. It might not be the game that drags the hardcore to Windows 8 and RT tablets, but it's a decent way to waste a solid chunk of time.
A World of Keflings
There's a lot to like about A World of Keflings. And although this big and bright game has its troubles, they're not large enough to really spoil the experience
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.